BY MIZUHO AOKI
A government advisory panel on gender equality
called on the nation Tuesday to change the male-oriented work culture based on
the outdated family model in which men work long hours while women take care of
the home.
In an 82-page report submitted to Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe, the panel said Japan’s notoriously long working hours and frequent
job relocations that took root during the postwar boom need to be fundamentally
reviewed.
The outdated corporate culture has made it
difficult for women to fully execute their abilities, or for men to participate
in homemaking and child rearing, the report says.
Recommended measures include placing caps on
overtime hours and creating a work environment to encourage employees to take
all their paid holidays. The report calls on the government to consider setting
numerical targets with deadlines to reduce overtime.
Based on the proposals, the government will draw
up by the end of this year its fourth basic plan to achieve gender equality
with numerical targets. The basic plan is reviewed every five years, and the
next raft of changes will take effect in April.
The report urges the government to accelerate
measures to achieve its target of increasing women in managerial positions to
30 percent by 2020.
It calls on companies and government offices to
increase their efforts to place more female candidates in executive positions.
Regarding the Civil Code dating back to the
Meiji Era (1868-1912), which bans women from remarrying for six months after they
divorce, forces married couples to choose a single surname and sets different
legal marriage ages for women and men, the report says the system should be
reviewed based on “judicial decisions,” apparently referring to an upcoming
Supreme Court decision on the matter.
The Supreme Court is scheduled to rule Dec. 16
on two cases questioning the constitutionality of Civil Code articles that
prohibit only women from remarrying for six months and forces married couples
to choose a single surname. It will be the first time for the top court to rule
on the issue.
The century-old Civil Code provisions on
families have been criticized as out of date and discriminatory against women.
The report calls for beefing up measures to
eradicate sexual harassment as well as maternity harassment — a term used for
discrimination in workplace against women who are pregnant, on child-care leave
or who have returned to work after giving birth.
It recommends measures such as disclosing
company names or imposing penalties when corporations fail to prevent maternity
harassment.
According to labor ministry data, women
accounted for 43 percent of all employees in 2013. The percentage of females in
management positions, however, stood at around 10 percent, while more than 50
percent of working women were nonregular employees.
The government is also falling short when it
comes to women in leading positions.
Taro Kono, minister in charge of the public
servant system, revealed Tuesday that as of July 1, the ratio of women in
managerial position at ministries and government offices marked a record high
3.5 percent, or 330 people, up 0.2 point from September last year.
However, the government failed to meet its goal
of 5 percent by the end of this year.
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