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What womanomics means to Japan’s Ms Watanabes

Ms Watanabe, age 40, is hesitant. Her mother, Mrs Watanabe, is known for moving the world’s markets with the financial trading that occupies her breaks from housework.

Ms Watanabe, age 40, is hesitant. Her mother, Mrs Watanabe, is known for moving the world’s markets with the financial trading that occupies her breaks from housework.

Mrs Watanabe is the generic name for Japan’s housewife speculators, who have wielded significant influence on foreign exchange and other markets through their trading. After graduating from university, Mrs Watanabe quit her job when she married Mr Watanabe (who worked in the same office), became a housewife and raised one daughter. She did this because, in Mrs Watanabe’s day, marriage was the final workplace.

Times are different for her daughter, Ms Watanabe, who majored in economics at a well-known university and was hired by an established trading firm. But even though she outperformed the men in her recruitment class academically, she was unable to compete for a promotion.

She did not even have an official business card, which is more important than a passport in Japan; she had no choice but to make one on her computer.

She resolved to hone her skills by following her mother’s example. After work, she would attend night school to become an international accountant. She did not like going out drinking with colleagues to complain about their boss; communication through drinking neither improved one’s skills nor helped one to rise through the ranks.

UNEQUAL OPPORTUNITY

Ms Watanabe’s story illustrates a remarkable disparity. While productivity in Japanese factories is the highest in the world, owing to robots and other types of automation, the productivity of Japan’s white-collar workers is the lowest among OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries.

In 1999, Japan’s Equal Employment Opportunity Act was amended to provide equal employment opportunities for men and women by prohibiting discriminatory labour practices. But the legislation has had little impact on the workplace environment for women.

The other women who joined the company at the same time as Ms Watanabe married colleagues and quit their jobs to devote their time to raising children. The only difference from her mother’s era was that today’s generation quit, married and gave birth later.

Women account for more than 80 per cent of those who use childcare leave in Japan; in reality, more than 60 per cent of Japanese women leave the workplace and do not return once they have children.

Before she knew it, Ms Watanabe was in her 30s. Her mother, Mrs Watanabe, used the money she had made through financial trading to fund her daughter’s study abroad. Companies pay for men to study abroad, but will not invest in female employees.

Without other options Ms Watanabe took long-term unpaid leave of absence (which her company typically does not grant to women) to study for an MBA in America. Although she returned with excellent grades, her position within the company worsened, because she did not have a boss who could use her skills.

CAREER OR FAMILY?

One day, Ms Watanabe received a call from a headhunting firm. She was recruited to work in the accounting department of a Japanese import-export company. Encouraged by her mother, Ms Watanabe set her sights on new shores.

It was a completely new working environment, but her English skills and MBA proved invaluable. Her work was interesting, and she played an important role. At times, though, she thought about marriage and children when planning for the future.

Last year, Japan’s government changed, and the Liberal Democratic Party was returned to power. Previously, the LDP had barely given a second thought to women’s issues, focusing only on the needs of businesses and dealing with an ageing society.

Now, to Ms Watanabe’s surprise, the government has made women’s policies one of the key aspects of its long-term strategy.

To top it off, exchange-listed companies must now appoint at least one female officer. Ms Watanabe had heard that companies in Norway or France face delisting if their ratio of female officers falls below 40 per cent, and she joked with her friends that Keidanren (the Japan Business Federation) would vanish under such a law. Nonetheless, with each public company in Japan required to appoint at least one female officer, it might be her turn someday.

Now that she is 40 years old, Ms Watanabe is thinking of marriage.

Would maternity leave be possible if she were appointed as an officer? Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government says that it will establish day-care centres, but will this really come true?

She is hesitant. Should she take up an important role at this stage? Or should she pursue happiness as a woman?

Mrs Watanabe gives her daughter the nudge she needs. She has a talent for seeing how the tide turns. Her advice is to grab the opportunity at work, and also find happiness in marriage and children.

According to an estimate by Ms Kathy Matsui, Chief Japan Equity Strategist at Goldman Sachs, the country’s GDP could rise by 15 per cent and 8.2 million new jobs could be created if Japanese women gain equal opportunities at work.

Mr Abe has said that “womanomics” is the most important pillar of Abenomics, his government’s growth strategy. Mrs Watanabe and her daughter have much at stake in its realisation. PROJECT SYNDICATE

Yuriko Koike, Japan’s former Defence Minister and National Security Adviser, was Chairwoman of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party and is currently a member of the National Diet.

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