Catherwood LibraryILR School

Although Japan’s plan to get more women into its shrinking labor force – “womenomics” - has suffered a setback by scaling back from its original lofty goal (filling 30% of executive positions with women by 2020), at least one company, Calbee, is likely to meet the goal due to strong commitment from its leadership. Calbee chairman Akira Matsumoto, who has more than tripled the number of female managers since he took his post in 2009, feels that larger companies such as Toyota and Nissan need to provide strong leadership in order to convince the rest of corporate Japan to follow suit. Obstacles towards the plan remain an ingrained comfort level with male leadership, as well as a lack of childcare centers. Over 72,000 children remain on waitlists to be accepted into childcare centers; the low number of childcare centers is due to the very low pay provided to nursery teachers.