From: tnishi@kansas.Berkeley.EDU (NISHIYAMA Tetsuto)
Subject: Re: SEXISM IN JAPANESE WORKPLACE!!!!
Reply-To: tnishi@lsa.ncl.omron.co.jp
Organization: Omron Corporate R&D H.Q.- R&D Support Dept.
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 06:09:47 GMT


In article <1992Dec22.050751.8476@leland.Stanford.EDU>,
harumi@leland.Stanford.EDU (harumi ito) writes:
|> In article <BzMtFr.H0q@jrd.dec.com> doi@jrd.dec.com (Hitoshi Doi) writes:
|> 
|> >Maybe they don't want the net access and privileges..
|> 
|> I do want my net access and privilege... :-)
|> 
|> >In Japan's society I think most women are "brainwashed" so that they
|> >don't want to be equal with men at the workplace.
|> >Of course there are some women who do.  But this is a very small
|> >minority, I think.
|> 
|> Is "they don't want to be equal" right rhetoric here?  
|> 
|> Being a wife and a mother involve heavier responsiblities
|> and deeper committment in Japan than it does in the U.S.  
		[...]
|> more involved in family chores.  Would Japanese women still
|> "don't want to be equal with men at the workplace"?   
|> 
|> Furthermore, are the small minority of Japanese women who
		[...]
|> and right envioronments, this HANAKO might have wanted to be 
|> equal with men at the workplace.  
|> 
|> If we look around, there are not so many Japanese women climbing
|> corporate ladders or whatever smoothly.  But, it seems a little
|> to early to conclude that they just don't want it.  
|> 
|> I mean no flame, really.  But, just wanted to put my two cents
|> worth.    
	No flame taken...
		Here is my two cents...
	Everyone responding to this thread all seem to be saying things
that makes quite a bit of sense...just that some seem to be "misplaced"
so to speak....I don't know if that was the correct phrasing but that's
the closest I can get in the short amount of time I have to write this.
	Harumi-san is correct in that there are NOT that many women in
Japan who are climbing the corporate ladder...but there ARE some...and
an increasing number as the years go by...of course this figure is nothing
compared to the figures in North America.
	Now Doi-san said that many women may not want to be equal...I 
disagree...I feel that alot of women DO want to be equal, but NOT
everyone wants to be a "SALARYMAN" who works hours upon hours of overtime,
much of it which ends up being non-paid "service" overtime.  As Harumi-san
says, if the society provided better childcare services and/or companies
provided childcare service as a number of North American companies do,
perhaps more women would be willing to take on more responsibilities,
but the fact is that many women do NOT WANT to take on these responsibilities
because of the bad working conditions of the average "salaryman"...many
of the women in companies quit after a number of years of work, usually
to get married...why?  sometimes the husband lives in a different city.
sometimes the husband doesn't want her to work...etc.etc...she has to
sacrifice her work for her husband in many cases...many times she wants
to continue working but has no choice becuase of her husband...(one woman
I knew at work recently quit becuase her husband would move to tokyo and
she couldn't get a transfer.)
	Because of this, many companies are reluctant to give women higher
positions or higher responsibilities unless they have enough confidence
that she will continue to work...They never know when the woman might
quit...it may be 2 years, 3 years, 5 years, or maybe she will stay for
a long time...the average of many women seems to be between 2 to 5...
and in order to give them higher responsibilities, they must be trained
accordingly which may take from 3 to 6 months to a year depending on the
type of job...This costs the company alot of money...would a 6 month
training period be worth it for the company as far as costs are concerned
if the woman will only work for one or two extra years?  As far as the
company is concerned, no...that is one of the major reasons why many
women end up in secretarial positions or other non-demanding positions.
	It is unfortunate, but alot more than just corporate structure
will have to change before things start to get better.

	Sorry to write and run, but I'm flying home to Cincinnati tomorrow
and won't be around to read the responses...
=========================================================================
Teddy Nishiyama  (tnishi@lsa.ncl.omron.co.jp)  OMRON Corporation  (^_^;
R&D Support Dept(LSA), Shimokaiinji, Nagaokakyo-shi, Kyoto-fu 617  JAPAN
Newsgroups: soc.culture.japan