Japanese Women under Pressure to Give Up Work for Family - Building Gender Balanced Business

• 42% of Japanese women stop working after the birth of a child, the Ministry of of Internal Affairs and Communications reports, in the country with one of the lowest male household participation rates in the world.

• More than 25,000 children are on waiting lists at Japanese day-care centers. The new government has set a deadline of February 2010 to craft a plan to reduce the backlog as part of its plan to increase the birthrate.

• With an average of 1.3 children per family and an ageing population, Japan faces a labour force shortage that only massive immigration — which is unlikely — or greater employment of women can solve.

• Just 24% of women over the age of 15 work, in part because of societal pressure to stay home with family, bolstered by the relative lack of alternatives for care of children and a culture of long hours at work.

• Mari Miura of Sophia University in Tokyo said, “This puts strong psychological pressure on working women.” 50% of Japanese told a recent government survey that husbands should work and wives should stay home.

• But Miura also told IPS press service that the situation is improving, “as now there is child care leave, daycares in workplaces, flexibility with schedules, and the right to refuse night shifts.”

The IPS article