According to Mariko Fujiwara, research director of the Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living, Inc., men are keeping their jobs and most new recruits hired tend to be men. In addition, Fujiwara adds that the unemployment rate suffers minimally because women often do not register as unemployed. Women over the age of fifty are laid off because the promise of lifetime employment never existed for them. While figures vary among different industries, the average Japanese woman in 1997 earned only 63 percent of the average man's salary, according to statistics furnished by Japan's Ministry of Labor. Seniority-based pay and lifetime employment favor men, as do the educational system and societal expectations.
Women continue to prepare for domestic or part-time employment.
While women have been slow to enter the workplace, their desire is increasing. The lifestyle of the kaisha remains important in Japanese culture and continues to be viable for the salaryman's world. As Japan enters the twenty-first century, the kaisha lifestyle is being questioned by the women who are gradually entering the corporate work structure. The long hours are unacceptable to many women, who place different values on friends and happiness. Two middle-aged salarymen were asked what gives them joy and fulfillment.