Asia-Pacific, Development & Aid, Economy & Trade, Gender, Headlines, Human Rights, Labour, Population

RIGHTS-JAPAN: Not All Working Women Are Equal

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Aug 17 2010 (IPS) - Fifty-one year old Miharu juggles two part-time jobs at a law firm and at a design company, but is barely able to make ends meet in one of the world’s richest economies.

In stark contrast to Miharu, who works as an office assistant in her two jobs, is her friend Satoko Kobayashi. A full-time dental assistant and single, the 46-year-old takes home a stable wage and has two annual bonuses that pay for a comfortable lifestyle, one that includes foreign trips and leisure time with her friends.

Divorced a decade ago, Miharu, who asked that her last name not be used, describes her future as bleak.

“I am grateful for having work at my age. But my take home (pay) barely covers my monthly expenses. I dream of quitting the daily grind,” she says. On average, her monthly earnings reach 1,800 U.S. dollars, two-thirds of which goes to rent, utilities and food.

Miharu, who has a degree in English, quit her job in a trading company after she got married three decades ago and had a child. But when she started looking for work after her separation, she realised how tough life returning to a professional career can be for women of her age or older.

The stories of Miharu and Kobayashi show not only how Japan’s economic recession has taken a harder toll on women, but has also helped create a social gap between different groups of working women, says Prof Toshiaki Tachibanaki, author of ‘Greater Choice, Greater Inequality’, an analysis of the Japanese economy from the perspective of women.

“Traditionally, older women have always had problems finding stable jobs after they quit once. But with the recession the situation is worse,” he explained. “With companies cutting costs to meet global competition, women, who also face traditional gender discrimination, are the ones who are hurt most.”

In his chapter on women and work, Tachibanaki shows how Japan’s male-dominated labour culture – consisting of working hours and regular transfers from head offices to other locations — has squeezed out many opportunities for women to hold on to their jobs after getting married and having children.

When coupled with the current unemployment rate of 5.3 percent – and 4.9 percent for women – this tradition translates into an environment that is stacked against stable professional careers for women, Tachibanaki explains.

His research shows that the women who stay in the work force are often self-employed, single with full-time careers like Kobayashi, or have rich spouses.

“The others (simply) struggle to survive,” he explained at a press briefing.

Labour statistics illustrate this trend. New figures show that women between 20 and 64 years old comprise 13.39 percent of the working poor in Japan, or far higher than the percentage of men at 9.85. The working poor are those who earn less than 11,000 dollars annually.

At the same time, women make up the highest number in the expanding market of part-time employees. Women made up 62 percent of 610,000 part-timers in 2009, according to the Health, Welfare and Labour Ministry. They are usually employed at call centres, office clerks, and work as health care workers or sales representatives.

Part-timers are hired on annual or six-month contracts by companies or are sent to work by agencies under the labour dispatch law. They are paid on an hourly basis, but women are sometimes paid up to 30 percent less than their male counterparts.

Usually, their employment contracts do not have paid vacation or allowances to support pensions.

In fact, the Tokyo Women’s Union fields around 25 inquiries a month, of which 80 percent are from women in their thirties and forties who report having lost contract jobs because of restructuring efforts in companies.

“Older women are the first to go in a company,” explained Toyomi Fujii, one of the two advisors in the union. “Their work is considered disposable by male bosses.”

A major grouse among Japan’s working women is the dispatch temporary work system. Because the job contracts under this system are between the agency and company – not the employees themselves – Fujii says this often leads to unfair working conditions. It is common to see younger and attractive women hired over older women after their interviews, Fujii adds.

These trends are picking up at a time when more married women are seeking jobs, in contrast to two decades ago when more than 70 percent of Japanese women quit work after the birth of their first child.

The ratio of married women with jobs today is much higher at 48.9 percent as of 2008, government data say, as women fear that their husbands might lose their jobs.

“Our cases indicate a pattern where women are struggling to survive economically,” Fujii said, adding that this trend is likely to persist and widen the gap between those who have stable careers and those stuck in part-time or contractual work.

“Part-timers complain of mental depression, constant sexual harassment from male bosses and having to put in long hours to make enough money. Their lives are poor compared to career women,” she pointed out.

Women, both full-time and part-time, comprise 41 percent of the Japanese workforce of 66.5 million recorded in 2008. Women between 30 to 34 years of age make up more than 60 percent of employed women, compared to less than 50 percent a decade ago.

Government data in July showed that only 52 jobs are available for every 100 job seekers.