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Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

Legal and social support is required to ensure equal job opportunities
Akahata editorial (excerpts)

Japan's Equal Employment Opportunity Law is 20 years old, and the Health, Labor, and Welfare Ministry Labor Policy Council's panel on job equality has compiled a report calling for securing equality in practice by law.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Law was enacted in 1985 and revised in 1997 to include bans on discrimination against women in key aspects such as recruitment, hiring, and promotion in addition to the existing bans on discrimination in retirement conditions and retirement age. However, the report points out that improvement of equal treatment is so slow that faster improvement is called for internationally, and plans to call for necessary laws to be established or for the existing laws to be revised.

Inequality is widening

The average wage for women was 67.6 percent of that for men in 2004, showing a snail's pace of progress from the 59.6 percent in 1985. What is more, the figure does not include women part-time workers who are paid only 65.7 percent of full-time women workers. In Japan, 39.9 percent of women workers have low-paying part-time jobs. The percentage is almost twice that of 1985 at 22 percent.

It should be noted that the report refers to the international criticism of the slow progress. The views and recommendations of international organizations were presented to the panel concerning progress in the implementation of the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and other international treaties that Japan ratified.

In its final conclusion on economic, social, and cultural rights, the committee has expressed concern over continuing employment practices by which de facto inequality in wages for the same work exists against women in Japan and virtually no opportunities exist for women to be promoted to expert jobs at many corporations.

Revision of the existing laws or establishment of new ones are called for to deal with "practical inequality" and "unfair hiring practices."

For example, a higher percentage of women workers in their child-bearing and child-rearing ages in Japan have to quit their jobs compared to those in Europe and the United States. This is mostly because in Japan, such workers are affected by various disadvantageous policies. Pregnant women or women workers with babies are urged to quit or change to part-time positions, or are transferred to other jobs without their consent, mostly with lower wages.

The Japanese Communist Party Program states: "Discrimination against women persists in various sectors of society that contravenes the international convention and is under international criticism." The JCP pledges to "defend and guarantee equality of rights between men and women in all fields." -- Akahata, July 28, 2005