RIGHTS-JAPAN: Work a Health Hazard for Women Too

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, May 25 2001 (IPS) - Japan’s changing employment practices have made women workers as vulnerable as men to mental stress, depression and even death as a result of overwork, say women’s rights activists and counselors here.

They say that while women used to seek advice mostly about personal and domestic problems, these days more and more women are asking for help regarding work-related problems.

“Problems at work used to concern only men those days,” says Keiko Tani, head of Women’s Union, set up in Tokyo in 1995. “Not any more.”

Tani’s organisation alone received a total of 4,407 complaints from women workers last year. On the top of their list of grievances is sexual harassment, followed by long working hours, and bullying.

Today, what used to be regarded as the “salaryman’s disease” — ‘karoshi’, or death from overwork — is also being reported among working women as well.

“Women workers are finding it increasingly difficult to survive as human beings,” says Tani. “One reason is they face the brunt of the long economic recession that has forced Japanese companies to cut personnel costs.”

Indeed, a growing number of Japanese companies are abandoning long-time employee care policies such as a seniority-based system, housing allowances and paid vacation, says the Institute of Labor Administration.

Instead, companies are relying increasingly on part-time employees or contract workers dispatched by recruiting companies, most of whom are women. In fact, according to the Health, Welfare and Labour Ministry, women now make up 80 percent of the current 10 million part-time workers in Japan.

Tani notes that female part-time employees work as their hard as full-time male co-workers. But, she says, they get paid by the hours and have no other benefits, such as bonuses or unemployment benefits.

At the same time, indications are that the few full-time women employees are being shown the door more frequently than the men.

Official statistics show that the unemployment rate has been sliding somewhat to 4.8 percent for men and 4.5 percent for women. But while the number of male unemployed decreased by 110,000 to 1.93 million people in February this year, the number of unemployed women rose by 20,000 to 1.25 million people.

Says Tani: “I have had to help several women who were fired for requesting a promotion, or who were not extended a raise despite working at the same office for more than five years.”

Government statistics also indicate female ‘karoshi’ victims are on the rise as women work harder to keep their jobs.

In 1998, there were nine women out of a total reported 93 cases of karoshi, up from the previous year when the rate was just one from 73 deaths. But labour analysts say the actual number of ‘karoshi’ cases, especially those involving women, could be much higher.

“The situation with women workers are slightly different from men,” says Sugio Furuya of the non-government organisation Japan Labour Safety Centre. “There could be a lot of women out there dying from overwork but they go unreported because of the peculiarities of Japanese society.”

As Furuya points out, families of female victims of karoshi are reluctant to seek legal retribution because of social traditions that expect men look after their wives and children.

He explains, “There is a general reluctance for a husband to seek compensation if he suspects his wife died from overwork because it would look as if he has neglected his duty.”

Women activists say that this same social hierarchy is the reason why women workers in Japan continue to be treated worse than their male colleagues. Activists say women employees are often seen as mere supporters of the men and not their equals.

This is despite the revised 1999 Equal Employment Opportunity Law, which gave women workers a boost by recognising sexual harassment in the work place and forcing Japanese companies to treat women workers equally with their male colleagues.

Interestingly enough, Hiroshi Kawahito of the Karoshi National Hotline says that since the law was passed, cases of women dying from overwork that used to be limited to nurses or teachers, began to also involve women forced to work more to keep up with their male colleagues.

In July last year, for instance, Japanese media reported the death of a female section chief at a branch of the North Pacific Bank, a Hokkaido-based regional bank, who succumbed to subarachnoid hemorrhage at the age of 56.

The woman had been forced to work overtime to prepare for changes in the bank that was undergoing restructuring.

“If the situation is left as it is now, we are going to see more women dying from ‘karoshi’ or facing more mental stress,” says Kawahito.

Tani says women do want to be treated on an equal basis to men in the workplace. But at the same time, she clarifies, they do not want to end up as workaholics like men are expected to be.

“What Japanese women want is to work as responsible adults and also have lives outside their work,” she says. “This is our goal for the future.”