Senior Officials Recall Challenges as Female Workers in Japan

Tokyo, March 12 (Jiji Press)–Two senior public servants recalled challenges for female workers from their own experiences, nearly 40 years after Japan enforced the law on equal opportunity and treatment between men and women in employment in April 1986. Tokyo Vice Governor Akiko Matsumoto, 60, and Riwa Sakamoto, 53, director-general of the Business Environment Department of the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency, looked back at their struggles balancing work and child care, saying that younger generations should have fun both in working and having families. Matsumoto joined the Tokyo metropolitan government in 1989. Although the equal opportunity law had taken effect three years before, the law at that time merely stipulated an obligation for employers to make efforts to treat men and women equally in employment and promotion. It was not until a revision in 1999 that discrimination against women was clearly prohibited under the law. Matsumoto felt the gap between men and women when she was looking for a job, she says. At that time, job-seeking students would receive thick job information books and send postcards to companies they wanted to work for, in order to ask for more details. Although male students around her were getting many such books, Matsumoto did not receive the same number. “I felt that (students) were being sorted by gender,” she recalled. After passing an examination for a managerial post at work, she gave birth to her first child when she was 34 and to her second when she was 39. She learned of her first pregnancy just as she was trying hard to make up for a major mistake she made at work, and she felt so uneasy she shed tears. Her concerns lifted, however, when her male boss advised her to think only about her baby for the coming year. When she gave birth, love for her baby filled her heart. That was when she concluded that “work is important but is also just a part of life.” She thought, “It’s not something that can be compared with family.” Matsumoto had heard about a man who passed the same exam for managerial posts and wanted to look after his child. Still, taking paternity leave was not welcomed at the workplace back then. She says, “It must’ve been a hard time for men as well.” At the metropolitan government, taking paternity leave has become commonplace. In fiscal 2025, 18 pct of metropolitan government management officials are women. The share of women among those who passed managerial post exams grew to some 25 pct in the year ending this month, getting closer to the country’s goal of boosting the female share in leadership roles to 30 pct. At the end of 2025, an ordinance for further female empowerment at the workplace, which calls for removing unconscious bias against women, was established in the Japanese capital. “Organizations become stronger when they incorporate various experiences and perspectives,” Matsumoto said. “I want to create an environment where a wider range of people can demonstrate their abilities, including in sectors that have been dominated by men.” Sakamoto joined the predecessor of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in 1995 and was assigned to the general coordination division of the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency. In the Kasumigaseki government office district, working long hours was considered normal. Sakamoto arrived home late at night on many days after running around with documents and making copies at the workplace. “I cried in the restroom, feeling pain about not being able to go home,” she recalls. She gave birth to four girls, including twins. From her second child, she started getting “full-scale support” from her parents for child care. After finishing maternity leave for her twins, she was assigned to the role of ensuring coordination across her division. Around that time, what she called a “groundbreaking” change happened in her work environment, allowing her to check work emails on her laptop at home. She worked on her tasks until late at night after putting her children to bed. But she felt unsure, thinking that her work and housekeeping tasks were both only half-done. “I was always pressed for time,” she says. “But even with some unfinished chores, maybe my children would have appreciated a mom with some energy left over. Maybe it was me who was putting limits on myself.” She feels constrained living in a society that regards child care and home chores as “women’s responsibilities.” As a director-general at the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency, she thinks of situations in which women are put, especially in rural areas and at smaller companies. “I want them to have fun and ask for help with what they can’t do, instead of straining themselves too much,” she says, based on her own experience. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]