Women Archives - The Board Director Training Institute of Japan (BDTI)

Allow Japanese Citizens to Sponsor Foreign Domestic Workers

Prime Minister Abe’s requests to close schools nationwide, tele-work from home, and cancel sports events and public gatherings, have caused a great deal of strain on working mothers. More than ever before, now is the time when the Government of Japan (the GOJ) should be accelerating its stated policy to allow Japanese households to sponsor Foreign Domestic Workers (FDWs).

Women are being encouraged by the government to enter the labor force, with the expectation that they will become executives and join Boards of Directors. If the government expects to reach its own goal for women to constitute 10 percent all corporate directors during this year (2020), it will need to rapidly increase the range of “options” that women have for childcare and elderly care.

Glass Ceilings or Sticky Floors? An analysis of the gender wage gap across the wage distribution in Japan, by HARA Hiromi (Japan Women’s University)

Abstract

This study examines the gender wage gap across the wage distribution in Japan using large sample data for 1990, 2000, and 2014. The results of the Firpo-Fortin-Lemieux decomposition show that the part of the observed gender gap that is not explained by gender differences in human capital is larger at the top and at the bottom of the wage distribution, indicating that both a glass ceiling and a sticky floor exist for women in the Japanese labor market…….

Ernst and Young: ”Navigating disruption without gender diversity? Think again.”

”Summary: What is the link between disruption and gender diversity? Innovation. In our experience, the way to spark innovation is to harness the power of different ideas from diverse groups of people who are supported by an inclusive culture. Part of this equation is gender diversity.

Companies that want to survive these challenging times will need to tap into a range of opinions, ideas and experiences. Successful leaders must anticipate and address the sweeping changes in global demographics and advances in technology to create an environment where people and ideas flourish. And improving gender diversity, not only in senior leadership but also across the talent pipeline, can help…. ”

Brunswick Review Journal: ”The Boardroom Issue”

Brunswick Review is a Journal of Communication and Corporate Relations that features insights from global business leaders, policy makers, political critical and journalists as well as Brunswick consultants.

In this edition, the Journal features diverse topics on Directors and Boardroom issues. Among them is an Interview with Mr. Osamu Nagayama titled ‘The View from Outside’ on page 16. Mr. Nagayama is the Chairman and CEO of Chugai Pharmaceutical. He is also a member of the Enlarged Corporate Executive Committee of Rochel besides being a member of board of directors at Sony.

David A. Katz et al ”Gender Diversity on Boards: The Future Is Almost Here”

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‘A board composed of directors representing a range of perspectives leads to an environment of collaborative tension that is the essence of good governance. In a room where everyone has different points of view and there is a greater opportunity for cross-pollination of ideas, there are fewer unspoken assumptions, less “group think” and a greater likelihood of innovation. This allows the board to ask the probing questions and tackle the challenging issues, such as risk management and succession planning, which are at the center of good corporate governance.

”Korea’s Lessons for Japan”

”There’s one thing Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe could learn from a Korean woman: respect — for minority shareholders, that is. President Park Geun Hye’s push for better corporate governance at the nation’s largest conglomerates is bearing fruit, and exciting some of the world’s biggest investors.

Last week, Samsung Electronics, by far the biggest member of the country’s $1 trillion Kospi stock index, adopted a proposal to allow non-CEOs to take up the chairman’s role for the first time, while Hyundai Motor pledged to strengthen transparency. The moves drew praise from Mark Mobius, the executive chairman of Templeton Emerging Markets Group at Franklin Resources. Across the strait, only 1 percent of Japan’s Topix 500 companies have “good” board structures, Jefferies analyst Zuhair Khan said in a note Tuesday.

Bloomberg: (Benes) ”It’s Not Demand Holding Women Back From Joining Japan’s Boards”

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Sakie Fukushima
  • Women represent just 2.7% of directors of public companies
  • Some worry about ‘overboarding’ by same handful of women

”Sakie Fukushima remembers the novelty of being the only woman on Korn/Ferry International’s board of directors, which she joined in 1995. Ditto when she joined the Sony Corp., Kao Corp. and Benesse Corp. boards years later.

Research Paper by Kodama et al ” Transplanting Corporate Culture across International Borders: FDI and female employment in Japan”

 

Abstract

”This paper examines the effect of foreign ownership on gender-related employment outcomes and work practices in Japan. The data indicate that the proportion of females among workers, managers, directors, and board members is higher, and the gender wage gap is smaller, in foreign affiliates than in domestic firms of comparable size operating in the same industry. Foreign affiliates are also more likely to offer flexible working arrangements, telecommuting, and child care subsidies. These effects are mostly visible in older affiliates and are more pronounced in affiliates with a larger foreign ownership share. These patterns are in line with the view that it takes time to transplant corporate culture to an overseas affiliate and that a higher ownership stake may facilitate this process……”

Diversity Action Committee: ”Women stepping up in Singapore boardrooms”

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”Singapore’s top companies have led from the front in helping to remedy one of the blights on the local corporate scene – the under-representation of women on company boards.

A new report has found that across the 30 listed companies comprising the blue chip Straits Times Index (STI), 10.2 per cent of board seats were held by women last year, up from 7.6 per cent in 2014.

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