Jun 13, 2020 (Japan Times) - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has long made creating jobs for women central to his economic policy, but as the country heads for its worst economic slump since World War II women are suffering a bigger share of the pain.
Helped by a worker shortage, female labor participation hit a decade-high of more than 70 percent under Abe’s campaign, often dubbed “Womenomics.â€
The catch: Many women lack the job security of male workers, with more than half holding vulnerable part-time, contract or temporary jobs.
The number of such “non-regular†workers posted its biggest drop on record in April, declining by 970,000 to 2.02 million. Women accounted for 710,000 of the decline.
That makes women workers “the shock absorber†of the world’s third-largest economy, said Mari Miura, a political science professor at Sophia University. Only about one in five male workers hold non-regular jobs.
Government support funnelled through companies to protect jobs and income during the slump often fails to reach women in unstable posts, experts say.
“There’s a huge gap between regular and non-regular workers — those who can work at home and get paid even if productivity drops versus those who get no salary if they don’t work,†said Chieko Akaishi, the head of the non-profit Single Mothers Forum.
