Japan Press Weekly

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2021 February 10 - 16 [LABOR]

Unions call for expansion of women participation in decision-making process in media industry

Women’s rights activists, including female officers of media-related labor unions, on February 9 held a press conference in the Labor Ministry office building, demanding that media industry associations and their member companies take the lead in efforts to increase the share of women in executive positions.

Those attending the press conference included vice president of the women’s caucus of the Japan Federation of Commercial Broadcast Workers’ Unions (Minpo-roren) Kishida Hanako, Japan Federation of Newspaper Workers’ Unions (Shimbun Roren) Chair Yoshinaga Mami, Japan Federation of Publishing Workers' Unions (Shuppan Roren) Chair Sakai Kaori, and initiator of the Women in Media Network Japan (WiMN) Matsumoto Chie.

In this media event, they criticized Tokyo 2020 president Mori’s remarks denying the need to lift the glass ceiling as being detrimental to unions’ efforts to increase women leaders in the media industry.

Kishida noted that while the number of female workers working on the broadcasting front line has increased, male dominance in decision-making process continues in the media industry. Stating that media messages have the risk of bringing about a negative impact on society, including giving an unconscious bias, the Minpo-roren officer said, “Media companies and media-related business associations should appoint more women to executive positions.”

Regarding the share of women executives in the media industry, there are no women in the 45-member board of the Japan Commercial Broadcasters Associations (JBA) and the 53-member of the Japan Newspaper Publishers & Editors Association/Nihon Shinbun Kyokai (NSK). Two women sit on the 40-member Japan Book Publishers Association (BPA) board and one woman on the 21-member board of the Japan Magazine Publishers Association (JMPA). Among member companies, 8-15% of women workers are in managerial positions and only 3% in executive positions.

The Shimbun Roren chair said, “In our federation, an increase in female union leaders has led to positive effects and activation of union movements,” stressing the significance of achieving gender equality.

Past related article:
> Tokyo Games' head Mori looks down on women [February 6, 2021]