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Symposium commemorating the 50th Anniversary of reopening of the ILO Office in Japan
(formerly named "Tokyo Branch Office")
Work and Gender
President, Japanese Association of International Women's Rights
Former Minister of Education
I joined the Ministry of Labour slightly before the reopening of the ILO Tokyo Office in 1955. While I was in the Ministry, I was granted UN fellowship to study in the USA thanks to the ILO. The ILO in turn imposed an assignment on me to submit a monthly report. Subsequent to the final report I submitted a follow-up report after the
study, for which I received a commendation.
1. How the ILO worked on gender issues and what happened in Japan in keeping pace with the movement of the ILO
The ILO has placed importance on women workers since its foundation. At the beginning the ILO set a goal of protecting women workers because they were vulnerable. At the first ILC in 1919 six Conventions were adopted, two of which were about women workers. One is Maternity Protection Convention, (No 3. Convention concerning the Employment of Women before and after Childbirth) and the other is Night Work (Women) Convention (No.4 Convention concerning Employment of Women during the Night). After that gradual improvement has been seen in maternity protection and on the other hand the prohibition of female night work has become more flexible. This indicates that the ILO strikes good balance between the protection and equality, namely maternity protection was strengthened, and as for women workers in general equal treatment with male workers has been more emphasized than protecting them as vulnerable workers.
In 1951 the Equal Remuneration Convention (No. 100 Convention concerning Equal Remuneration for Men and Women Workers for Work of Equal Value) was adopted and Japan ratified it relatively earlier in 1967. I was working in the Women Workers Division, Women and Young Worker's Bureau then and thought it was difficult to ratify it very early, considering the situation in Japan. However, strong political will made the early ratification possible. It is regrettable to say that the wage gap between men and women did not diminish after the ratification.
In 1958 Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention (No. 111 Convention concerning Discrimination in Respect of Employment and Occupation) was adopted. This Convention precludes any discrimination in respect of employment and occupation but it remains unratified.
One of good examples of the political will in terms of gender issues was the ratification of the CEDAW (UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women) which has a wider scope to eliminate all forms of discrimination, not just the discrimination in respect of employment. The process of its ratification pushed the enactment of the EEOL (Equal Employment Opportunity Law) which had been subject to various criticisms. I will come back to this later.
Now common awareness of the ILO and the Japanese Government is the following: maternity protection is necessary, but the idea that women in general are deemed weak and should be protected is out of date. The current policies place importance on the elimination of irrational discrimination.
2. The importance of women participation in policy-making
Even nowadays women's perspectives are not fully reflected in various areas. It is necessary to increase women's participation in policy making to rectify the situation.
Mr. Juan Somavia, the Director General of the ILO, has been very active in promoting gender issues and appointed Ms. Mitsuko Horiuchi, the Director of the ILO Office in Japan as Special Advisor on Gender Issues. He set the goal for the member countries that women should account for 40 percent of the representatives at the ILC, and directly called for increasing women's voice in the ILC. But the goal was not fulfilled in the last ILC, and I see an under representation of women for the panel discussion this afternoon.
On the other hand, the ICFTU had revised its constitution, saying half of the delegates should be women and affiliated organizations made efforts to send an equally-represented delegation to the World Congress in Miyazaki last year Ms. Sharan Burrow who was elected as the ICFTU President was the first woman to hold the position. The ICFTU could be said to be more advanced than the ILO in terms of gender and women's participation.
I hope everybody would become more aware of the importance of increasing the representation of women and to reflect women's perspectives on policy decisions.
3. Enactment of the EEOL and thereafter - from protection to equality
Ms. Tamako Nakanishi, who is here with us today, is a former Senator, and had once been the Deputy Director of the ILO Tokyo Branch Office. I was quite encouraged by her presence that a woman was active in an international organization, when fewer women were working in Japan.
As I mentioned earlier, I would like to touch upon the enactment of the EEOL which was an epoch-making event in gender issues. I was engaged in the process of formulating the law as the Director General of the Women and Young Workers Bureau of the Ministry of Labour. I felt that the law-making process was a struggle against gender bias (gender meaning prejudice based on cultural and social differences of men and women). Some of the employers claimed that Japanese companies generated profit by treating men and women differently, or that gender equality did not agree with Japanese culture and tradition. The trade unions were also against the bill because they were unwilling to change their long-held campaign for and policy of protecting women workers, on account of the ratification of the CEDAW. I explained that the government would strengthen maternity protection and the ILO's view that complete ban of female night work was out-of date. I further persuaded them that the Government would not lift the ban on women's night work immediately in 1985 at the point of enactment of EEOL, but unless we set out the idea that it will be lifted in the future, we would not be able to ratify the CEDAW, nor could we promote gender equality in the workplace. I tried the best I could to fulfill my accountability, but it was difficult to persuade all the parties concerned. Even within the Government some were reluctant to ratify the CEDAW, saying that it was too early to consider its ratification since there were other conventions which should be given priorities for ratification. With all these opposition we faced with, the EEOL was passed in the Diet and the CEDAW was also ratified. This is how Japan took its first step to shift its policy on women workers from protection to equality.
It has been twenty years since then and Japan has moved toward the creation of a gender-equal society, but we have also seen some backlash. The EEOL which had once been criticized underwent a major revision and the revised law has been enforced since 1999. It is due to be revised for a second time in the near future. I hope both the ILO and the Japanese Government will make further progress in this field.