| 5. Women |
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Social Status
of Woman
The social status of Japanese women has improved significantly
since the end of the Second World War. The education level of
women has also risen sharply over the years. In 2002, 97.5%
of all girls went on to senior high school after graduating
from junior high school, and 48.8% of female senior high school
graduates advanced to either universities or junior colleges.(*1)
In fact, a larger number of women went on to pursue higher education
after graduating from senior high school than men.
As of 2002 the average age at which a Japanese woman married
was 27.4 years, about three years older than in the 1950s.(*2)
An even greater change is apparent in the number of children
a woman gives birth to and the age at which she bears her last
child. In 1950 the average number of children born to a woman
in her lifetime was 3.65, and the average ages at which a woman
bore her first and last children were 25.7 and 34.5 years, respectively.
By 2002, however, the average lifetime total of the children
born to a woman had fallen to a historic low of 1.32.(*3) The
range of childbearing years had also narrowed considerably,
with the average woman giving birth to her first child at age
28.3.(*4) The recent decline in the number of children in Japan
threatens to aggravate an imbalance that will likely occur as
a result of the rising proportion of elderly people in society.
Legal Equality of the Sexes
The change in the pattern of women's lives in Japan can be attributed
primarily to social and economic circumstances, but another
basic factor is the attainment of legal sexual equality. In
accordance with the Constitution, which upholds the principle
of equality between men and women, the Civil Code was reformed
after the World War II to abolish the legal status of the ie,
the family system that was the basic unit of traditional Japanese
society, and to ensure equality between husband and wife in
property rights, inheritance, matrimony, and child care. The
Fundamental Law on Education was also amended at the same time
to give equal educational opportunity to boys and girls. The
Labor Standards Law stipulates that men and women
shall be paid the same wage for the same job, and men and women
have an equal right to vote and be elected to office.
To realize a gender-equal society, the government in 1994 established
the Headquarters for the Promotion of Gender Equality within
the cabinet. Based on the final report compiled by the Council
for Gender Equality, an advisory panel to the prime minister,
the Basic Law for a Gender Equal Society, was
enacted and came into effect in June 1999.
In February 1996 the Legislative Council, an advisory body to
the Minister of Justice, submitted a report on revision of the
Civil Code that made five proposals: setting of the legal age
for marriage at 18 years for both males and females (at present
it is 16 years for females); choice of surname at time of marriage
between the woman's maiden name and her spouse's name; automatic
granting of divorce upon request after five years of separation;
equal inheritance for both "legitimate" and "illegitimate"
children to eliminate discrimination in in-heritance; and shortening
of the period in which women are prohibited from getting remarried
from six months to 100 days.
The debate about revising the civil code to recognize surname
choice upon marriage is also gaining momentum. An opinion survey
conducted by the Cabinet Office in May 2001 showed that those
in favor of surname choice outnumbered those against it for
the first time.(*5) Legislation to realize the dual-surname
system, however, has not progressed as smoothly as expected,
as debate over the issue within the ruling Liberal Democratic
Party has been at a stalemate.
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*1. http://wwwwp.mext.go.jp/hakusyo/book/hpac200201/hpac200201_2_003.html
*2. http://www.mhlw.go.jp/toukei/saikin/hw/jinkou/geppo/nengai02/marr.html
*3. http://wwwdbtk.mhlw.go.jp/toukei/youran/data14k/1-24.xls
*4. http://www.mhlw.go.jp/toukei/saikin/hw/jinkou/geppo/nengai02/brth.html
*5. http://www8.cao.go.jp/survey/h13/fuufu/2-9.html
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Working Women
In fiscal year 2002, approximately 25.5 million women in Japan
were engaged in gainful employment.(*1) Of this number, 21.6
million (84.7%) were employees in other than family businesses.
Prior to the rapid economic growth of 1960s, the majority of
working women were either self-employed or worked in small family
businesses. In 1960 the proportion of women employed by family
businesses stood at 43.4%; by 2003 it had dropped to 15.8%.(*2)
Meanwhile, as the number of people working part-time in Japan
increases yearly, part-time employees (those working less than
35 hours per week) account for about 41.4% (9.3 million) of
all employed women(*3), and women account for around 77.4% of
the total number of part-time workers.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
released a report in November 2003 that called on Japan to raise
the employment rate for women, especially mothers, in line with
that of men.(*4) The OECD report on work and family life suggested
that Japan may avoid future labor shortages if it extends more
support to working mothers. The report pointed out that 70%
of Japanese women permanently retire from the labor force after
getting married partly due to the reality that, after staying
at home for several years to bring up their children, only low-paying
part-time work is available to them.
According to the OECD, only 28.5% of all Japanese women with
children aged three or less are working, including those on
maternity and child-care leave, compared with more than 70%
in Austria and Denmark. Citing the fact that 95% of male university
graduates are employed, compared with 65% of female graduates,
the report also criticizes Japan for the gender gap. It says
the large difference indicates wasted investment in human resources.
The report concludes that excessively favorable treatment for
the spouses of workers, who are entitled to pay lower pension
premiums and medical fees than working wives, is also causing
women to stay at home.
In terms of occupation, women accounted for 61.4% of office
workers, 65.5% of workers in the service industries, and 46.1%
of technicians and other specialists in 2000. In managerial
jobs, however, women accounted for a mere 11.0% of the total.(*5)
Though women are taking a higher share of top jobs than in the
past, the proportion is still low. Moreover, the average wage
for women in all jobs is still below that for men.
There is a set of labor regulations specifically designed to
protect working women. These protective measures include paid
maternity leave, a ban on employing women to handle dangerous
materials, and guaranteed menstrual leave for women. The Equal
Employment Opportunity Law, which went into effect in April
1986, calls for equal opportunity for men and women in job recruitment,
hiring, placement, and promotion, though initially it contained
no provisions to enforce compliance.
In April 1999 the revised Equal Employment Opportunity Law went
into effect, making it obligatory for companies not only to
make effort to eliminate discrimination in recruitment, hiring,
placement, and promotion, as the law had stipulated previously,
but to actively abolish such discrimination.(*6) Also, the revised
law contained a new stipulation on sexual harassment, which
stated that employers should make necessary consideration for
the prevention of such harassment. As a consequence of this
revision, the regulation of the Labor Standard Law on the limitation
of overtime and holiday work and the prohibition of late-night
work for women were repealed.
Meanwhile, the working environment for part-time workers has
improved with implementation of the Part-Time Workers Employment
Management Law in December 1993. In response to the aging of
society, the Family-Care Leave Law was enacted in June 1995
through a partial revision of the Child Care Leave Law. Under
this law, one person in a family with a person needing continual
care, such as an elderly family member, may take leave of up
to three consecutive months.
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*1. http://www.stat.go.jp/data/roudou/sokuhou/nen/ft/zuhyou/054bh04.xls
*2. http://www.stat.go.jp/data/roudou/sokuhou/nen/ft/02.htm
*3. http://www.stat.go.jp/data/shugyou/2002/kakuhou/zuhyou/c007-1.xls
*4. http://www.oecd.org/document/53/0,2340,en_2649_201185_18355573_119690_1_1_1,00.html
*5. http://www.stat.go.jp/data/shugyou/2002/kakuhou/zuhyou/c010-1.xls
*6. http://www2.mhlw.go.jp/topics/seido/josei/hourei/20000401-31e.htm
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