JAPAN & THE WOMEN’S REVOLUTION

By Mel Copen October 7, 1999

© Mel Copen, October, 1999

I just returned from a business trip to Tokyo. Some things haven’t changed much. It’s refreshing to see that there are still cities in the world where people can bicycle to work, leave their bikes on the street, unlocked and unchained, and still find them waiting there at the end of the day. The trains still run on time; new, spectacular glass and steel office architectural masterpieces continue to alter the skyline; and gas station attendants still stop traffic to let cars out on the street, after pumping gas and cleaning both the windows and the floor mats.

But under this veneer, many things are very different – and not only due to the impact of the economic recession, although indirectly it provides a significant element. Japan has now been in recession for 9 years, and although there is some optimism that it is about to turn, 50% of the people I spoke with are equally pessimistic. The male establishment is focused on what is happening to the domestic economy and to export sales. Japanese companies have been forced to cut back, and the myth of lifetime employment has now been exposed. Many men have been forced to take early retirement, and others have been laid off, and big expense accounts and lavish entertainment are becoming relics of the past. The watchwords now are “restructuring”, “globalization”, and “strategic alliances”. There has been a total about-face, as Japanese firms now struggle to “westernize” their management practices and unlike the past, when they were acquiring companies around the world, many are now becoming the “acquiree.”

But beneath this all, there is another change taking place, one that is only just beginning to be noticed by the dominant male establishment. It is the revolution that is being driven by Japanese women, and the subtle changes that are accumulating. The process is not unlike that of a gentle rain shower, which may be overlooked, except when one goes to the seashore and sees the ocean that each of those tiny drops helps create.

With younger women, teenagers through the early 20’s, the change is dramatic and visual. Walk around Tokyo and you will see the “uniform of the day.” It’s quite different from that of teenagers of a generation or two ago. Six to eight inch platform shoes seem to predominate. Red hair is “in.” Tattoos and body piercing are also part of the scene. And tiny cellular phones are so prevalent, they look like permanent ear-pieces. A very few fashion magazines set the stage, and substantial amounts of disposable income fuel the transformation.

But the most significant change is less apparent, and is being driven by their older sisters, mothers, and even grandmothers. The traditional role of the Japanese woman was to manage the home, bear a son and make sure that son got the best education possible. The Japanese father devoted most of his time to his company, contributed the family name and the income to provide for the family’s needs.

But today’s women want a career, despite a “glass ceiling” which, by comparable US conditions would seem to be made out of granite. As an example, the Japanese Labor Ministry reports that women comprise less than 12% of management positions in Japan (vs.46% in the US) and almost all of these are at the very lowest levels. Whereas women have begun to break into top levels in the United States, Japan’s top corporate offices are a feminine wasteland. As a result, more women are pursuing entrepreneurial activity, many seek work in foreign companies, which provide greater upward mobility, and discontent with traditional patterns has been growing.

This has resulted in major shifts. Women are marrying later, if they marry at all. The birthrate has plummeted. Whereas women in the US bear an average of 2.1 children, the figure in Japan is of 1.5 is far below the numbers needed for replacement. With relatively closed borders to immigration, Japan’s population will soon start to decline, at the same time that it is aging. In another 50 years, the population will have shrunk to 80% of the current numbers, in only 10 years, the proportion of citizens over 65 will exceed 20% (vs. 15% in the US). This means that fewer productive workers will have to support a larger aging population. And women who marry and raise children are not content with homemaking and child rearing as their sole focus. They are putting pressure on the men to spend more time at home and less with the company. And many are combining careers and family, by working at home on the internet, or using day-care centers. For growing numbers, divorce, once unknown, is the solution, including the “Narita Divorce” which refers to situations where, upon returning to Narita Airport from her honeymoon, the young bride decides she has had enough.

Buying habits are changing. Convenience stores abound and “convenience” is replacing “brand loyalty.” Discount and mail-order houses, insignificant a few years ago, are claiming substantial and rapidly increasing portions of the Japanese consumer economy – as “lower prices” are replacing “service.” The career-oriented woman is driving all of this.

But the big surprise, at least for me, comes from a change in the older generations – the mothers and grandmothers. While the husbands were with their companies, the women developed their own lives. Often the focus has been shopping trips and lunch with other women friends; art and flower arranging classes; more recently travel. The husband was absentee, commuting and working long hours, 6 days a week, with Sundays often taken up by golf. Now, with the layoffs and retirements, guess what??? Add to the fact that many of these men have had little in their lives besides their companies – few hobbies or other outside interests. Now they are home. The old saying “for better or for worse, but not for lunch” is compounded many fold, as the Japanese male expects to be catered to and the center of attention.

But the women are not about to give up their freedom, and again, divorce is becoming more prevalent in a generation to which the concept was formerly unthinkable. I heard reference to two terms, which are sometimes applied to these retirees who are home to stay. One translates into “wet leaves” – they stick around and are hard to get rid of.” The other describes “something you would like to throw away, but is too big to go into the trash barrel and remains around the house until you can decide what to do with it.”

The Japanese woman has always had a strong role inside the home. She managed the family funds and provided the family structure. Now she is starting to affect the male dominated society in ways that most Japanese men do not yet understand. Her impact will become more apparent, both socially and economically, as the years go by. I doubt that many senior executives currently feel threatened (although many are trying to identify the “strange” forces that are altering their once-stable business patterns). Japan has an enormous untapped resource here. If the nation is going to resume its role as an incredible force in this world, among other changes, it will have to find a way to both satisfy the needs of half its population and to incorporate its women into the fabric of everything that is going on.

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