I started my career at the Tokyo office of one of the global investment banks. Many of their female workers were mothers with children and they had different work styles, such as those who worked short hours, those who lived with their parents to have them assist with child care, those who had baby sitters, and so on. There were many role models and I was deeply impressed that women who pursued their careers did not have to give up on everything else. My husband who worked in the same office must have felt that there was no single stereotypical work-life balance. Regardless of gender, it is important to be involved with many different types of people.

One of the global companies I joined right after I graduated from university was promoting diversity and inclusion from early days. There was a company-internal community to share information on babysitters and a childcare facility for employees, for example. The company was making efforts to centralize the knowhow and to take effective measures through trial and error.

I don’t have a concrete dream or goal myself, but I would like to keep working, until I am 60 years old or even 70 years old, in whatever form or manner. Also, at HENNGE, my managers and team support me a lot but even in such a wonderful environment, I feel guilty when I have to excuse myself from work due to family reasons while they are busy. I believe all working mothers feel the same way.

My personal goal is to become and remain independent financially.
My goal for gender equality is to contribute to establish a society where women do not have to stand up and speak up in order to ensure their rights.
Gender issues, such as the pay gap between men and women and less women participating in politics, have a long history, but many women are taking actions to make changes. And I believe that this event is a wonderful opportunity for women to talk about their rights.

I don’t want to call it an obstacle, but giving birth to and raising a child was quite a challenge. Children are the most beautiful gifts in life but it was the challenge of a lifetime as well. After I took my MBA overseas, I started to work for an investment fund, and that was when I found out that I was pregnant. In my workplace, there were mostly men and there was no female role model, who was working and raising a child at the same time. Therefore, I was happy that I was pregnant but at the same time, I went into a panic. I contacted other women who were successful in their career while raising children and tried to find out how, but everybody had their own way, which were all different. Therefore, I personally decided to make full use of automation and outsourcing. So, I bought a fully automatic washing machine and contracted with a housekeeping service. Also, I had a candid discussion with my husband and we shared the housework. I asked for help from my parents-in-law as well.
From this experience, I learned the importance of openly asking for help and trying to share the burden with people around you. There is no right answer which works for everybody. So, don’t be afraid and talk with your family members and colleagues.

The pay gap between men and women is significant in Japan, we are said to be the third from the worst among the OECD member countries. And It is because of the strong stereotypes remaining in Japan, which is that men go to work and women take care of the family at home. The chart below shows the ratio of male and female non-regular employees in Japan. The ratio for men is 22.2% while for women, it is 54.4%. The gap is substantial.

Regarding how to resolve this particular issue, I found these guidelines on correcting the pay gap between men and women for your reference.
These guidelines state that “enhancing transparency on the salaries and wages”, “defining work with equal value and reviewing the definition periodically”, “no inquiry on past salary history” and “promoting flexible work style”, which companies can start working on.

Yes, no matter how helpful and understanding your colleagues are, I feel guilty towards my team when I leave work to make myself available for my family.

I have experienced both sides myself. When I first started to work, there was a senior member who had to leave the office at 6:00pm to pick up her child. At that time, working from home was never an option, so I had to take over all the work from 6:00pm until the next morning and honestly, it was tough. Therefore, when I became a mother, I wanted to make sure that my colleagues did not have to go through the same situation. The solution I found was to choose a project-based assignment for myself. That way, it was easier to make necessary arrangements, such that when I was off the project, my family was the priority and if my child got sick suddenly, I was able to take care of my child without causing too much trouble to my colleagues. And when I was working on a project, I was able to ask my other family members to take care of the family matters.
However, looking back, this is not a solution for everybody and we must communicate and coordinate with our colleagues and family members. Working mothers must not feel guilty and responsible and struggle to find a solution alone. It is better to talk it through with people around them and find a backup solution together.

I did not know much about International Women’s Day, either. In general, I think that women tend to underestimate their power. Therefore, my suggestion is to challenge that notion, since you are mostly performing better than you think. So, feel proud of yourself. If you are a manager, please give your team positive feedback to boost their confidence.

Let’s take it as a good occasion to review our own behaviors, prejudices and fixed concepts we may have on a special day like International Women’s Day. As for actual actions which we can take, for example, my team reviewed our hiring process from the diversity point of view and made sure we would meet and interview sufficiently diverse candidates to choose one person.

I am glad if today’s discussion gave you a chance to know about women’s rights and possible prejudice we may have deep inside of our minds. Thank you very much!

I believe that this kind of effort will have a positive impact on our business as well. Japan is said to be a homogeneous country but it can also mean that our views may be narrow and it is hard for new ideas and opinions to be formed. Our discussion today must have broadened our views.

HENNGE continues to provide more services to our more diverse clients and to deal with various issues. Therefore, it is important that we celebrate diversity and understand it. It was also a great opportunity to speak with HENNGE members directly. In the near future, I would like to have another similar session offline as well.

I was encouraged that there are a lot of male participants today, which means that they are interested in this kind of topic as well. I have always felt that a person who knows what it feels like to be a minority is resilient in the global environment, since the global environment is full of diversity. Therefore, in order for HENNGE to become a real global company, we must not only know about minority-related issues but all of us must try to put ourselves in their shoes. We could not cover everything during this session but we hope that it gave you some ideas on what diversity, equality, and inclusion really mean.