G.S.W. 20170512
16:15-17:30 Break out Session II
Mere AikoOkawara, Chairman, JC Comsa Corp.
Good Afternoon.
Irene, you have done an astounding job. This is the largest andmost fantasticgathering of women leaders in Japan bar none.
You are indeed a pioneer in all areas of women in leadership.
20 years ago when you came to Japan to do a survey on women directors and also to raise awarenessof their scarcity we all gathered together for a meeting. And we fit into a small conference room.
So where are we today? 3.1% of corporate directors of publicly listed companies are women and since that adds up to much more than 1000 women we certainly cannot fit into that small conference room any more.
Nevertheless Japan has been moving at snail's pace and 3% ranks usnear the bottom of the list for women's representation in board rooms.
Why?
Japanese boards were and are for the most part composed of insiders, a board seat was the reward for working long hours and long years at the company.
And this excluded women who up till now are not in the corporate pipe line because of several reasons.
1. Japanese social norms are partially to blame. Many women as well as men believe that theWoman's place is at home. Therefore women leave the work force in droves when theyhave their first child many never to return. And, if they do return to work it is mainly aspart timers or temporary workers.
2. Because this is the general mentality, women belong at home and men are the breadwinners, not many men are willing to help out with the housework and children. Men spendonly about 1.5 hours on these chores compared to working women who spend 3.3 hours.
3. Corporate culture is also to blame. You have all heard of the notoriously long working hourswhich makes it impossible for women to achieve a work life balance.
4. And the chronic lack of nursery schools adds to the problems.
Yesterday you all heard the Prime Minister speak about his vision for a society where women can shine. This is an important message that he is sending to the heads of corporate Japan and to the nation as a whole. It is raising awareness of women's participation as an economic solution to our graying and shrinking society.
And when the Prime Minister of a nation starts to twist some arms, even the fuddyduddyconservative old men pay attention. For example the male bastion of conservatism, the Keidanren has requested their members to be more transparent in disclosing the number of women on their boards whereas before they refused to disclose them for fear of being pressured.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange now requires listed companies to disclose the number of women board members in their corporate governance reports. As well as their targets for women executives in the company and how they plan to achieve their goals. The Tokyo Stock Exchange jointly with the Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry has drawn up a list of companies that have been aggressively promoting women and named it the Nadeshiko List.Nadeshio is a delicate flower with a strong stem that sways in the wind without breaking and it personifies the Japanese woman.
So the hunt is on to fill those board seats. And since there are very few women in the internal pipelines, companies have to look for outside board members. And since the Japanese companies discourage their executives from also sitting on other company boards companies have turned to women lawyers, accountants, academics and other professionals.All very successful but unfortunately with very little managerial experience.
WCD Japan which I co chair has as a mission to inspire visionary boards by providing educational sessions and tools that keep members engaged and knowledgeable on the latest in governance and other board hot topics.
15% of our members are not directors but are shikkoyakuin, women whom we are mentoring as future board members. Japanese boards were enormous and unwieldy, some 40 to 50 people.
In the 1990s when Sony decided to reduce their board members from 38 to 10 they didn't know what to do with the 28 who had to be cut so in typical Japanese style so as not to have any lose face they decided to call them shikkoyakuin or corporate executives and they handled the operating functions and the other directors the oversight function.
This peculiarly Japanese system was then copied by most of the large listed organizations today.
So many CEOs still fall back upon the old complaint that there are not enough capable women to fill board seats.
Well they are not always looking in the right place. The easy pickings are those who are well known with high profiles.
There are 3.8 million registered companies in Japan and 99.7% of them are SMEs. Something like a quarter of the executives in these companies are women.
Out of this, 557,000 are considered medium sized enterprises. The women in these companies who are owners, part of the founding family or hired executives have the management skills to run a company.They are not well known butthey have specialized areas of expertise. And they don't have the same restrictions as publicly listed corporations on executives working as directors for other companies. So lets look for these diamonds in the rough and polish them to make them shine.
I have much hope for the future of Japan. The framework has been set by the government and promoted by the Prime Minister himself. And now the younger generation of menis willing to take it to the next step. For more than anything else it is the mind set of men that has to be changed.
I had the opportunity to meet with Governor Eikei Suzuki of Mie Prefecture a couple of days ago.. He is in his early forties and he proudly told us that he took paternity leaves for both his children. Acting as a role model for other men in his prefecture, he has increased the average of male paternity leave takers to 6.3% or almost three times the national average. OK, no big deal by European standards but it is a start and one of the consequences is that Mie also has a fertility rate of 1.49 compared to the national average of 1.42 and in Japan's critical demographic situation, every bit counts.
So yes, I have hope for the future of Japan.
Thank you
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