Why Japanese women are not satisfied with proposed changes to their country's employment law?

By Kathambi Kinoti

Last year, for the first time in Japan's recorded history, there was a decrease in its population. In order to offset the threat of a shrinking workforce, the country's government is taking measures to encourage women to enter and remain in the workplace. Japan's legislature is set to debate proposed amendments to the country's Equal Employment Opportunities Law, including measures to encourage women to return to work after childbirth, such as providing flexible work hours. It is expected that a bill for amendment will be submitted this month to the Diet for debate later in May this year. In the meantime, women's organizations, dissatisfied with the provisions of the bill, are working to ensure that it is revised before being passed.

Two thirds of women in Japan do not return to work after childbirth, [1] and less than 50% were in permanent employment in 2002. The decreasingly low number of permanent female workers is, according to the campaign group Equality Action 21, due in large part to discriminatory employment policies and practices. Hiroki Michiko of the Asia Women Workers Center, which is taking part in Equality Action 21, says that the current employment laws are inadequate in prohibiting discrimination, particularly the indirect discrimination that many Japanese women face. The proposed bill does not propose significant changes and this is the main reason why the campaign group does not support it. Indirect discrimination in the bill is limited to:

1. The use of height, weight or strength as a basis of recruitment.
2. Willingness to relocate as a prerequisite for promotion.
3. Willingness to relocate as a prerequisite for being recruited into management positions.

Michiko says that indirect discrimination goes much further than this. Japan's Equal Employment Opportunities Law was passed in 1985 with the intention of bringing the nation's employment regulations into conformity with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). However, according to Michiko, the law's emphasis was on the enhancement of the welfare of women workers, rather than on outlawing discrimination. It was soft on employers, merely requiring them to make an effort not to discriminate against women. Among other things, women's ability to work overtime and late night hours was still restricted until 1997 when after advocacy by women's organizations, the law was revised.

The revised legislation for the first time expressly prohibited discrimination at all stages of employment. It also contained provisions against sexual harassment and required employers to take positive action to prevent discrimination. Michiko says that while on the one hand the amended law contributed to the reduction of direct discrimination, on the other hand it left loopholes that enabled alternative systems of indirect discrimination to remain. One of these was the 'dual career ladder' system practised for years by most large corporations, by which male employees were encouraged along the career or professional track, while women were set on the 'general work' or clerical track. This nudging of men and women into separate tracks was done by the placement, promotion, demotion and wage system. In 2004, only 11% of women in Japan held managerial posts. [2] After the UN Conference in Beijing in 1995 many women who had experienced this kind of discrimination initiated lawsuits against their employers. According to Michiko, some cases were amicably settled, but not thanks to the Equal Employment Opportunities Law.

Michiko says that at the beginning of the 1990s Japan's bubble economy began to burst and many women became non-permanent workers due to employers' policies that had a three-tiered employment pattern consisting of a small number of managerial permanent workers, a floating workforce of experts in certain fields, and a body of non- permanent part-time or outsourced workers. Most women fall into the third category of workers, and Michiko says that the Equal Employment Opportunities law does not adequately cater for this category of workers.

Women are demanding that more forms of indirect discrimination should be recognized in the bill, which should also extend its protection to non-permanent workers. Japan's conservative culture does not encourage women's equal participation in the workforce. For years, it was common for women to retire when they got married or had a child. Because of conservative attitudes, women's rights activists say that for real change to occur, employers should be encouraged to take proactive initiatives in improving employment conditions for women. The bill currently prohibits direct, and some forms of indirect discrimination, but according to the campaign group, discrimination can only be eliminated by both prohibiting discrimination and requiring positive action on the part of employers.

Equality Action 21 has been active throughout the process of reviewing the employment law including the initial advocacy to pressurize the government to amend it. They now plan to raise public awareness through the media, lobby members of the Diet, and organize a demonstration outside the Diet when the bill is finally brought for discussion. According to Michiko, they fully intend to keep up the pressure to ensure that their demands are met.

 

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