1/3 young Japanese women to be home

One in three young Japanese women wants to get married and be a full-time housewife, a government survey has shoed, despite growing calls for increased female participation in the workforce. (read more on japantoday.com) According to the study on husbands, only 1/5 husbands indicated that they want their wives to stay home all day. Why are so many young Japanese women prefer to be full-time housewives? The recent data shows that more women graduated from universities than men in Japan. It shows that women are motivated to learn and advance their knowledge and career. Some scholars are claiming that these intelligent stay at home moms might be the answer for the Japanese stagnant economy. If more women return to the Japanese workforce, these scholars and even Japanese PM Abe believe that this can improve Japanese economy.

Even though the Japanese government is trying to improve the overall work environment for Japanese women, Japanese women’s answers are reluctant..because most of them know that it is not feasible to raise a child while for Japanese corporations..minimum of 60 hours a week. You can probably handle both jobs if you have a low level position as such customer service, front desk, 8-5 type of job, but if women want career advancement on a managerial track in Japanese companies, she is going to need to compromise the time she will be able to spend with her children, and these “career” women have to even ask themselves “Is it even worth it?” It imposes the fundamental challenges of Harsh Japanese work environment. It has raised a growing concern about the gender inequality on Japan. My friends all “retired” from their work after they got married. They were either pushed out by their companies or realized that it wasn’t feasible to continue 8-12am schedule everyday when you have a 8 month old baby!

Experts, including international Monetary Fund director Christine Legarde, have said that an increase in the participation of women in the workforce can rescue Japan’s economy. Abe is targeting that the percentage of female senior government officials will be around 30% by 2030. Well, good luck with that and it better happen..if not, Japan will definitely suffer due to the lack of labors once the baby boomers all retire in about 10 years.