In 2013, standing before the UN General Assembly, Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo declared his intention to create a "Japan in which women can shine." The government program, which came to be known as "womenomics," was a central part of "Abenomics," the Prime Minister's plan to revitalize the Japanese economy after several decades of stagnation. Womenomics was one of the key programs to deal with a confluence of problems: a rapidly ageing society, a decline in the working age (15-64) population as the "baby boom" cohort retired, and declining marriage and fertility rates. Decline in the working population was placing increasing pressure on social welfare schemes, as smaller numbers of workers had to support a growing number of retirees.
Womenomics aimed to increase female participation in the labor force. The policies which included generous time off for maternity and childcare, an increase in subsidized child care capacity and paid parental leave for both mothers and fathers, made it possible for women to return to the work force after giving birth and led to a steady increase in the female labor participation rate which was just 66.5% in 2000, but had risen steadily, reaching 78.9% in 2018, a rate that was higher than that of the United States.
The hard-won gains of the Womenomics policies have been called into question with the advent of the COVID epidemic. In Japan, as in the United States, schools were temporarily closed causing a crisis for families with young children. Women, who had become accustomed to busy lives in which they somehow "balanced" work with family and childcare obligations, found themselves facing a more difficult struggle to meet both family and work obligations simultaneously. In both countries, essential workers in many sectors of the economy were forced to make choices, with implications for their health, their families' economic stability, and the functioning of local and national economies.
The COVID crisis lifted a veil, revealing the fragile base supporting the gains in gender equality in both countries, leaving women to wonder if the gains they had made in the hard-fought struggles for gender equality were all going to disappear. The 2020 Abe Fellows Global Forum will review the gains made in the struggle for gender equality over the last decade, and consider the challenges facing both Japan and the United States and the differential impact of the pandemic as a result of differences in education, marital status, occupation, and race. The speakers will address these issues, considering what needs to be done to ensure progress toward greater gender equality—a gender equality based on a work-life balance that allows both women and men to share the pleasures and burdens of a life that truly balances work and private life. The speakers will also share ideas of what Japan and the United States can learn from each other.
This event is free with registration. Click the button below to register:
This event is organized by Social Science Research Council and the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership, in partnership with 21st Century Japan Politics and Society Initiative at Indiana University and New America's Better Life Lab.
About the Speakers:
Machiko Osawa, Professor, Economics, Japan Women's University
Machiko Osawa is a professor of economics at Japan Women’s University, and is also the director of the Research Institute for Women and Careers. She received her MA in economics from Eastern Illinois University (1977) and PhD in economics, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (1984). She was a researcher at the Center for Social Sciences, Columbia University (1980-84), a Hewlett Fellow at the University of Chicago (1984-86), a senior researcher, at the Japan Institute of Labor (1987-90), and associate professor of economics at Asia University (1990-96). She served on advisory boards for the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology; Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labor; Prime Minister’s Gender Equality Bureau; and Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry. Osawa is author of various books, most recently When Housewives Return to the Labor Market-Towards Second Chance Society (NTT Shuppan, 2012); What’s Holding Back Japanese Women? (Tokyo Keizai Shinposya, 2015); Women and Work in the 21st Century, (Sayusya, 2018); and Why There Are So Few Women Managers in the Japanese Workplace (Seikyusya, 2019).
Brigid F Schulte, Director, The Better Life Lab - Work-Life, Gender Equality and Social Policy Program, New America Foundation
Brigid Schulte is a journalist, public speaker, think tank program director and author of the New York Times bestselling book on time pressure, gender and modern life, Overwhelmed: Work, Love & Play when No One has the Time, which was named one of the notable books of the year by the Washington Post and NPR, and won the Virginia Library Association’s literary nonfiction award. She was an award-winning journalist for The Washington Post and The Washington Post Magazine for nearly17 years and was part of the team that won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. She now serves as the director of the Better Life Lab, the work-family justice program at New America, a nonpartisan think tank, which uses data-driven storytelling, policy research and practical tools to move public policy, workplace practice and culture to support families, gender equity, better work, better care, and better life. She hosts the popular Slate Better Life Lab podcast. She has spoken all over the world about the causes and consequences of our unsustainable, always-on overwork culture, and how to make time for The Good Life by redesigning how we work, by re-imagining gender roles for a fairer division of labor and opportunity at work and home, by rewiring public policy, and, instead of seeking status in busyness, by recapturing the value of leisure.
Setsuya Fukuda , Senior Researcher, Department of Research Planning and Coordination, National Institute of Population and Social Security Research
Setsuya Fukuda is a social demographer working at the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research where he conducts demographic research on the inter-relationships between gender, family formation, and family policy. He received his BA, MA, and PhD. in economics from Meiji University. After graduate study, he worked as a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany (2008-2011). From 2011-13, he worked in the government as an expert in the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare, analyzing government statistics. In 2014-15, he received an Abe Fellowship, and conducted a US-Japan comparative study on educational differentials in marriage at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His current research focuses on gender role division, assortative mating, fertility, and inter-generational transfers in international comparative settings, looking in particular at how Japan’s gender structure and generational economy are going to change in relation to population decline and new family policies.
Image and biographies provided by CGP