Hard times for women
JAPAN claimed that if protection for female workers was denied, women would be orced to work just as hard as mal workers. What they demanded wa "equality as a result" rather than "equal opportunity": positive conditions should be created so that women could fully exercise their right to work.
Consequently, groups began to stand up and say that they did not want an equal oppor tunity law at all. The movement reflected a basic, universal contro
1986 WITNESSED the introduction of so-called equal opportunity for women in Japan. The law that came into force on April 1 stipulates that employers can no longer recruit male workers only.
The equal employment bill was presented as part of the prepara.
tions for domestic laws to qualify Japan for ratification of the United
Nations' (UN) Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (the Convention), which Japan signed in
The real significance of the bill, however, was more than the development of women's power and feminism; the legislation reflected the total transformation of labor policy being undertaken by the
Japanese government and a concomitant new phase on the labor front.
KAJI ETSUKO
Interestingly enough, last year,
1985, when the Equal Opportunity for Men and Women in Employment Bill passed the National Diet
[parliament], the total number of
women employed as either full-time or part-time workers in Japan surpassed that of full-time housewives.
More than 15 million women working in Japan today, accounting for 36.5% of the total labor force.
no longer a labor force," whom employers "hire last and fire first." (1)
In a sense, the law was a necessary move for Japanese capitalism to deal with this newly emerged labor force.
"Career woman" has become a favorand even women business executives are not so much of a rarity today.
At the same time, the law is the outcome of government policy towards women over the last two decades.
The Labor Dispatch Law came into force as of July 1, 1986, is another measure by the ment to control women's participation in the labor market.
This series of recent legislation will inevitably affect the pillar of
Japanese capitalism: the life-long employment and seniority systems, for male largely workers who are supposed to support their families.
The legislation also reflects recent trends in administrative reform, industrial rationalization and reorgani-
International Viewpoint 9 March 1987 zation, including the privatization of parent weakening of the labor movethe process of drawing up legislation on "protection of motherhood" was one issue taken up. The provisions contained in the Labor Standards Law to protect female workers (restricovertime and dangerous work, prohibition of late night work, guarantee of maternity leave, and the Women were told they should choose "either protection or equality."
for Making Our Own Equal Employment Law (TsukuruKai), organized in 1979, demanded legislation in line with the UN Convention. The Convention made clear
"Special measures aiming at protecting motherhood shall not be regarded as discrimination," and the protection of motherhood was to be reviewed in terms of the rights of both the sexes. Many women in the labor movement also organized themselves to protest against the view that the protective provisions are tective" and contradict the concept of "equality".
In April 1983, when they learned of the government's draft outline for the bill, they realized that it would not have a beneficial eftect on women ince the "protection of motherhood" would be largely deleted. They versy over protection and equality in women's work.
Women in Japan learned that the debate has been taken up on a global scale during the UN's decade for Women and deepened and extended equality). (2) They also realized that in Japan particularly the debate was effectively a cooperative effort by government and capitalists with the intention to "divide and rule" women workers as efficiently as possible.
There has been a dramatic increase in the number of women workers in Japan over the past two decades. The total number of employed women as of 1984 was 15.18 million, or 35.6% of the total labor force, up from 7.38m, or 3.31% in 1960. This increase was more rapid after the oil crisis in 1973. The growth rate registered 3% from 1977-80 and 2.9% between 1980-84, while male employ. ed workers increased only about 1% during the same period.
It is expected that the increase in women workers will continue for some time and more women will be incorporated into the labor market. This means that the role of women workers will become more and more important in Japanese industry, the labor issue and in society as a whole.
Another signficant point is that the new women workers are largely middle-aged, married women. There has been a marked increase in housewives taking up mostly part-time work in the labor market since around 1976. Now one in three married women go out to work. They began to be mobilized during the high economic growth period as a reserve labor force, when capitalists tried to find a supplement for the young unmarried female workers, the traditional major force of working women in Japan. But the number of older
See 'Women denounce fake Equal Employment Opportunity Law" in 'International Viewpoint' No. 70, February 25, 1985.
men the United Nations Decade Women, Young's "Nairobi: Women debate their liberation", in 'IV' No. 82, September 16, 1985.
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workers
Fulltime women workers earn only 40% of their male counterparts women entering the market increased so rapidly that those working housewives became a major, rather than supplementary, work force. Women
15-24, who used to account for more than 50% up until and 41.5% in 1970, had decreased to 20.5% by 1984, while women over 35 years old now account for 60% of the total women's labor
Needless to say, older women had been playing a major role in agriculture before. But it is the first time in women have come to constitute a majority of women employees. Thus both the quantity and quality of women workers has changed rapidly over the past few years.
The decrease in the ratio of young women employed reflects the trend increasing number of women going into higher education. Women's work in Japan is characterized
"M" shaped curve. Many young, school, or higher education, or rear children, then go out again to get a job. The second curve is gradu-
Where do they work? As of 1980, the industries where the larger part of service industry - 4.02m, 30.2% of women workers; 2. manu3. wholesale and retail sales - 3.6m, 25.9%. More than 80% of working 22 women are concentrated in these three industries, reflecting the of the economy" and development of economy" centering around number of women workers in the tertiary sector, in particular, increased by 7% between 1970 and 1980, while those in the second sector (manufacturing) decreased by 6.8%. Nearly half of the employees in such industries as finance, insurance, information, real estate, saling and retailing are women. Women tend to concentrate not only in certain industries but also in certain categories of jobs. Low wages in those Job categories have often been justified because this is "women's work."
As women play a larger role in these industries, discrimination against women in employment is not necessarily eliminated. Rather, the emergence of women workers is based on discrimination, much stronger in Japan than in other industrialized countries.
Women are discriminated against at from recruitment to retirement. For example, almost half of the companies which recruit both men and women offer "different hiring conditions for each sex" including high-school, junior college and university graduates. And 63% of companies "excluded women from certain jobs."
The wage gap between women and men is actually widening. According produced in January 1983, the wage gap in the manufactur-
Japan was the widest among 14 major industrialized coun accounted for only 43.1% that of men. (In all industries except agriculture, South Korea showed the biggest wage gap between men and Women get half men's pay
The government figures show that in all industries in 1960, women were paid 42.8% the wage of men. By 1976, that percentage increased to 56.1%, but then began to fall every year, from 55% in 1979 to only 51.8% in 1984. The average monthly income of an employed woman in 1984 was around 140,000 yen [at that time, about 5,800 US dollars] including bonus, according to Labor Ministry statistics. At the same time, prices are skyrocketing to off-set any wage increase. Almost 20% of family income pays for housing loans and education in an average working family. This is one reason why housewives go out to work - to get supplementary
Secondly, the types of employment for women have become increasingly diversified and now include part-time, temporary, daily and stay-at-home employees housewives doing piecework at home. Almost half of the increase in women workers (41%) are either part-time or temporary/daily-paid workers. More
70% of the total number of part-time workers, temporary, daily and stay-at-home workers are women.
It should be noted that the title "part-time" workers does not necessarily imply working shorter hours a government survey, more 70% of "part-time" 6 to 8 hours a day, doing essentially the same work as regular employees. "part-time" designates a status of workers who are paid less and who usually have no fringe benefits, bonus or job security.
Thirdly, more than half of women workers are concentrated in mediumand small-sized companies (with less than 100 employees), which in most cases are not organized. Large companies with more than 500 employees with a higher ratio of organized workers employ predominantly male workers. It is this kind of employment contributes to the widening wage-gap between women and men. If we set the wage of male full-time workers at 100, a female 60, a female part-time worker's wage working at home about 20. Thus, it is obvious that women workers constitute the stratum in this society. from this, women are also discriminated against in social welfare, fringe benefits, allowances for housing and dependents
So the nature of women's work in Japan has entered a completely new phase in the 1980s. Up until the early the basic issue was that opportunites for women to work were quite limited and the majority of women workers were young, ried women.
employees before old or when they got married, became pregnant or gave birth, was rampant. wages had been one of the major policies of Japanese enterprises. period proceeded, the shortage of young workers became serious. number of women who received higher capitalists needed another labor force to exploit, and middle-aged housewives locally plus young, workers in developing countries proviInternational Viewpoint 9 March 1987
ded the fodder. Labor-intensive industries such as the textile, electronics, garment and other manufacturing, and food-processing industries began off-shore production to secure young women workers in other Asian coun
The 1973 oil crisis marked a turning point. As Japanese capitalism felt it necessary to rationalize and reorganize industry to maintain the economic growth and retain economic power in the region, women were a vital tool. They had always been the "control valve" of the economy. But, women were not excluded from the labor market this time, though their number in the manufacturing sector decreased by 0.5% during 1970 and 1975, in the immediate of the oil shock. This had a strong impact on the women's liberation movement and on the global trend of feminism, to be highlighted in the UN International Women's Year
Women themselves, demanding more participation in social life and economic activities strongly denounced sexual discrimination and the division of labor based on sex. Other social factors such as the spread of electric home appliances, higher education, mass culture and commercialism and automation facilitated women's participation in social life.
Japanese capitalism responded to the trend in a unique way, with policies encouraging the "efficient utilization of women's power" and the UN International Women's Year in 1975 was a golden opportunity to take advantage of.
Prior to the government's bill Chamber of Commerce presented a "View on the Labor Standards Law" to the Ministry of Labor in 1970, in which they claimed that indirect protection of motherhood, i.e. protective regulations for women in the law, were "over-protective" measures which obstructed women's participation in social activities. They demanded that application of the Labor Standards Law for part-time workers should be regulated and recommended the introduction of flexible working revision of the law so that enterprises could hire and exploit as many married women as part-time workers
Since then, "protection" for minors and women workers has taken on a something women had to forfeit if they wanted to be treated equally with men.
Arizumi Tohru Women Study Group on the Labor Standards Law, a consultative body for the
International Viewpoint 9 March 1987
Labor Ministry set up in 1969, stated, "it is needless to say that women are weaker physically than men... and inferior as workers in industrial fields where physical strength is required . . . . Women workers in general, whether they are still young or adults over 18 years old are depenlent as family members.... They are less organized than male workers. therefore it is necessary to regulate their work with protective laws." Cheap labour anc har Sta we stacles."
Where can we find a women who is willing to agree that menstruation, pregnancy, giving birth, child care -in short reproduction of the next generation - are "physical handicaps'? Why must women accept this assessment that such "obstacles" can only be offset by cheap wages for their labor?
In a report presented by the Labor Committee of the Economic Council In Working workers by
For "leisure
Later, 1975 Notably,
"The Task and in
November should be
Of the three
"Equality,
- towards the equal in
Japan paved, and top ions execuerprises, after one their deep express over the bill. They would concer form rotection as mination or stress
"a woman's place sinessmen's
Council submitted gikai)
he revision of the
Law
March,
Labor in
1982:
sexual discrimination should include both discriminafavorable treatment of tory and women, i.e. protective regulations, aside from maternity protection....
Employers will inevitably have to deal with equality between and men women in terms of hiring, posting, training and education, wages, promotion and the like. Basically, it should be noted that equality means 'equal opportunity' and if we should agree with "resultant equality' it would cause adverse effects and more difficulties...
And in July, the Tokyo Chamber of
Commerce pronounced that "Legislation with regards to equal employ.
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ment for men and women must be carried out deliberately lest it should lead to discouragement of corporate activities." The statement also stressed that "protective rules for women" should be carefully reviewed first, and that legislation should not aim for "resultant equality but equal opportunity."
When the outline of the bill drafted by members of the Women's and Youth Problems Council, top executives of major in the advisory panel to the that assumed responsibility for drafting the bill, expressed blaitself. The powerful Keidanren threw all its weight against labor's attempt with teeth," to crush the growing ment demanding a genuine equal employment law. Business leaders did not hesitate to admit that they were equal employment opportunity from
Every time a bill drafted at any sub-committee
Bunnei the chairman of Nik-
Employers' Associations) even stated conference that Japan should not have ratified the Convention. "It is only a short while ago that women in Japan began to participate in society, no need to rush into such legislation;
it is a more urgent task to reinforce family ties to prevent young people from getting violent... Before making a law, we have to evaluate how much
Japanese housewives have contributed to the industrial development in
These views run in beautiful harmony with the policy to fully utilize women's power in the labor market. Women in Japan demonstrate for their right to work (DR) 24
The basic ideology to present "inferior" to males as workers
In February, the Council submitted a final draft plan to the Labor Minister to be accepted by a Cabinet Conference.
Yamaguchi Toshio, remarked: "Among the industrialized countries, Japan is the only country that still has menstruation leave. physical strength is not as important for working as in the past. This is the era of women. Women can develop their capabilities and use their resources fully as much as they want in this society. If they demand protection to compensate for their physical handicaps as a basic right, women's capabilities will be adversely affected. .. Lest this should happen, I hope the bill will be passed in the Diet as early as possible ... Equality legislation merely a guideline
The bill was passed, surrounded by quite a number of women protesters, and thus the Equal Employment Opportunity Law and the revision of the Labor Standards Law were estab-
Now that the law has come into force, how much "equal opportunity" is to be offered to a woman looking for a good job? One of the strong lodged against the law from women is the fact that comcountries, mostly enacted during the 70s, the Japanese law is less effective, since it does not include penalties or ban discrimination at all levels
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FiZi
of employment. The law is merely guideline, urging employers to "do their best" to offer equal opportunity for both sexes. In other words, the law itself is based upon the assumption that there are still fulltime housewives. Even if the chance for employment is opened equally to both women and men, if this means a 40-hour working week the majority of women are forced to drop out.
In addition, restrictions on night work and overtime work for women have been greatly relaxed. This kind of "equal opportunity, therefore, becomes a means for indirect dis crimination. In this sense, the law might have emerged as a means to put the brakes on further changes in the rapidly crumbling system of the division of labor, and moderate and control the transformation of the labor force.
One phenomenon that has emerged in the first year of the equal opportunity law has been introduction of a so-called "ramified career system." The law prohibits employers from recruiting only male graduate students. Even so, some companies have no intention of hiring female graduates; many have changed their policy to offer two different career tracks for women: a general and an auxiliary track. If a woman is hired on the former, she is supposed to be treated equally with male workers, including job transfer, overtime work and so on. The names of the courses differ from company to company: integrated and general tracks, professional and clerical tracks and so on. Hiring based on job division is not prohibited. Many banks, securities and finance companies, and manufacturers have already adopted this kind of
personnel administration. The wage justified in these terms.
According to the Economic Planning Agency's recent report, Market in the year 2000," one out of three workers irregulars -part-time, dispatched, or temporary -by the year 2000. At present, one in six is an irregular worker.
It is easly to predict that women account for the larger part of these irregular workers. At the same time, young women will be increasing. ly employed as dispatched workers. These outside workers are, of course, the existing trade-union movement. Even today, 99.4% of dispatched workers for jobs are women, engaging in making photocopies, filing, typing, and such work as telephone operating, computer programming, systems engineering and the like. General Council of Trade Unions of
Osaka Chapter, opened a telephone counselling service in May this year in an attempt to find out the actual impact of the new legislation on the conditions of working women.
Over three for example, between May 29 and 31, the coun selling service, dubbed "Hello, Equal Opportunity Law!" received 32 calls. forced retirement, long working hours or discriminatory wages. In several cases, companies set ment age at 45 for women and 55 for men, apparently violating the Equal Opportunity Law.
In one company a woman who continues to work beyond 35 years old is forced to sign a contract saying that she will voluntarily retire within five years. One new female recruit hired by a city bank asked her boss if there was a possibility that she would be transferred, to which the boss replied, "Women have nothing to do with transferrence because they are going to quit in two or three years
Another woman with a 15-year career in a city bank was faced with choice of doing an integrated course or a general course, right after the law was enforced. Although she chose to take the integrated course, the road to some form of career, the management turned her down
"Women cannot work as hard as men. And male employees would be discouraged if they had to compete with women." She was compelled to take the secondary course. have been promoted if there were no such law at all," she remarked.
As for working hours, has meant that: 1. overtime is extended to 3 hours for both women and men (before it was one hour for
International Viewpoint 9 March 1987 women); 2. company, working hours have 8-5.30 and the special leave clause in the company regulations has been deleted; 3. one accountant was forced to quit her job when she was asked to do two or three hours overtime everyday; 4. one bank employee that she worked after eight o'clock every day but overtime allowance was only paid for two days Wage discrimination
Wage discrimination still exists in different forms. Some women said that even though they work from 9 to 5 as full-time workers, they are paid hourly, 750 yen [4.90 US dollars] per hour and are not treated as regular workers. For one assistant nurse working night shift at a national her employment contract is renewed every year, and payment is hourly without retirement allowance and bonus. She might not get a wage rise for years.
Trade unions are only open to regular workers. stop wage rises for female employees once they reach a certain age, 30 or 50 years old. Even among skilled workers, who do exactly the same as male workers, only the women are paid daily and have no paid leave. At a big supermarket chain, male workers always come first when it comes to bonuses or being promoted, on the grounds that "they have to support a family."
These reports indicate two things: 1. even the existing Labour Standards Law and other regulations on the labor-management relationship are frequently violated; at the same time trade unions are not responsive to women workers in insecure positions; 2. the enforcement of the "Equal Opportunity Law" is far from enhancing the conditions for women to work. It is even a backward step in that the law could reinforce discrimination against women with no job security.
Until women's right to work is established as a basic human right, either direct or indirect discrimination against women will remain, and job segregation will deepen as capitalism in the '80s pursues a more rationalized system of employment for both women and men. Labor management and the promotion of women are popular issues debated in economic journals. hand, organized women workers remain at less than 20%.
Today, organizing part-time, dispatched and other temporary workers is the most urgent task facing the labor movement. And yet, the leadership in the existing trade unions does not regard women workers as co-workers, or recognize them as the key to the revival of the labor movement.
Recently, a group of Japanese women workers visited the Philippines in an exchange program with women workers there. They were greatly encouraged by KMK, a women's trade-union center. Although there is already a strong, militant and nationalist trade union, the KMU [May 1 Movement] in the Philippines, women felt they needed their own union which could deal with the labor issues from a woman's perspective.
It may be true in Japan, as present labor leaders are so slow to learn when it comes There are many women here who have fully realized the importance of organizing women workers. Some work has already started, as we see in the recent struggles of part-time workers in different parts of the country. The number of part-time workers' unions is gradually increasing.
Regrettably, Japanese women failed to block the "Equal Opportunity Law." We are now faced with a deepening of the divisions between women and men, and among women themselves, in the name of "securing labor-management relations," ese-style. Moreover, we are faced with rapid micro-electronization, the introduction of office automation as well as insecure employment in various forms, and denials of the right to organize and establish solidarity as workers. Segregation by Japanese capitalism on an international level is also an integral part of this pattern.
The whole picture is clear enough. The majority exploited, divided and discriminated against, either in Japan or in other countries where Japanese monopoly capital is being consolidated. Meanwhile, a small number of elite women are thrown into the most severe competition along with their fellow male workers.
The first year of equal opportunity must be transformed into a year for the launching of a new women workers' movement that can build up solidarity with women workers in other countries. If working women in Japan identify themselves with Third World peoples within and outside of Japan, they could make a but ration - not towards equality, but liberation.
[This article was first published in the Japanese review, Ampo, Vol. 18, Nos 2-3, 1986]
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