By Suvendrini Kakuchi
TOKYO, Jan 14 2004 (IPS)

Displaying sheer grit, part-timer Kyoko Numata, 54, worked her way for 17 years in a steak restaurant to be successfully appointed as manager last April.

“I am still employed as a part-timer but I now have a responsible position and I am happy about that,” says the chic, young-looking woman who has long juggled family and work, sometimes to the point of exhaustion.

Numata represents an emerging labor practice in Japan where female workers, traditionally resigned to playing second fiddle to their male bosses, are now being taken more seriously – albeit as part-timers.

“Usually women are restricted to office tasks that include pouring tea for guests and making hundreds of copies for male bosses,” says Midori Ito, a member of the Women’s Union, a small group of women lobbying for gender equality in the job market.

“But hard-struck companies needing cheap labor have paved the way for an increase in part-time jobs for women and want to keep them there.”

Labour Ministry statistics show that 21.4 million of Japan’s 52.1 million workers are women. Some 8.35 million of them are employed as part-timers, compared to 3.7 million men, and the ranks of women in part-time work have grown by two percent in the past year.

Women part-timers are mostly employed in factories and in service sectors such as supermarkets, restaurants and hotels. They work long hours and are paid less than are men.

Office ladies, mostly full-time employees, are young women fresh out of college who usually quit their jobs when they start families.

The Labour Ministry reports the average salary for women in 2001 was 65.3 percent that of men, compared with a gap of 76 percent in the United States and 80.6 percent in Britain in 1991.

According to business administration expert Shiho Futagami of Yokohama National University, an employment system that long has discriminated against women now is being overhauled.

“Japanese companies seek low paid part-timers, who are mostly women and need to develop an employment system to suit the new workforce. Ironically, this means women get a chance at better positions,” she says.

Futagami, who has studied the two-track employment system in Japan, says the reason why women, while ambitious, have stayed away from pursuing careers is because they cannot meet conditions applied to climb up the ladder.

For example, being prepared to move to various subsidiaries of the company is a key component in the managerial path. In addition, companies demand long working hours and loyalty, so changing employers is frowned upon.

“These conditions are disadvantageous to women because they have nothing to do with talent or ability. Female workers cannot compete with men when they start families,” says Futagami.

Several steps are now being taken in Japan that promise better working conditions for part-timers.

One move, seen as revolutionary by women, is a new bill promising paid maternity and welfare leave for part-timers who have worked for the company for more than one year. Officials hope the measure will be passed in the Diet, or parliament, this year.

“The bill is aimed at women in their twenties and thirties who want to keep working and have families,” says labour ministry official Akane Shibahara.

Currently, child-care leave is granted during the first year after the birth of a child and is restricted to permanent workers.

In addition, the government is taking steps to crack down on unpaid overtime, a regular practice in most companies. Shorter working hours are also being proposed.

Companies have also developed new benefit systems that seem to suit women more than men staff.

The “cafeteria plan” launched by Asahi Glass Co. for all its employees extends points to staff, both part-time and regular. But the menu available for an annual package of points help women as they offer cheaper rates for programs such as hotel stays, child-rearing, nursing, travel and housing loans.

The Aeon supermarket chain, which employs a huge female labour force, also plans to launch in February a new system offering employees the chance to choose their work schedules.

Even so, women activists are not happy.

Ito, at the Women’s Union, says higher salaries for women part-timers are needed, as well as job security – conditions that companies are reluctant to push through given the financial burden involved.

Ito also sees the upcoming law on allocating paid child leave for part-timers as more aimed at increasing Japan’s low birth rate, which experts say could slow the country’s economic growth. At present, the average woman has 1.3 children.

“What is needed is a comprehensive system by the government to help companies balance financial problems with better working conditions for part-timers,” Ito says.

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