I lurk on NBR’s Japan Forum, a mailing list that covers Japan from a variety of perspectives including economic, social and political. I was recently lured in by a thread on the status of women in Japan. J. Sean Curtin, professor at Red Cross University, sent a phenomenal post to the list on gender equality in education in Japan, and gave me permission to repost it on my blog as well.
Summarizing both Prof. Curtin’s post as well as a newsletter excerpt sent to me by Richard Katz of The Oriental Economist, a number of factors are coming together to create pressure on women in Japan:
- Japanese women are increasingly more highly educated (more 4 year college grads than 2 year college grads) and therefore increasingly more capable
- Japanese women are waiting longer to get married
- Japanese women are waiting longer to have children
- Japanese women are having fewer children when they do
- There are fewer options for child care in Japan and fewer fulfilling job opportunities for women after they leave the workforce to have children; so many women put off marriage and having children
- Japanese men are spending more time at work – increasing the need for the wife in a Japanese marriage to stay home with the children
- Japanese women still face very significant gender prejudice in Japanese business and there are few women in prominent executive positions in Japanese companies (I can definitely say this from personal experience in 2 of Japan’s most prominent companies.)
Now of course, these are issues facing most women in most nations, but I’ve seen it starkly in the few weeks I’ve been in Japan. Things are changing between Japanese men and women and I’m not sure who appreciates these trends and their consequences.
If the status of women doesn’t begin to change more rapidly, which I don’t see significant signs yet, the pressure on women in Japanese society (of having few options while often being as capable as their male counterparts) will create other dynamics that I don’t think can be predicted (such as increasing the outflow of Japanese women to foreign nations, etc.)
Reading works like this, I sometime wonder about going back to grad school.


[emphasis is mine - gen]

From: J. Sean Curtin
To: Gen Kanai
Subject: Re: NBR’S JAPAN FORUM (SOC) Labor issues: Gender equality in education
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2003 22:16:31 +0000
At 06:03 AM 06/12/03 -0700, J. Sean Curtin wrote:
Danielle Duran wrote: I was wondering if anyone out there has data
or can tell me where to find data on the following issues. Attitude of
women towards work and family. Particularly if there is a significant
difference between women who attended 4 year university and those
who did not.*
Sean Curtin [replies]: This is a highly complex issue, the dynamics
of which have been rapidly changing over the last decade. One
aspect of the equation is gender equality in education. For most of
the postwar period, higher education was overwhelmingly gender-
segregated. One of the major causes of this inequality was the two-
tiered system of higher education consisting of two-year junior
colleges and four-year universities. These distinctive educational
institutions segregated largely along gender lines; women going to
the former and men to the latter. In the 1980s, females made up the
bulk of the students at two-year junior colleges, while males
remained in the ascendancy at four-year universities. However, in
the mid-nineties, the imbalance began to be rectified. From the
early-nineties onwards, record numbers of women started to enter
four-year universities. In 1996, for the first time ever, the number of
women advancing to four-year universities exceeded those going to
two-year junior colleges.
Every year since 1996, there has been a relative increase in the
number of women at four-year universities. The number of students
at two-year institutions has rapidly declined and the future of many
of these two-year women’s colleges seems uncertain. There has
also been a rise in the number of women going on to postgraduate
studies. These developments have meant that the divide between
male and female education has begun to narrow.
The rise in female students at four-year universities is one factor
behind women postponing marriage and childbirth. The Ministry of
Health, Labour and Welfare figures for 2002 show that during the
year 1,153,866 babies were born. This is the lowest number since
records began back in 1899. In 2002, the national fertility rate stood
at an all-time low of 1.32 children per woman. In 2002, the average
age of marriage was at a record high of 27.4 years for women and
the average age of first time motherhood rose to an all-time high of
28.3 years. Opinion surveys show that marriage still remains very
popular, although the age at which people walk down the aisle is
steadily rising. Data for 2002 indicates that couples are continuing
to marry later and consequently having fewer children. The
increasing number of women at four-year universities is one of the
complex web of factors behind the low birthrate and changing
attitudes towards employment and life-course.
Best, J. Sean Curtin
Useful On-line References
Japanese Social Trend Series General Link:
Family Trends in 2003 ? Part Two: Population Data Shows
Declining Birthrates, Fewer Marriages and More Divorces Social
Trends: Series #41, GLOCOM Platform, 11 June 2003
Youth Trends in Japan: Part Three ? Increasing Unemployment and
Poor Work Opportunities Social Trends: Series #40, GLOCOM
Platform, 4 June 2003
Youth Trends in Japan: Part Two ? “Parasite Singles” in Europe and
Japan Social Trends: Series #39, GLOCOM Platform, 26 May 2003
Youth Trends in Japan: Part One ?”Parasite Singles” in the
International Context Social Trends: Series #38, GLOCOM
Platform, 26 May 2003
The Declining Birthrate in Japan: Part Eight ? Population Scenarios
and Economic Consequences Social Trends: Series #25, GLOCOM
Platform, 28 January 2003
The Declining Birthrate in Japan: Part Three ? Italy-Japan
Comparisons Social Trends: Series #19, GLOCOM Platform, 11
December 2002
The Current State of Divorce in Japan: Record Number of Marital
Dissolutions in 2001 Social Trends: Series #10, GLOCOM Platform,
7 October 2002
Japanese Marriage Trends in 2002: Later Unions and More Diverse
Families Social Trends: Series #9, GLOCOM Platform, 3 October
2002
Changing Attitudes towards Gender Roles in Japan: 2002 Snapshot
Social Trends: Series #8, GLOCOM Platform, 24 September 2002
Note
* NBR’S JAPAN FORUM (SOC) Labor issues: women; overtime
Danielle Duran, Mon, 09 Jun 2003