JAPAN-LABOUR: Women Hardest Hit by Job Crunch

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Nov 9 1995 (IPS) - Yuko Yoshikawa never imagined she would end up working as a bar hostess after slogging through a four-year course at Japan’s prestigious Nihon University.

But the 23-year-old arts degree holder found no opportunities to pursue her dream of becoming a television newscaster. “I took the job because I was desperate,” she explains. “Japan’s job market is not good for women.”

Six days a week, Yoshikawa serves drinks and chats with middle- aged male clients at a bar in Tokyo — a job she describes as “empty and often stifling”.

Yoshikawa is only one of the growing number of educated Japanese women being forced to enter the entertainment industry after being turned away from jobs in the mainstream market.

Their sad plight reflects the worsening labour situation in Japan, once the envy of the Western world for its near-zero unemployment rate.

The employment rate, down by 3.4 percentage points from the past year, saw its fourth consecutive drop since 1991 when it stood at 81.3 per cent.

The Ministry of Education reported last week that more than 70,000 college graduates, or about a third of the total, have not found jobs this year.

Women have been the worst affected by the decrease in job prospects in recent years. Despite the 1986 Equal Employment Opportunity Act, male applicants are still favoured over females in the stiffly competitive labour market.

Last year, while 79 per cent of male four-year college graduates found jobs, the employment success rate for women in the same group was only 61 per cent.

In terms of age, people in the 15-24 age bracket have suffered the most from the lack of job prospects as the economic recession forced Japanese companies to trim their workforce or move overseas.

The official unemployment rate hit a record 3.4 per cent in September. But counting the number of surplus employees in companies, the International Monetary Fund estimates the figure could run as high as 12 per cent, putting Japan on a par with most other industrialised nations grappling with unemployment for many years.

More than 60 per cent of steelmakers and transport equipment manufacturers — traditionally important labour absorbers — are carrying out employment adjustment measures, according to a survey conducted by the Labour Ministry this week.

Labour officials say such measures are likely to continue despite the yen’s weakening against the dollar which is expected to improve corporate earnings.

Part-time and temporary jobs are increasingly becoming the only ones available to women, according to Rengo, Japan’s largest trade union. Out of the 3.6 million new jobs offered to women between 1988 and 1994, 70 per cent were temporary posts.

“Women are offered part-time jobs where they are paid an hourly wage with no health insurance or unemployment benefits. Companies in the service sector, especially banks, are resorting to this measure more and more,” says Yuko Takashima of Rengo.

Experts say the practice, which companies say are designed to save costs, are an illustration of traditional discrimination that women employees face in Japan.

Takashima says Japan’s economic success is partly based on the cheap labour provided by women and their inferior positions in the work place. They are paid at least 20 per cent less than their male counterparts and are edged out of competition when they reach the age of 25.

The discrimination has forced many Japanese women to silently give up their careers, another reason why Japan has managed to keep unusually high employment rates in the past.

Japan’s employment system is currently undergoing drastic changes as a result of the economic slump.

The country’s revered life-time employment system, which kept workers devoted to their companies, is increasingly being rejected by Japanese firms.

While many companies are reluctant to fire excess labour because many of their employees are breadwinners for their families, there is growing tendency to reduce the large number of middle-management men aged between 40 and 50 years. Promotions are now also based more on merit rather than age, said Takashima.

That system, which is just beginning to enter the mainstream market, offers hope for ambitious young women who are keen to pursue their careers using the knowledge they acquired after years of university studies.

Observers also note a growing number of Japanese women who want to join foreign firms where they are offered equal opportunities for advancement if they work hard enough and display leadership qualities.

JAPAN-LABOUR: Women Hardest Hit by Job Crunch

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Nov 9 1995 (IPS) - Yuko Yoshikawa never imagined she would end up working as a bar hostess after slogging through a four-year course at Japan’s prestigious Nihon University.
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