By Suvendrini Kakuchi
TOKYO, Apr 3 1998 (IPS)

Tens of thousands of eager young women, clad in elegant grey or navy blue suits and spotless white tops, troop to join Japan’s workforce in April each year.

This same ritual took place this week, at the start of the country’s fiscal year, but analysts contend the going will be tough for these new hopefuls.

After all, they are reporting to their new offices amid an economy in recession, a factor that women workers have to contend with in addition to the fact Japan’s corporate culture remains weighed against fair career opportunities for them.

“Japanese working women face one of the gravest employment markets in postwar Japan. The economic recession does not spell a secure future for them,” explains Tomoko Murata, a lawyer who counsels working women.

The sorry state of Japan’s economy is underlined by latest unemployment figures that hit 3.6 percent in February, the highest since 1953. That comes up to 2.46 million jobless people, up 160,000 from a year ago.

The 124.9 billion U.S. dollar stimulus package unveiled by Tokyo last week has met with cool reaction, and business confidence is at its lowest level in years.

Indeed, companies struggling to cut costs are laying off workers or changing their status. Nomura Securities, Japan’s leading financial institution, reports it has cut the ranks of its new recruits in half.

The rest of the year is likely to be a nightmare for women university graduates who are struggling to land a job and start a career in Japanese companies.

According to a survey by the labour ministry, 78.8 percent of female seniors in universities received information for jobs compared to 88 percent for their male counterparts.

The fewer avenues for women in Japanese corporations are prompting some to look for their own ways of moving ahead.

Satoko Okamoto, who graduated from Tokyo’s prestigious Waseda University with a degree in international law, says she decided from the start to apply for a job only in foreign companies.

“Discrimination against women in Japanese companies has become more notorious these past few years. So I decided “why waste my time?’,” says the 23-year-old Okamoto. She is still looking for a position that she says will provide her not only an attractive salary but also a challenging career.

But Yumiko Tachibana, a friend of Okamoto’s, settled for a bank job despite her yearning to work for a non-government organisation because of the greater stability it represents.

“I took the bank job against my inner feelings that told me I had no future there,” she explains. “It was mostly because of my parents, who pointed out the need for security against the current economic recession.”

Tachibana had been turned down by 50 other companies before she was recruited by the bank. Yet, she recalls, the male applicants in her class had no problems finding jobs.

Japan’s male-dominated workforce follows a system that divides new recruits into career track positions and general clerical work — and more than 80 percent of women are hired in the second category.

At job interviews, women often encounter questions that have nothing to do with professional qualifications. Male interviewers commonly ask about whether they have boyfriends and their plans for marriage.

“It is so obvious from the start they don’t like us,” fumed Kazuko Iwate, who worked for 20 years in a small publishing firm until she started her own company five years ago. “The questions are really meant to discourage women from wanting to strive ahead in Japanese companies.”

More than 40 percent of Japan’s workers are women, out of a workforce of more than 67 million. And with more women seeking independence through jobs, their number has climbed steadily by 28.8 percent from 1986 to 1996.

But this does not women are making much headway up the corporate ladder. Statistics show that women held a measly 2.8 percent of all section chief positions, and only 1.3 percent of all department or division head positions.

Japan is a signatory to the U.N. Equal Employment Opportunity Act, but women make only 62 percent of what men earn. Single women between 20 and 24 years of age are paid 90 percent of their male counterparts’ pay. Working women between 55 and 59 years of age earn just 55 percent of what men make.

Executives at Japanese companies contend that while equal opportunity laws are admirable, women cannot cope with long working hours and other vigorous demands that must be met when maintaining a long-term career.

“Women cannot keep up,” said a manager who declined to be named. He points out that working hours for a male employee, including unpaid overtime work, amounts to 2,508 hours a year.

According to the Prime Minister’s Office, a female employee works an average of 2,002 hours a year. Her European counterpart works an average of 1,600 hours a year.

Likewise, 83 percent of all Japanese working women are employed in manufacturing, wholesale and retail trades and eating and drinking places. One in two is employed part-time.

An amendment to the UN law will take effect in April next year. Critics say while this would guarantee equal employment by requiring firms to treat women and men equally, other factors work against making the job culture more women-friendly.

A change in the Labour Standards Law, for example, would allow women to work night shifts that would make it easier for companies to exploit them, says lawyer Keiko Hashimoto.

But some women are challenging Japan’s ingrained corporate culture and making piecemeal advances. For instance, a hotline set up by lawyers in 1994 helps lodge complaints on behalf of women who feel aggrieved by their firms.

In 1996, 12 women employees of a Tokyo credit association won a nine-year court battle over sexual discrimination in promotions. Their employer was ordered to pay them 770,000 dollars in unpaid wages that they would have received had they been promoted along with their male counterparts.

Lawyers are also working on a host of complaints by women who were laid off without notice or severance packages, lost their jobs after resisting sexual advances by male bosses, or were fired without proper cause.

But women who challenge the unequal treatment in the work place remain a courageous few. Said Hashimoto: “More women will resign themselves to mediocre, low-paying jobs, which is a step down for Japan.”

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