02Vol.

日本女性エグゼクティブ協会

2014.06.01号

NEWS Letter

http://www.jafe.jp/First JAFE Executive Seminar Held
The first JAFE Executive Seminar was held on March 5, 2014 at the Tokyo
American Club, featuring Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science andTechnology Hakubun Shimomura as a guest speaker. Approximately 100
female executives attended the seminar, where they were privileged to listen toa valuable lecture by Minister Shimomura on the government’s efforts torebuild Japan’s education. After the lecture, they were also given an opportunity to exchange business cards and discuss directly with the minister.

Summary of Minister Shimomura’s Address at the Executive Seminar● After assuming the post of the minister of education, cultural, sports, science and technology, I have set a reform
process comprising 44 items toward the rebuilding of education.

● Development of global human resources: The number of Japanese studying abroad has been on a continuous

decline. We would like to put more efforts to promote the globalization of human resources, that is to say, toovercome the so-called “psychological deflation.” We aim to double the number of Japanese studying abroad by2020 and will establish, through government-private sector collaboration, a financial support program to help
finance the cost of studying abroad.

● Promotion of educational activities through Saturday classes: We will seek to enrich the educational environment

on Saturdays through joint efforts by schools, families, and local communities. By asking not only teachers but also
graduates and local residents to serve as lecturers, we will ensure that all children in rural areas have equitablelearning opportunities and eliminate urban-rural gaps in education.

● We should consider social security not only as benefits we are entitled to receive in the latter half of our life, but also
as benefits that can be received in the form of education in the first half of our life.

● We would like to support those young people with aspirations that would lead to the globalization of their field ofactivity through scholarship and other overseas education support programs.

● Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics: Japanese people have always taken pride in their strength in unity. I believe thatthe forthcoming Olympics and Paralympics, toward which we are joining forces as one team, will be anopportunity to revive the Japanese society. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
has drawn up Japan Vision 2020, setting out a vision of what Japan should be like by 2020 and proposing aseries of steps toward achieving that end, such as developing human resources capable of winning a victory on
the global stage.

● Promotion of women’s participation: This is one of the topmost priority policy goals of the Abe Cabinet. We willencourage companies to take affirmative action to appoint more women to decision-making positions and allow
for more flexible work styles, while at the same time striving to provide social infrastructure to support the active
participation of women.

● We will host the sports and culture version of the Davos forum in 2017 in Japan. We hope it will provide a
successful model and lead to the success of the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics in 2020.

02NEWS LetterVol.

201406.01号

Minister H.Shimomura introduced the JAFE Executive Seminar on his Facebook page.
Minister Hakubun Shimomura Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/hakubun.shimomura

Members Introduced at the Executive Seminar

Honorary member Ms. Tomoko Samura
Director-General, Gender Equality Bureau, Cabinet Office

Ms. Asako Hoshino

Ms. Hiroko Yamashina

Corporate Vice President, Nissan Motor Corporation

Executive Officer, ORIX Corporation

P r i m e M i n i s t e r S h i n z o A b e i n t e r n a t i o n a l l y i n t r o d u c e d J a p a n ’s
empowerment goal of “20-30”- i.e., 30% of leading positions to beoccupied by women by 2030 - in his address at the meeting of the World
Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The promotion of women’s
participation was also included in the government’s Japan Revitalization
Strategy, and the possibility of promoting this initiative at the local
government level is now being studied. As it takes time to have more
women appointed to important positions in large companies, she believes
it will be necessary to take further steps toward achieving the “20-30” goal.

In 2004, she became the head - or “pilot” as referred to in the company of the cross functional team in charge of promoting diversity. She was thedriving force for raising the percentage of female managers from 1.6% at
the time to 6.8% (170 women) today. Nissan Motor Corporation has been
awarded and recognized by a number of diversity-related organizations andits percentage of female managers remains significantly higher than theindustry average.

As a result of continuous support for women to help manage work-lifebalance and pursue career, the percentage of working mothers against all
female employees and the percentage of female section managers (in thenine group companies) have increased significantly over the past 10 years
to reach 28.8% and 16.9% respectively. As a next step, she intends to seek
to increase the number of female executives and promote greater
participation of women.

Second JAFE Executive Seminar

Seminar in Tateshina

Friday, 20 June 2014 (6:00 pm)

Saturday, 26 July toSunday, 27 July 2014

Venue: Tokyo American Club

Guest:

Venue: Poppins Tateshina Training CenterMs. Atsuko MurakiThis is going to be a workshop witha guest speaker. We hope manymembers will attend the seminar.

Vice Minister, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
Theme:My LifeApplications can be made online at: www.jafe.jp* Please note that the lecture may be postponed by reason of urgent official duties.

JAFE Secretariat

Details will be posted shortly
on our website at: www.jafe.jp

Japan Association for Female Executives

Attn: NPO Poppins Secretariat c/o Poppins Corporation, Hiroo Plaza 5F, 5-6-6 Hiroo, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, 150-0012 Japan

Phone: 03-6450-4880 E-mail: info＠jafe.jp www.jafe.jp