On paper, 2019 was a turning point for Japanese women in terms of their place in Japanese society. After years of relative neglect, the economic policies of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe emphasized the importance of female labor participation for the future growth of the Japanese economy. The so-called "womanomics" policies of the Japanese government aimed to draw more housewives to work by providing comparatively generous grants for sending kids to and creating more open spots in kindergartens, and mandated companies to support women through formalized maternity leave policies.
The reality is often much harsher. Women, despite becoming more numerous in the workplace, have also come to see the misogynistic customs of the Japanese workplace in greater numbers. The subservience of women to their older male bosses remain prevalent as working women were often subjected to "power harassment" and outright sexual harassment in the workplace, while unwritten corporate practices often dictate how women must look, behave, and say (or not say) in the workplace, all just to ensure that the company image and presentability, dictated by their male bosses, remains on point.
So it was perhaps unsurprising that the latest Global Gender Gap ranking placed Japan at its historic low of 121, far behind other developed countries as well as most of its Asian neighbors. As expected, Japanese men criticized the result, arguing that the low rank does not take into account the peace that allows them to live in Japan much more comfortably than higher-ranked countries. Yet, Japanese women know that it is not the overall peace of the country, but often ignored "microaggressions" taken against them that make their daily lives rather uncomfortable.
In 2019, after decades of silence, many women are finally speaking out against those microaggressions. The #KuToo movement, modeled after the #MeToo movement in America, tackled a much less flagrant but still misogynistic custom in Japan. Japanese working women starting defying their companies for using peer pressure to compel them to "look presentable" at work, but only wearing high heels despite foot pains, and put on make-up according to company "standards." The movement was not just a battle against bleeding feet, but a struggle for female individuality against social norms that seek to suppress it in every way.
And those battling microaggressions against women now find themselves a powerful ally. Shiori Ito, a journalist who alleged that she was raped by a high-level bureaucrat years ago, finally found herself on the winning side in the court of law, in a civil case that saw her compensated for mental damages. The global attention she garnered across the world in the past few years through her book on the matter and media appearances despite the trauma of the incident and continued pressure from some parts of Japanese society for her "shameless" outspokenness, encouraged other Japanese women to speak out about their own negative experiences.
But the newfound outspokenness among Japanese women also illustrates just how much further the country has to go in finding true justice for women longing for greater equality. Ito's victory is Pyrrhic at best. In exchange for receiving a mere JPY 3 million (less than USD 30,000) in monetary compensation, she has largely forfeited the ability to prosecute her rapist in a criminal case, in practice allowing the bureaucrat to walk away from the possibility of jail time just by paying Ito a not-so-significant price to shut up. She has, in a way, set a precedent that allows easy, monetary resolution of high-profile rape that certainly does not offer complete closure for suffering victims.
For regular working women, victories in the #KuToo movement is not tantamount to a permanent shift in power at the workplace between men and women. Women gaining greater flexibility in terms of how they look in the workplace has not yet translated to women gaining more seats in senior management or board of directors. Where ambitious women did advance to the top in the corporate hierarchy, they are often highly trumpeted exceptions who got to where they did by foregoing or sacrificing family, marriage, children, or all of the above.
Hence, there are optimistic signs that Japanese women can finally shed some of their comparatively inferior social statuses, the battle for greater equality is far from over. The historic low ranking of Japan in the Gender Gap report shows that even if the status of Japanese women is indeed improving, it is happening much more slowly than in the vast majority of countries. For Japanese women to get further ahead, more Shiori Ito needs to emerge, with more vocal demands for more comprehensive changes. But at least in 2019, such a trend is finally starting to emerge.
The reality is often much harsher. Women, despite becoming more numerous in the workplace, have also come to see the misogynistic customs of the Japanese workplace in greater numbers. The subservience of women to their older male bosses remain prevalent as working women were often subjected to "power harassment" and outright sexual harassment in the workplace, while unwritten corporate practices often dictate how women must look, behave, and say (or not say) in the workplace, all just to ensure that the company image and presentability, dictated by their male bosses, remains on point.
So it was perhaps unsurprising that the latest Global Gender Gap ranking placed Japan at its historic low of 121, far behind other developed countries as well as most of its Asian neighbors. As expected, Japanese men criticized the result, arguing that the low rank does not take into account the peace that allows them to live in Japan much more comfortably than higher-ranked countries. Yet, Japanese women know that it is not the overall peace of the country, but often ignored "microaggressions" taken against them that make their daily lives rather uncomfortable.
In 2019, after decades of silence, many women are finally speaking out against those microaggressions. The #KuToo movement, modeled after the #MeToo movement in America, tackled a much less flagrant but still misogynistic custom in Japan. Japanese working women starting defying their companies for using peer pressure to compel them to "look presentable" at work, but only wearing high heels despite foot pains, and put on make-up according to company "standards." The movement was not just a battle against bleeding feet, but a struggle for female individuality against social norms that seek to suppress it in every way.
And those battling microaggressions against women now find themselves a powerful ally. Shiori Ito, a journalist who alleged that she was raped by a high-level bureaucrat years ago, finally found herself on the winning side in the court of law, in a civil case that saw her compensated for mental damages. The global attention she garnered across the world in the past few years through her book on the matter and media appearances despite the trauma of the incident and continued pressure from some parts of Japanese society for her "shameless" outspokenness, encouraged other Japanese women to speak out about their own negative experiences.
But the newfound outspokenness among Japanese women also illustrates just how much further the country has to go in finding true justice for women longing for greater equality. Ito's victory is Pyrrhic at best. In exchange for receiving a mere JPY 3 million (less than USD 30,000) in monetary compensation, she has largely forfeited the ability to prosecute her rapist in a criminal case, in practice allowing the bureaucrat to walk away from the possibility of jail time just by paying Ito a not-so-significant price to shut up. She has, in a way, set a precedent that allows easy, monetary resolution of high-profile rape that certainly does not offer complete closure for suffering victims.
For regular working women, victories in the #KuToo movement is not tantamount to a permanent shift in power at the workplace between men and women. Women gaining greater flexibility in terms of how they look in the workplace has not yet translated to women gaining more seats in senior management or board of directors. Where ambitious women did advance to the top in the corporate hierarchy, they are often highly trumpeted exceptions who got to where they did by foregoing or sacrificing family, marriage, children, or all of the above.
Hence, there are optimistic signs that Japanese women can finally shed some of their comparatively inferior social statuses, the battle for greater equality is far from over. The historic low ranking of Japan in the Gender Gap report shows that even if the status of Japanese women is indeed improving, it is happening much more slowly than in the vast majority of countries. For Japanese women to get further ahead, more Shiori Ito needs to emerge, with more vocal demands for more comprehensive changes. But at least in 2019, such a trend is finally starting to emerge.
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