In fact, Recruit was already a pioneer back when Japanese women were only starting to play a more active role in the workplace. In 1980, it was uncommon for women to work in anything other than subsidiary positions, let alone career building by changing jobs. That year at Recruit, women already accounted for a large portion of employees as well as its managerial positions. To recognize the desire of women to expand their career opportunities, we published the recruiting magazine Travail, specializing in women's employment and career moves. The magazine became so popular that people started to use "Travail" as a buzzword for when a woman changed jobs, and our initiatives provided a major impetus for a new era of female empowerment.

To date, the Recruit Group has had five company presidents. The third, Eiko Kono, was the first woman ever to be appointed as a director of the board, and she led the company from 1997 to 2004 as the president. During the tough times of the recession, she implemented structural reforms to the business, such as introducing KPIs, and strengthening our corporate base. In 1986, the Equal Employment Opportunity Law was implemented in Japan, and a 1999 revision to the law banned gender discrimination during hiring and promotion. One can imagine how Kono's time was like back then, while even today, the global average percentage of women in managerial positions is 27%, while it is only 12% in Japan, still the lowest among the G7 countries. With all these positive changes, it would seem that significant progress has been made, but there is still a long way to go.

Gaps still to be bridged

Today, in the Recruit Group, women hold 41.7% of managerial positions across the more than 60 countries that we operate in. However, considering that the ratio of male to female employees is approximately half and half, it should be the same in management positions - but it's not, it's about 10% lower. (See chart below.) This is because half of our approximately 45,000 employees are in Japan, where there are few female managers. While 44.3% of employees in Japan are women, they account for only 25.9% of all managers.

At the end of last year, the Global Gender Gap Report 2019, which ranks each country's gender gap index based on analysis of its gender inequality, showed that Japan had dropped 11 places from the previous year to 121st. In addition to being in the bottom 10 for political participation, a significant index for Japan is that women spend over four times more than men on unpaid work, including housework, childcare, and nursing care. These results indicate a society that is a long way from being one where everyone can play an equal role, regardless of gender differences.

It is a fact that Japan is now actually falling behind other countries. But another way of looking at it is that more advanced nations are providing signposts showing the way forward. Based on our corporate philosophy, the Recruit Group is continuing to work to achieve gender equality and other goals unique to each company and each country. We do this while learning from leading examples, both within and outside the company, and incorporating the positive things that we can take from them.

Since 2006, the Recruit Group in Japan has recognized that this is not just a problem for women, but an issue that needs to be tackled from all directions, and we have been working to improve the situation through a comprehensive approach that includes raising awareness and making structural changes. And the results are steadily bearing fruit. Not only does the business continually provide various career options, but women also make up nearly 30% of section managers in the company.

Furthermore, female leadership is being nurtured, men are being encouraged to take childcare leave, and flexible working styles that are not restricted by time or location are increasingly becoming a norm throughout the company.

We will never stop building on the progress made by the company's founders and our predecessors, and as a global leader in human resource field, we will continue to hone our vision and provide more diverse options worldwide through what we do, and contribute to the realization of universal gender equality.

Close