Fighting for Equality in Japan.

Fukuoka, Japan

Women's rights activists are pushing the Japanese government to pass a new law to ensure sexual equality.

A report by Japan's Council for Gender Equality concludes that Japan lags behind internationally accepted standards in equal participation between the sexes. It urges the government to rectify the problem. This spring, the Japanese parliament plans to vote on legislation that could help do that.

"The basic idea of this law is to produce an equal society where women can succeed in political, economic, social, and cultural activities," says Ikuko Noguchi, who has been explaining and promoting the proposed sexual-equality law throughout Fukuoka, the eighth largest city in Japan. "We want to review the social system and customs based on the participation of women in society." But change in Japan comes slowly. "What we need is affirmative action," says Noguchi, who is director of the Fukuoka Women's Center.

According to government statistics, Japanese women hold only about 1.4 percent of the nation's top managerial positions. They earn only 60 percent of what their male colleagues earn. There are only a few women mayors out of Japan's 3,232 cities, towns, and villages, and no woman has ever been elected governor in any of the country's forty-seven prefectures.

On the national level, women hold only 4.8 percent of the seats in the House of Representatives, ranking Japan 124th for female representation among 131 nations.

At home, married men contribute less than ten minutes a day to domestic chores, compared to more than three-and-a-half hours of chores performed daily by working women, according to a survey by Japan's Statistics Bureau.

Another superficial, yet telling, disparity is the widespread requirement that "office ladies" dress in company uniforms, while male colleagues are free to choose their own outfits. Female employees also often have to serve tea to their male colleagues.

A much larger battle remains. Japan already has laws designed to guarantee equal rights for women, says Noguchi. "But in reality there is much discrimination. What we want is the abolition of discrimination based on sexual differences."

Noguchi herself has been a trailblazer in the male-dominated nation for more than thirty years. She started as a young reporter with the Nishi Nippon Shimbun newspaper in 1966. At the time, she was one of only a few women on a staff of hundreds.

"My opportunities were limited," she says. "I worked by myself."

The situation improved after 1986, when the government passed a series of equal opportunity laws. "Now women are working in social, political, and economy sections of the newspaper," she says.

She left the paper this year to fill the director's role at the Fukuoka Women's Center, which provides courses, counseling, and seminars to promote equality awareness and develop professional skills for women.

"Even though opportunities for Japanese women are limited now, we are getting active," says Noguchi.