Japan Inc opens door to more women directors, but managers remain rare, ETHRWorld

By Anton Bridge

TOKYO: Mitsuko Tottori’s appointment as Japan Airlines’ next president makes her something of a rarity in Japan – a female head of a well known company.

While Japanese firms have rapidly lifted the number of female board members in recent years, most are outside directors. Change from within is slower in coming.

Under pressure from the Japanese government, the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) and foreign investors, firms have been scrambling to improve diversity, including on their boards, bringing in external directors who are often lawyers, academics and accountants.

But the diversity push isn’t as broad as it could be, critics and governance experts say. Some 30% of women directors sit on multiple boards, double the percentage of men, according to a study of all TSE-listed firms by governance consultancy ProNed.

This reflects Japan’s difficulty in promoting from the inside – both board members and company executives – after years of neglecting to cultivate a pipeline of potential women managers, they say.

Traditionally, many Japanese companies had rigid hiring systems classifying employees as either “career track” or “non-career track” – with the non-career workers often the women who did administrative work.

“It’s very…