Dec 02 (Nikkei) - A survey by professional recruitment company Hays has found that many Japanese female professionals aspire to be corporate directors, but that male bosses do not seem to grasp that reality.
According to a Hays survey of five Asian economies, 42% of Japanese female professionals said, "My line manager does not know my career ambition." That was more than four times higher than the share who said the same in Hong Kong, and notably higher than in China, Malaysia and Singapore.
It is widely believed that Japanese women are less ambitious than their peers in other countries when it comes to reaching the top of the corporate ladder. This was apparent in the Hays survey, where just 6% of Japanese female respondents said they aspire to reach the C-suite level within seven years. A further 23% said their aim was to reach that level within 10 years.
Compare that to Hong Kong, where 22% of female professionals said they would like to reach the C-suite within seven years, and another 17% aimed to do so within 10 years.
But the numbers do not do justice to the career ambitions of Japanese women. When asked if they would like to reach the director level, 13% of Japanese female professionals said they hoped to do so within three years, while 30% set a seven-year time frame, and 25% said their target was 10 years.
