Japanese-German-Symposium:
Work Style Reform – How Will Home, Company and Society Shine Moreand How Can Gender Equality Contribute?
(November 6th, 2018 in Tōkyō)Workshop:Work Style Reform, Gender Time Gap, Work-Life Balance, and Gender Equality
in Japan and Germany(November 7th, 2018 in Tōkyō)Conference Report(1)Nora KOTTMANN (Senior Research Fellow, German Institute for Japanese Studies)Work Style Reform and Gender Equality were the main topics of two events jointly organized by theJapanese-German Center Berlin (JDZB), the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES), the German Institutefor Japanese Studies (DIJ), and the Japan Institute of Social and Economic Affairs (Keizai Kōhō
Center/KKC) on November 6th and 7th, 2018. Both events took place in Tōkyō and were respectively
hosted by KKC (November 6th) and the DIJ (November 7th).
Japan and Germany are facing very similar problems with regard to demographic change
and its subsequent challenges on societal, political, and economic levels. These challenges –including an escalating labor shortage as well as the demand for women’s increased participationin the labor force – require family-friendly working conditions as a fundamental prerequisite forbetter reconciling family and work life. Both countries are aware of this problem and have enacted
various laws from the late 1980s onwards which address gender equality and work-life balance(WLB). In Japan, the concept of WLB received renewed attention in 2013 through Womenomics, acore pillar of Prime Minister ABE Shinzō’s(2) national growth strategy, which aimed “to make women(and society as a whole) shine.” Womenomics focuses on empowering women and increasing their
numbers in the workforce. However, the rationale is not about gender equality, but economic
factors and the assumption that women are an underutilized resource.
Against this background, the aim of the symposium and workshop, which brought together
a total of 25 renowned speakers, was to provide background information on the topics, to

1. This report portrays the main line of argument of the symposium and the workshop and it summarizes the presentations
and discussions according to the understanding of the author. We therefore ask not to quote single remarks of the
speakers.
2. Conventional Japanese name order is generally followed here: FAMILY NAME – given name.
Japanese-German Center Berlin ・JDZB

Ref.: J1853_report_Egenerate mutual exchange between stakeholders from business, politics, media, and academia
and to look into both the challenges and opportunities from different angles. While the symposium
mainly addressed stakeholders from business and politics as well as the general public, theworkshop served as a forum for academic exchange and discussion. Both events were met withgreat interest by the public and experts alike.

Japanese-German-Symposium: Work Style Reform – How Will Home, Company and Society Shine
More and How Can Gender Equality Contribute?
November 6th, 2018

Opening
The well-attended symposium at the Keidanren’s Diamond Hall addressed the correlation between
working style, working time, and gender equality as well as pursued the question of “How Will
Home, Company, and Society Shine More and How canGender Equality Contribute?” YAMAKOSHI Atsushi (Managing
Director,

KKC)

and

Düsseldorf/Foundation

MAE

Michiko(UniversityofCouncil

JDZB)

deliveredthegreetings, warmly welcoming organizers, speakers, and thelarge

audience.

Bothspeakers

mentioned

previous

successful collaborations, outlined the opportunities of thisjoint event and stressed the relevance and timeliness of the
topics for both countries.

Prof. Dr. MAE Michiko

While YAMAKOSHI called for demographic change to
be seen as a historical opportunity to implement a fundamental, strategically developed work stylereform, which in turn would lead to more gender equality, MAE emphasized the fact that bothcountries can learn a lot from each other in the face of similar problems. The issue of excessive
working hours in particular – which has made Japan notorious and hinders women in the Japaneselabor market – needs to be tackled. She attributed a great deal of potential to digitization and thecreation of a so-called "Society 5.0". Despite clearly identifying existing problem areas andchallenges, MAE still found motivating and encouraging words for the representatives from politics,
media, and the business community.

Keynote Speech
Colette RÜCKERT-HENNEN (Member of the Board, EJOT
Holding GmbH & Co. KG) delivered the keynote speech,
where she spoke about “Work Style Reform and Gender
Equality in Germany.” She framed her talk by stating that
her interest in gender equality was less induced by the factof being female but due to the insight that women are
crucial in facing contemporary challenges like the labor
shortage and the international pressure for innovation.
Colette RÜCKERT-HENNEN
Japanese-German Center Berlin ・JDZB

Despite positive examples of women in high-profile
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positions and legal improvements, “we are not as far as we should be.” RÜCKERT-HENNEN argued on
the basis of daily prejudices, the gender equality index, the proportion of women in management
positions as well as the gender pay gap. In order to tackle these issues, she argued, responses areneeded from companies and politicians alike: They will have to work together and address the
problem from different angles, as companies that fear regulations are unlikely to change on theirown. The awareness that gender equality is a requirement for future economic success has yet to
be developed within companies.

Session 1
Session 1 was chaired by SUMITA Kan (Special Advisor, The Japanese-German Business Association)and followed RÜCKERT-HENNEN’s lead by addressing “Challenges for Industry, Business, and Labor
Relations”. The session started with a talk by Elke HOLST (Research Director Gender Studies, The
German Institute for Economic Research) entitled “Gender Gaps in Promotion and Pay & the
Effects of Gender Working Time Gaps. Focus on Managerial Occupations”. Just like RÜCKERT-HENNEN,
HOLST argued for a change in company culture. She identified the heightened competition for
specialists and young talents in industrialized countries ("war of talents") as the greatest challenge
for the economy. In order to keep up with this development while at the same time generating
economic growth, the complete integration of women into the labor market is necessary.
However, there are three major problems that significantly hinder this, as she explained in detail: agender gap in job promotion, a gender pay gap (based on a statistically proven devaluation of
women’s work), and a gender bias in working time requirements.
In her talk “How We Work”, Michiko ACHILLES (Vice President, SAP Japan) addressed
concrete measures and working styles of SAP. She began with the observation that “the” rightworking style is difficult to grasp and subject to change. Yet, some core topics from theentrepreneur's point of view were the questions of “How to work successfully and productively?
How to get (or to improve) the employees engagement?” In order to address these topics anddevelop successful measures, SAP employs a model that locates the employee's commitment
between four areas of life, namely “growth”, “career”, “well-being”, and “life”. Employees can
individually decide which to focus on. To further strengthen this process, ACHILLES pointed out,
employees are actively encouraged to bring in ideas and help realize the company’s vision to“help the world run better and improve people’s lives.”
The general discussion revolved around the buzzwords commitment/engagement andchanges in corporate culture. Here, the German side largely emphasized the responsibility ofleaders: They have to act as role models for their employees by actively initiating these changes
and seeing them through. RÜCKERT-HENNEN for example called change a “tough cookie” andemphasized that “only the leaders can change the company and the culture through being
truthfully engaged and living their own slogans.” In this context, the need for monetary incentives
for companies was clearly formulated – a topic that was addressed in session 2.

Session 1
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Session 2“Challenges for Government: Regulation” was the title ofthe second session, which was chaired by Martin POHL
(Counselor, Labor and Health Affairs, Embassy of theFederal Republic of Germany). The first panelist was Ralf
KLEINDIEK (Senior Advisor, Boston Consulting Group/former
State Secretary, Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, Senior
Citizens, Women and Youth). He opened the panel with histalk on gender equality and the question of adequate
Ralf KLEINDIEK

policies. Starting from the observation that gender equality
is still far from the norm in both countries, KLEINDIEK shed lighton recent policies and their potential success in Germany as outlined in the Gender Equality
Reports (2012, 2017). Both reports, which were issued by the German government and compiled byan independent committee, stress the importance of the “time” factor – on a daily as well as
biographical basis – for gender equality. According to KLEINDIEK, the reports show that policies (andthe political will) are currently insufficient. In particular, the field of care must be funded in monetary
terms. KLEINDIEK ended on several recommendations: Policies will only be successful if they 1.) aremandatory (and not voluntary) and 2.) imply effective monitoring and rigid sanctions. From his
perspective as an advisor to the Boston Consulting Group, he expressed his strong belief thatrealizing diversity and gender equality will be the “key to (future) success”.
“Work Style Reform” was also the topic of MATOBA Yasuko (Executive Researcher, Life Design
Research Department, Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute). She similarly emphasized policies andpursued the question of “(How) to (Create) a Society Where Both Men and Women can Work
Actively?” She described the status quo as inadequate, despite a multitude of buzzwords andslogans. In addition to the gender pay gap mentioned by previous speakers and women’s low
participation rate in the labor market, she highlighted the unequal distribution of (unpaid) domestic
work: There has to be a change of culture, not only in companies but also in families; an attitudechange would be an indispensable prerequisite for true
gender equality. Overall, she suggested policies in threeareas – support for women’s health, support for women’s reemployment, and re-learning implementation strategies –for realizing a society “in which everybody who wants towork can work.”
Like previous speakers, the third panelist, KUROKI Rie(Director, Gender Equality Bureau, Cabinet Office ofJapan), stressed the economic necessity of actively
integrating women into the workforce. On the basis ofstatistical data on topics like the proportion of female
administrative and managerial workers or the work history of
wives before and after giving birth, she shed light on thestatus quo of gender equality in the subsequent fields.
Gender equality, she pointed out, is still marginal, also whencompared internationally. However, KUROKI emphasizedthat the Japanese government is well aware of the
problem and is actively pursuing countermeasures, whichhave already achieved substantial success.
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Discussion
After a lively discussion, the symposium’s main findings could be summarized in three points: 1.) It
became obvious, that a reform of work-style is an important precondition for gender equality andthe elimination of various “gaps” in the realm of pay, time, pension, and care. 2.) Despite resistanceon the part of companies, the government must take action and implement policies that include
monetary incentives and rigid sanctions. 3.) All speakers agreed that these measures will pay off, asa fundamental work style reform and gender equality will lead to economic strength and successin the context of labor shortages and the “war for talents”.

Workshop: Work Style Reform, Gender Time Gap, Work-Life Balance, and Gender Equality in Japan
and Germany
November 7th, 2018

Welcome Remarks and Introduction
Academic exchange was the focus of the Workshop “Work Style Reform, Gender Time Gap, WorkLife Balance and Gender Equality in Japan and Germany” on November 7th, 2018. Topics,
concepts, and slogans of the previous day’s symposium were supplemented in four panels as well
as a panel discussion featuring theoretical perspectives and in depth analyzes by Japanese andGerman experts. Franz WALDENBERGER (Director, DIJ) and Claudia SCHMITZ (Secretary General, JDZB)
made the welcome remarks on behalf of the organizers. Both highlighted the symposium’s successand summarized important findings that served as the starting point for the workshop.
MAE delivered the introduction, where she presented the workshop’s main topics and raised
the question of “How can we Overcome the Gender Time and Pay Gap for a Gender-Equal
Society?” She first underscored that "across our entire lifetime – including old age – our lives are
determined fundamentally by the time we spend working, because in modern society it is this time,
together with income, that decides our life chances. (Therefore) working time and income relation
have a strong influence on gender equality,” especially in the long-term, as one can see in the“shocking” case of pensions. Despite an increase of female participation in the Japanese andGerman labor markets, much of this is due to an increase of part time employment in bothcountries. Although part time employment might be appealing at first glance – for creating more
possibilities to combine work and family – this model has its downsides and is highly gendered:
While most mothers work part-time, only a very small amount of fathers do so. This shows, MAE
argues, that despite improvements, the male breadwinner model – one of the main reasons for theJapanese-German Center Berlin ・JDZB

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discriminatory gender gap – is still predominant in both countries. MAE then turned to theworkshop’s structure and topics. The aims of the four panels were 1.) to address working time andincome differences between men and women, 2.) to evaluate possible effects of the newly
adopted Work Style Reform (hatarakikata kaikaku) in Japan, 3.) to explore a variety of alternativemodels for new forms of work and ways of working, and 4.) to examine problems and obstacles
that must be overcome in order to achieve a good work-life balance. The panel discussion at theend of the event brought together representatives from a variety of firms, who presented anddiscussed concrete examples of working models and their (potential) influence on gender equality.
This reconnected to the symposium on the day before, but also offered a different perspective.

Panel 1: Gender Time and Pay Gap
The first panel was chaired by Steffen HEINRICH (Senior Research Fellow, DIJ) and started with a talkby ŌSAWA Mari (The University of Tōkyō) on “Issues for ‘Society 5.0’ – Poverty Reduction as a Vital
Way of ‘Investing in Society’”. In her talk, she focused on the new concept of “investment”, which“seems to be one of the key words in recent Japanese politics and policy making,” as seen in theestablishment of the Future Investment Council (September 2016) and the publications Investments
for the Future Strategy (June 2017, June 2018). ŌSAWA shed light on the importance attached towork style reforms in this strategy – i. e. as measures to achieve maximum productivity throughworkplace diversity, flexible work, and work-life balancing. This, ŌSAWA explained, shows theinterrelation of the concepts of investment and gender equality. In her closing remarks, she argued
that poverty reduction through gender equality at work – including the reduction of the gender
pay gap – and a reform of tax and social security systems are a vital form of social investment, or
rather “investment in society”.
The gender pay gap, especially its underlying causes, was the starting point for Ute
KLAMMER’s (Duisburg-Essen University) talk. Based on the findings of the research project
Comparable Worth, she argued that “(gendered) job evaluation (is) a blind spot in the analysis of
the gender pay gap.” While there are statistically identified causes for the gender pay gap – formal
qualifications, vertical and horizontal labor market segregation as well as business interruptions andreductions – the hypothesis of a gender-differentiatedremuneration system (“devaluation hypothesis/evaluative
discrimination”) suggests that the occupational demands
and burdens in the area of female gainful employment arepaid less than in the area of male gainful employment. In
order to statistically measure occupational demands in agender neutral way, KLAMMER introduced the so-called
Comparable Worth-Index that she and her team had
developed. Through multivariate analyses, they came tothe conclusions that professional demands and burdens in
the context of female gainful employment – one example
here being care work – are paid less than the demands andburdens in the context of male gainful employment.

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Panel 2: Can “Work Style Reform” Create More Career
Opportunities for Women?
Panel 2 was chaired by MAE. It addressed the questions ofwhat impact laws (especially the newly implemented one
in Japan) can be expected to have on the gender timeand pay gap, and what will they contribute to genderequality. Given that there was no overtime regulation law
in Japan prior to the Work Style Reform that will beenacted by April 1st, 2019 and that promotion was/is
MURAO Yumiko & Elke HOLST

evidently connected with long working hours, MURAO
Yumiko (Tōyō University) focused in her talk on the questionof “Will Setting the Upper Limit of Overtime Increase Japanese Women's Promotion Opportunities?”
She pointed out that this is closely related to the question of whether working couples will be
encouraged to both work less than 45 hours of overtime and share family responsibilities equally, as
mentioned in the reform. Although reducing excessively long overtime sounds promising withregard to gender equality, MURAO concluded – based on a secondary analysis of the Japan’s Life
Course Panel Survey – that new overtime limitations will have slightly negative effects on women’s
promotion to the rank of section chief. Furthermore, new overtime limitations will fail to create more
career opportunities for Japanese wives, as couples will not feel free to choose the option of bothparties working less than 45 hours overtime and sharing family responsibilities.
HOLST, the second speaker, dealt with the situation in Germany in her presentation entitled“Germany Needs More Individual Time Sovereignty for Women and Men to Reduce the Gender
Pay Gap.” To contextualize her considerations, she outlined a “war for talents” on the one hand
and the strong wish of individuals to have a fulfilling work-life balance on the other hand. HOLST
initially gave an overview of the gender gap in specific sectors – the largest being in the financeand insurance sectors. Following this, she highlighted that working or having worked part-time isone of the major reasons for the gender pay gap in countries with a high female participation rate.
However, as men increasingly desire more family time and women more working time, the key tosuccess is to “give women the chance to work more and men to work less.” As individuals’ timedemands vary over their life course (and are especially tight during the so-called “rush hour of life”),
flexibility and individual time sovereignty are imperative. Company culture has to change in orderto realize this: She strongly stressed, that “it’s time to modernize the idea of an ideal worker fromalways available to autonomous, independent, and highly flexible (due to digital devices).”

Panel 3: Alterative Work Forms (Style) and Their Intra-Organizational Preconditions
After a lunch break, the third panel addressed the topic of “Alternative Work Forms (Style) and Their
Intra-Organizational Preconditions” as well as the questions of which alternative models for new
ways of working and working hours are already being put into practice. NEMOTO Kumiko (Kyōto
University of Foreign Studies) looked at “Corporate Changes and Workplace Gender Division in
Japan”, how the custom of long working hours has been changing, and to what extent this had
impacts on vertical sex segregation. Based on her own fieldwork, she emphasized that working
hours still remain excessive. As reasons for this, she identified the workload on the one hand andnormative reasons on the other: She showed that many of her male interviewees link long working
hours to their identity and manhood. While some of the respondents did refer to the benefits of
having more time with the family, it turned out that the level of devotion to work is still often
measured in terms of working hours. This culture of long working hours – that affects women as well
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– is clearly a factor in vertical sex segregation and is, according to NEMOTO, one of the main reasons
why women still opt out.
WALDENBERGER gave the second talk on “Japan’s In-house Career System – a Structural
Barrier to Work Style Reform and Inclusion”. He focused on an institutional factor that determines
long working hours, namely in-house careers. Pursuing one’s career in just one company is a systemthat is very much rooted in the high growth period after the war. Although there has been change
in recent decades, WALDENBERGER argued that this “core element” of Japanese companies –strongly tied up with mass hiring every April and the principle of seniority – has been well preserved,
as can be seen with the in-house careers of almost all executive directors of larger Japanesecompanies. WALDENBERGER highlighted that in-house careers are characterized by very slow
promotion (no fast tracks), ongoing competition, and no exit options. This along with the underlying
strong dependence on superiors are the main reasons why it is extremely difficult to cultivate
criticism from below or accept and develop diversity. WALDENBERGER ended his talk with several
recommendations for successfully establishing an open career system, such as 1.) developing an
outside market for managerial careers, 2.) ensuring career ownership with the employee, and3.) generating more task- and performance-oriented management styles.

Panel 4: Social and Political Preconditions for a Better Work-Life Balance
The fourth and last panel of the day was chaired by Nora KOTTMANN (Senior Research Fellow, DIJ)and focused on the question of how it is possible to solve the (institutional) problems andchallenges discussed by previous speakers and make it possible for every member of society toindividually balance every area of life. First, ŌSAWA Machiko (Japan Women’s University) gave ashort overview of Japan’s “Work-Life Balance Policies: Characteristics and Limitations”. She broughtup the point that the concept of WLB was first adopted by the Japanese government in the WorkLife Balance Charter in 2007, that was jointly issued with the federation of trade unions and theemployer’s association (Keidanren). The document described the realization of a “work-lifebalance society” as a “crucial investment for the future”. Yet, ŌSAWA pointed out that whereas
work-life balance reforms have gained momentum in Japan, ongoing gender inequality (as well as
systemic discrimination) remains a strong impediment to the realization of a work-life balancesociety. In her closing remarks, she argued that legal and policy reforms will have no effect andgender inequality will remain strong unless significant penalties for non-compliance are introduced.
The German situation was discussed by KLEINDIEK in his talk “Work-Life Balance in Germany –the Role of Companies and the Government”. Just alike ŌSAWA, KLEINDIEK emphasized the necessity
for comprehensive policies. Further on, he outlined the need for the state and the economy towork together in the context of contemporary social upheavals. To face these challenges –KLEINDIEK referred in particular to the care of elder relatives – a Work Style Reform that implies
individual time sovereignty across the life course is imperative. This need was clearly recognized by
the German government and found expression in the two Gender Equality Reports compiled in2011 and 2017. However, KLEINDIEK summarized that the political measures and monetary incentives
in Germany so far are not far-reaching enough, especially as “companies have done too little forthis cause on their own initiative.” KLEINDIEK thus argued that state imposed measures are needed.
These thoughts clearly related to the previous day’s findings and provided an ideal transition to thefollowing panel discussion.

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Panel discussion
The goal of the final panel discussion, which was chaired by WALDENBERGER, was to shift theperspective from research to practice and offer insight into the concrete measures being pursued
by some companies. Prior to the final discussion, four company representatives from different
industries – AKIYAMA Noriko (Asahi Shinbun), Laura MELFI (OMRON Japan), TORAYAMA Kuniko (DIC
Japan) and TAKAGI Shōko (Furukawa Electric)(3) – each made short statements. All four speakers
reported on their own experiences – both positive and negative – as well as their company’s
abstract visions and concrete measures. Significant differences were found between the report by
AKIYAMA, who works as a political journalist, and those by the other speakers who were employed inlarge, international corporations. AKIYAMA joined Asahi Shinbun in the 1990s and described hercareer with the words “first female of”: She was the first female team leader, the first female
assistant political editor, the first female senior political writer, and so on. Nonetheless, she still
pointed out the persistent hurdles: Gender equality in the political world, she elaborated, is far frombeing reality, as seen in the number of women in the lower house (or the number of female toilets in
the National Diet Building). MELFI – a part-time working mother in a career track position –contrastingly elaborated on the advantages she could enjoy from various measures to promotewomen’s activity in the workplace, measures that the OMRON group undertook in line with thecompany’s mission “to improve lives and contribute to a better society” and “to promote diversity”.
Like MELFI, TORAYAMA and TAKAGI discussed improvements in terms of a “second chance” afterchildbirth, expanded career opportunities, and the reconciliation of family and work. The examples
offered here were in the areas of management training, parental leave, or teleworking systems. In
summary, the statements made slow but steady changes obvious. However, it also became clearthat the limitations can still be considered serious, depending on the sector. This was especially thecase concerning the percentage of women in managerial positions – currently less than 5 % in thecompanies presented – and the actual utilization of various systems. The speakers stated that there
is still a long way to go.
Following the four statements, TORAYAMA, WALEDENBERGER, and EGAMI Shigeki (Satō Holdings
Corporation) came together for a final discussion: Like the four previous presenters, EGAMI reported
on his personal experiences and impressions. He focused on the influence of foreign interference,
which he had experienced as fundamental and comprehensive. Achieving such a change inJapanese companies without foreign interference, he remarked, is “very very difficult” – manymeasuresandslogansaresimplywindowdressing.

However, after the discussion, the panelists concluded
optimistically with regard to a possible future change: Somecompanies can already serve as exemplary, as they areinterested in real change.
panel discussion

Closing Remarks and Summary
In his closing remarks WALDENBERGER warmly thanked all participants and emphasized the success of
the workshop and the previous symposium: Mutual (knowledge) exchange and discussion
between companies, politics, and academia as well as between Germany and Japan has provento be extremely fruitful and necessary and should be continued in the near future. Both events
clearly proved the relevance and timeliness of the topics – not only in the context of demographic
decline. In summary, two main findings can be recorded with regard to both events: 1.) the clear
3. Due to a business trip, TAKAGI couldn’t attend personally; her slides were presented by NEMOTO instead.
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interrelation of work style reform and gender equality with the first being a prerequisite for the latter,and 2.) the urgent need for politics and economics to work together to address the hard questions.
The speakers all agreed that further progress can only be made through state induced regulations
with effective sanctions for non-compliance. Although companies fight against binding regulations,work style reform and gender equality will pay off for them in the end, since “diversity is no longer
an option, but an economic imperative, and the benefits of greater diversity will be enjoyed by all”
(Kathy M ATSUI( 4); Japan Times 25./26.5.2016). To sum up: Slow changes and improvements withregard to work style reform and gender equality are visible. However, there is still an overall need toaddress these topics seriously and implement further, more comprehensive policies, not only for
women but for all individuals regardless of their nationality, race, skin color, religion, family lineage,
ethnic group, marital status, sex, sexuality, gender identity, disability, or age.

4. MATSUi, who is chief strategist at Goldman Sachs, coined the term Womenomics as early as in the year 1999.
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