Downturn Hits Japanese Women Hard, and Not Just in Lost Jobs - Building Gender Balanced Business

• Women across Japan, including professionals, are suffering especially hard from the economic crisis, as their relative lack of resources and access to job support services puts them at greater risk than corresponding men.

• A March report by the Cabinet Office’s Council for Gender Equality noted that women are a greater risk of not maintaining their livelihoods because companies have been terminating the contracts of nonregular workers. Other data show that 60% of temporary workers are women, and their posts run from professional to clerical jobs.

• Women who stop working for birth or to care for their children often find only irregular employment upon return, the office’s interim report added. This is part of the reason for the 33% gender earnings gap in Japan — twice the OECD average.

• Misako Ichimura, who launched Nora, a group of homeless women who make handmade cloth napkins, told Yomiuri Shimbun that an increasing number of women are not just having trouble making a living but are also at risk of short-term homelessness given the difficulties in finding work that can allow them to live at home. She has noticed a surge in the number of such women of all types at all-night cafes.

The Yomiuri Shimbun report