FOCUS: Japan Coast Guard School Chief Breaks Her Own Glass Ceiling

Maizuru, Kyoto Pref., March 17 (Jiji Press)–For Azusa Matsuura, the first woman to head the Japan Coast Guard School, one of the biggest obstacles in her career in the male-dominated service was her own self-doubt. Matsuura assumed the post in April last year at the school in Maizuru, Kyoto Prefecture, western Japan, which trains Japan Coast Guard officers. She rose through the ranks by overcoming challenges in an organization where about 90 pct of personnel are men. “The glass ceiling was something I had created in my own mind,” Matsuura, 59, says, reflecting on her career. Matsuura had once hoped to become a schoolteacher, but gave up that dream when her father’s illness made it difficult for her to continue on to university. Following her high school teacher’s advice to become a civil servant, she decided to join the Japan Coast Guard after learning that men and women received equal pay and were assigned the same duties. After graduating from the Japan Coast Guard School, she was assigned to the patrol vessel Ashizuri at the Kochi Coast Guard Office in western Japan. On her first day aboard, her deck supervisor told her, “I’m an old-fashioned man, and I simply can’t accept a woman as a sailor. I’ll be hard on you, but bear with me.” In her training course at the Japan Coast Guard School, Matsuura was one of only two women in 58 classmates. On board the Ashizuri, her deck supervisor kept his distance and offered her no instruction. She was also excluded from dangerous assignments, with the explanation: “You’re a woman. Stay out of this.” At the same time, she understood that he was not excluding her from malice. While her male peers received direct instruction, she stood beside them taking notes on details of the work, then reviewed the procedures alone after the job was done. Matsuura resolved to do whatever she could, and that determination drove her to work hard. In time, her steady efforts were recognized, and several of her superiors encouraged her to take the entrance examination for the special course at the Japan Coast Guard Academy, which trains future officer candidates. But she had also heard complaints from a woman who had repeatedly failed the exam. “The Japan Coast Guard has no intention of putting women in leadership positions,” the woman said. “That must be why we can’t pass.” Matsuura took the complaint to her supervisor. His response was blunt: “Do the eligibility requirements say women aren’t allowed? If you get a perfect score, who could fail you?” His words startled her. That moment, Matsuura realized that she had internalized the very glass ceiling she was confronting. After repeatedly hearing people’s comments about women, she had gradually come to believe that “it’s impossible, no matter how hard I try.” She later passed the exam and continued on the path to becoming an officer. Beneath the desk mat in her office at the school, Matsuura keeps a letter from the former deck supervisor–the same man who once shouted at her to stay away from dangerous work. In it, two messages are repeated that he wanted her to remember: “Never forget the hardships your staff face” and “Nurture your subordinates while paying close attention to their happiness as human beings.” He passed away shortly after sending it. “He was intimidating, but kind,” she recalls fondly. “In the past, we were grouped together simply as women, but now we are recognized as individuals,” Matsuura says. “I feel that opportunities are equal in the Japan Coast Guard.” Keeping her former supervisor’s words close at hand, she now focuses on developing the next generation of officers so that young people entering the service are seen as individuals, not defined by gender. “We need to create a workplace where both women and men can work comfortably,” she says. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]