Japan's huge army of underemployed housewives - 27th September 2021

Educated Japanese women could be helping drive their country out of its current economic slump. However, Japan's rigid hiring scheme and male dominated leadership remains the hurdle which is blocking women from the best-paid jobs.

Japan's own policy to significantly increase the number of women in leadership positions failed to meet its targets. Known as 'Womenomics' and announced with great fanfare, it has had little impact.

Today, men in parliament outnumber women by 10 to 1 while fewer than 15 percent of senior private sector roles are held by women.

For decades, about 60 percent of women gave up work after having their first baby. The father's income was sufficient to support the family until the economy started to decline. Then women went back into employment, pushing female participation in the labour market to 70 percent.

To support this shift, the practice of being placed on a waiting list for childcare has been eliminated, and companies were pressured to have at least one female executive. But without rewards or penalties in place, these directives were largely ignored.

Japan's rigid employment policy remains. This includes the lifetime employment scheme created to kick start the economy after the war. New graduates are offered jobs for life and progress up the ladder in a system which rewards seniority over merit.

Kathy Matsui, who worked at investment bank Goldman Sachs, is urging the country to re-evaluate its whole hiring system.