BBC在线收听下载:日本经济强大 但文化态度仍需改善

BBC news 2014-06-20

Girl Power, Japanese style; the women here, are center stage, unlike most other parts of Japanese society. This band, Girl Abenomics, was created to celebrate Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's efforts to change Japan, including the position of women. Getting more women into the labor force has been called the key to turning around Japan's fortunes.

Few than half of the working-aged women in Japan work; it's over 60% for the United States, and the economy is at least 14% bigger as a result. For Japan, that's an awful lot of growth to be missing out on.

Noriko Ono is mom to two-year-old Yui. If Abe's plans are going to work, then they must help these too: Every chance she has, she spends with her child. But she also wants to work.

I cut out sleeping time everyday to take care of my child. And I worry; I manage to get back to work at the very last minute. But I'm thinking about my daughter at day care. I work on a reduced schedule.

For Yui, will she have the same opportunities as her playmate?

Some women do break the glass ceiling and rise to the top. I asked successful executive caffe mac Sui how she did it.

I definitely have a wife; I have my own a helper who, frankly, I could not do what I do because they troubled so much what hasn't troubles a lot. We have two children. They are now teenagers but when they were young it wasn't possible.

But, she is rare. None of the men here that I spoke to has ever had a female boss.

Psychologically, I wouldn't like it much. But if she has the power, then I would have to obey her.

Just 2.8% of all Japanese managers are women. That's up from a one mere percent. When it comes to entrepreneurs, only 4% are women, the worst among rich countries. Bringing women into the work force is a solution to a shrinking population.

One of the only two women in Abe's cabinet shares with me her personal challenges.

I came to where I jam with great difficulty. I had to break the glass ceiling. In Japan, a woman's status is low. Glass walls are all around you. When you walk in the street, there are glass stones. I want to remove the hardships, so that those after me can easily run.

One of the jobs that has been available to women for centuries is that of a geisha, who entertain men with conversation and song. Yuko Asakusa is 90 years old and has seen a lot changed during her lifetime. But, not everything.

Japanese men have not changed, she tells me. They haven't changed. Nothing has changed.

The economic case may be strong, but it is the cultural attitude that must shift. If Abenomics works then it's not just the economy that will be helped, but the lives of half of Japan's population.

Linda Yu, BBC News, Tokyo