公益財団法人

全国商業高等学校協会主催・文部科学省後援

第53回

ビジネス文書実務検定試験

速 度 部 門（27. 2. 7）

英 語 問 題（制限時間 1 0 分）

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公益財団法人

全国商業高等学校協会主催・文部科学省後援

第53回

ビジネス文書実務検定試験【速度部門 英語問題】（27. 2. 7）

Shinzo Abe may be a political hawk who believes Japan can once

63

again become a macho state that can hold its own against regional129

threats.

196

But as he looks for money and muscle he is turning to an221

unlikely source, women.
Abe appears to have overturned classic thinking with his radical

286

push to increase the hiring and promotion of women to enforce

348

Japanese economy.

419

The move has surprised some experts in the field ofgender equality and work-life balance, who are having strong doubts

487

while welcoming it.

508

Using a pet catchphrase "a nation where all women can shine," new574

administration has made female empowerment a pillar in his growth640

strategy, the third arrow of his Abenomics program.

The first two

707

arrows were fiscal spending and radical monetary easing, which are774

indeed making progress.

799

At the end of the month, the government will announce a policy

862

package aiming at getting more women into the rapidly shrinking

926

working population, including measures which help them continue to work

998

after childbirth.

1066

A survey shows that 60 percent of women in Japan

leave the workforce after giving birth due to the difficulty of

1130

balancing work and family.

1158

Experts have long cited a mixture of factors, ranging from Japanese1226

companies' long-standing culture of extended working hours and their1295

still pervasive "men at work, women at home" mentality, to the shortage1367

of safe and affordable day care for preschool and school-age children.

1439

As a result, about 3.15 million women in Japan remain unemployed,

1505

despite a desire to work, according to 2013 figures from the internal

1575

affairs ministry.

1594

To relieve the day care shortage, in particular, the government has
pledged to create 200,000 new spots for children by March 2015 and1

1662
1729

公益財団法人

全国商業高等学校協会主催・文部科学省後援

第53回

ビジネス文書実務検定試験【速度部門 英語問題】（27. 2. 7）

1758

200,000 more by March 2018.
There is an expression, the first-grade wall, that refers to a lackof places where first-grade students can spend time after school.
is a major reason why mothers give up their careers.

1826
1896

It

1964

To solve thisproblem, the government plans to create after-school programs for

2030

300,000 children by March 2020.

2063

Meanwhile, Abe has requested that all listed companies appoint at

2129

least one female board director in an effort to have women comprise 30

2200

percent of all leadership positions in every business field by 2020.

He

2273

also proposed bringing in greater numbers of foreign maids to help free

2345

women who want to work, and is mulling ways to reward women-friendly

2414

companies with government procurement contracts.

Abe might even decide2486

to scrap the nation's decades-old spousal tax breaks, which experts say

2558

discourage many wives from working full time.

2605

Some people criticize that new policies are far from enough,2666

because they fail to address the fundamental question of why there are2737

so few women in the workplace.

2769

Loopholes in the 1986 Equal Employment Opportunities Law, which2833

bans discrimination against women in the workplace, have pushed many

2902

women to opt for second-tier careers, by making it legal for companies

2973

to set up two-track career systems.

3040

One is the elite track called"sogoshoku," and the other is the clerical, support-type jobs

3102

called "ippannshoku."

3125

While these categories in theory are not gender-specific, in

3186

reality only 11.6 percent of new sogoshoku hires in 2011 were women,

3255

meaning that many women's career prospects are limited from the outset,

3327

a labor ministry survey of 129 companies said.

3375

In addition, new package could do little to change the behavior of

3442

small and midsize companies, which employ the bulk of Japan's workforce,

3515

2

公益財団法人

全国商業高等学校協会主催・文部科学省後援

第53回

ビジネス文書実務検定試験【速度部門 英語問題】（27. 2. 7）

said Yukari Horie, managing director of Arrow Arrow, a nonprofit

3580

organization that offers work-life balance consulting both to employers

3652

and employees.

The family-friendly policies of smaller companies pale3723

in comparison to larger firms, and many workers find it unrealistic in

3794

practice to take full advantage of any maternity or child care leave

3863

offered, she said.

3883

Is there any hope?

Horie said, of all the policies being considered3952

by Abe, tax reform, especially the proposal to terminate tax breaks for

4024

main income earners' spouses who make less than ¥1.03 million a year,4094

could be most promising.

4167

Many women, especially those in their late 30s

to 40s, voluntarily turn their backs on their careers without thinking

4238

hard about their and their families' financial future.

4294

She said, "Many women have not thought deep and hard about the4357

possibility of their working husbands falling ill, or the prospect of4427

their children getting into expensive schools.

4501

They have often chosen to
And they are4573

staying so because they have this unfounded fear about losing their tax

4645

benefits.

4714

become tax-free dependents just because many others have.

I hope the tax reform will give them a chance to think of4746

other options for themselves."
Osawa of Japan Women's University, however, urged the government to4814

come up with measures that help low-income households instead of just4884

scrapping spousal tax breaks.

Because reducing tax benefits alone could

4957

further widen the gap between rich and poor, sharpening a divide between

5030

elite career women and the rest, and end up leaving the majority in

5098

limbo with no skills and low pay.

5131

※

出典 「The Japan Times」 発行

Sunday, June 15, 2014より

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