Thirty-eight years old, she runs a small outsourcing firm that farms out office work via the Internet. But her real influence lies in how she has leveraged her modest success into a parallel career as a writer and speaker, a pioneer who's trying to entice legions of women to follow her onto the Web and into business. Here in Japan's ancient capital, at a recent seminar for aspiring entrepreneurs, Ms. Kasamatsu issues her battle cry to a crowd of 150, mostly women. The room lights up. Though times are changing, Japanese society still expects a woman to sacrifice career for family by dropping out of the labor market.
Companies even pay bonuses to kotobuki retirees.
But now growing numbers of Japanese women think the Internet can help them have a rewarding dual life by enabling them to re-enter or remain in the work force while raising a family. Natural Saleswoman Ms. Kasamatsu, a natural saleswoman who as a kid did TV commercials for barbecue sauce, is riding a wave of interest in the Internet among women of all ages. On the surface the market appears to be ready. NEC Corp., Japan's largest PC maker, boosted its sales of PCs to women by dropping a famous male actor as its PC pitchman in favor of a popular female celebrity. AOL Inc. Japan has nearly doubled its subscriber base in the past year, to 400,000, by targeting women.