Conference tnpubs::tnpubs_vod

9.0. "Japan's Untapped Resource" by TNPUBS::FORTEN () Thu Feb 13 1992 09:45

Feel Free to Forward.

This is posted with the personal permission of Jackson Huddleston from
his book "Gaijin Kaisha: Running a Foreign Business in Japan".
He introduced American Express to Japan from 1978 to 1981 over the blatant
opposition of the Japanese Government, Keiretsu, and Banks.
He is a business legend in Japan because he beat the system.
One of the ways he did it was by hiring first-class Japanese Women who 
were excluded from meaningful employment at Japanese corporations.

"FEMALE EMPLOYEES"

"For many foreign companies in the nonmanufacturing sector, women will
comprise the majority of their employees.   With the support of top
management, women can be a valuable resource; probably a foreign 
company's only access to first-class education, which is what made Japan
what it is today and what will be essential to stay ahead of the
competition.  A foreigner will be able to tap this resource much more
easily and effectively than can a Japanese man, who throughout his
career has ignored women as potential employees.

Japanese women can be extremely loyal, for you are giving them the
earning capability and challenge that their own society restricts.  
Graduates of junior colleges and universities, many will remain with
the company only three or four years, until they marry.  A few will
stay on for careers, and those who do can, with senior management support,
become an effective part of management.  Despite protestation on the
part of Japanese men, they can also be effective in interacting with 
clients outside the office.  (It is a greater handicap to be with a
foreign firm than to be a woman).  Legal working restrictions placed on
women have now been greatly relaxed, and therefore a woman, if she
chooses, may put in the same work hours as a man.  That she can neither
drink in the bars at night nor play golf with the boys on the weekend
is just a fact of life.  A company will have plenty of males who can
and are more than willing to do so if the company picks up the tab.

Day care for working mothers in Japan is superb compared to the United
States, and the same percentage of mothers are in the work force in
both countries.  In the past, these potential employees have not been
given meaningful career opportunities in corporations, much as in the
United States twenty years ago.  Today, however, with a shortage of male
recruits for technical jobs in a dynamic economy, women are being given
the opportunity to climb the technical ladder in Japanese companies.
This will eventually make recruiting even more difficult for foreign firms.

[A manager interviewed for the book said:]
   'In the past two years we have hired ten female graduates.
    We have not found a male in this time up to the standards
    of the females.  We don't attract the good males.

    The women are absolutely outstanding.  We are using them as 
    chemists and in research and are beginning to break through
    some barriers in the building.  Two are now in management.
    We are bringing them in slowly but surely.'

...

Rarely will a resigning employee, especially a good one, indicate why
he or she is resigning.  This is often because, for Japanese, communication
is based on the situation, no principles, while for Americans it is the
opposite.  A Japanese responds based on the situation, considering
everything that has to be satisfied by his answers.  Because of the nature
of the society, there are many pressures that have to be taken into
account in addition to the act at hand.  A manager must have his antennae
out in the company and the community to know why his employees are
acting as they are.  Young women from good families can be of great
assistance in giving class to an organization and in maintaining the proper
equilibrium. ..."

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