Realization of a Gender-Equal Society
The "2005 Annual Report on the State of the Formation of a Gender-Equal Society," published in June, seeks to analyze current gender issues from a variety of perspectives.
The report outlines its view of the current state of gender equality in reference to indices published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP): "in 2000, Japan was ranked ninth out of 174 nations in the Human Development Index (HDI), which is calculated on the basis of their citizens' life expectancy, educational attainment, national income per head, and so on, while it was ranked 41st out of 70 nations in the gender empowerment index, which is calculated by making use of the proportion of females to Members of the Diet, civil servants in managerial or administrative posts as a whole, and gender wage gaps as indications of the degree of women's participation in decision making. The rankings show that, though women in Japan have developed their potentialities, society has not yet put in place enough opportunities for them to demonstrate such potentialities."
The labor force as a whole saw a decline for the second year in a row, and the proportion of females in the labor force has been hovering just above 40 percent since 1988 (the number of females in the labor force in 2000 totaled 27.53 million). In the meantime, the number of males in the labor force has decreased since 1998, dropping this year by 100,000 from the previous year to 40.14 million. The labor force participation rate ("labor force" divided by "population aged 15 and above") for females stood at 49.3 percent, and saw a drop, together with the rate for males, for the third year in a row.
A special feature of the labor force participation rate for females by ages in Japan is its pronounced M-shape curve which indicates that a majority of females tend to give up employment when they reach child-bearing age, then resume work once they are freed from the need to care for children. This trend remains unchanged even today. Additionally, a substantial majority of females are still obliged to give up their jobs even if they wish to continue working, and once they have given up their jobs, they face serious obstacles to re-employment.
Meanwhile, females are attaining higher levels of education; in 2000, female college graduates accounted for the largest proportion, 36.1 percent, of the total of newly recruited female workers, followed by high school graduates at 34 percent - the former outnumbering the latter for the first time.
The wage level for part-time female workers is 66.9 percent of the level for scheduled cash earnings of full-time female employees. The average monthly wages of part-time workers with shorter working hours stood at about 89,700 yen (in September 1999), while those who were paid "less than 100,000" yen accounted for 70.6 percent of the total. Where the salaries of salaried employees who worked throughout the year were concerned, in 1999 those paid seven million yen or more accounted for 24.4 percent among males, whereas the figure for those with the same salary level was a mere 3.0 percent among females. Those with a the salary level of three million yen or less accounted for 63.2 percent among females (15.6 percent among males); those with a salary level of two million yen or less 37.9 percent (6.2 percent among males); and those with a salary level of one million yen or less 14.5 percent (1.9 percent for males).
The report also evidences other spheres where females are making slow progress, and presents an actual picture of Japanese society, which, in many respects, is far from gender-equal. One wonders why the media seems not to have paid much attention to the report.
