We Are Tomodachi Autumn / Winter 2017

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11Prime Minister Abe attended a reception for the Executive Program for Women Leaders, a seminar organized by the government in cooperation with the private sector to foster strategic management, leadership, and other critical skills among female leaders. There he delivered remarks saying Japan aims to increase the number of female board members as an economic policy, not as a social policy, and that by doing so, Japan will be able to realize further growth. (January 2017)Itochu Corporation introduced a morning-focused working system in 2013. For work performed between 5:00 and 8:00 a.m., extra wages are provided at the same rate paid for late-night work. Breakfast is also provided free of charge to employees who begin work before 8:00 a.m. Since introducing the system, long overtime hours, which had been one of the factors preventing women’s active participation in the workplace, have declined considerably, while net income has increased.In 2010 Itochu Corporation instituted I-Kids, a childcare center for employees, near its Tokyo headquarters. The company responds to changes in the social environment, including increases in the number of female employees and in the number of married couples in which both spouses work.Brothers’ was ‘Lehman Brothers and Sisters,’ they might still be around” on various occasions. He has also boldly advanced policies that call on private sector employers to establish targets for increasing the number of women in administrative positions as well as policies to eliminate the wait to enter childcare facilities. Moreover, a number of government seminars to foster female executives have been held in various locations around Japan, and there are now plans to expand this seminar program further.Chino remarked, “The Lehman Brothers story is interesting because it shows in a straightforward way that when people having similar values and perspectives cluster together, once they start to move in the wrong direction, it is difficult for them to set their path right again.”“The reason diversity is important is that new ideas and new values arise when people with different experiences come together, and that improves things,” explained Chino. “Being a woman is in fact a kind of social diversity. Through its start-up visa, points-based system for highly skilled foreign professionals, and other endeavors, the Japanese government is now working to prepare an environment in which non-Japanese find it easy to work in Japan. I think the greatest benefit from these efforts lies in the fact that it will infuse a diversity of experiences into Japan. When we pigeonhole people as men or women or foreigners or elderly people, it becomes difficult to draw out the latent abilities and ideas each individual possesses. An environment in which people are all able to put forth their own various ideas in a neutral setting without regard to their attributes is what will spark innovation in society.”As the result of various efforts taken by both the government and the private sector, between 2012 and 2016 the number of women in the Japanese workforce grew by 1.5 million, and the number of female board members also doubled. For the same period, earnings by Japanese corporations soared from JPY 48.5 trillion (USD 437 billion) to JPY 75.0 trillion (USD 676 billion) (a 55% increase), while Japan’s GDP surged from JPY 495 trillion (USD 4.5 trillion) to JPY 537 trillion (USD 4.8 trillion) (a 9% increase). However, “womenomics” in Japan has only just begun. Japan will press on with its efforts to realize a society in which all women shine even more brightly.