{
  "title": "Chart of the Week: Women Workers Wanted in Japan",
  "publication": "IMF Blog, November 21, 2017",
  "sourceUrl": "https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2017/11/21/chart-of-the-week-motherhood-and-work-in-japan",
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  "summary": "Japan is the most aged society among advanced economies: almost 27 percent of its people are over 65.",
  "sections": [
    {
      "heading": "Problem and context",
      "content": "- Japan is the most aged society among advanced economies: almost 27 percent of its people are over 65.\n- Japan faces a shortage of labor: unemployment is just 2.8 percent.\n- Both aging and labor shortage limit the country’s growth potential.\n- After 2018, the number of women of reproductive age will decline sharply.\n- Japan’s total population is expected to drop between now and 2025 by almost 4 million—roughly the population of Los Angeles—and to decline even faster beyond that."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Causes and mechanisms limiting female full-time work and fertility",
      "content": "- Institutional and cultural factors discourage childbearing and full-time female employment: the tax code, social norms and corporate labor practices.\n- Lifetime employment has traditionally benefited Japanese men; the same isn’t true for women.\n- More than half of Japanese women with jobs choose part-time or temporary work, largely to balance child care, elder care and housework.\n- Frequent demands for overtime in regular employment—often underpaid or unpaid—discourage full-time participation and have led to cases of “karoshi,” or death from overwork.\n- Part-time workers earn about half that of full timers, which has helped limit wage gains despite low unemployment.\n- Wage scales are based in part on the number of dependents in the household, assuming the husband is the sole breadwinner.\n- Many women choose part-time work to stay under the minimum income levels that are subject to tax."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Evidence and research cited",
      "content": "- Evidence from Scandinavia suggests it is possible to reconcile higher female labor force participation with higher fertility.\n- Research by IMF economists Naoko Miake, Kalpana Kochar, and Yuko Kinoshita supports the view that policy and norm changes can help."
    },
    {
      "heading": "Policy recommendations and behavioral changes",
      "content": "- Reform the tax code to eliminate disincentives to full-time work for women.\n- Provide more child-care facilities to reduce the childcare burden.\n- Limit overtime hours to give men more time to share in housekeeping and childrearing duties, and to encourage mothers to keep their jobs.\n- Encourage cultural and social-norm changes that support professional women having families.\n- Promote greater time spent at home by men; studies suggest couples have a better chance of having a second child if the man spends more time at home.\n\nSource: Chart of the Week: Women Workers Wanted in Japan (The Editors, November 21, 2017).\n\n---\n\n Content in this bundle\n\n- 本周图表：日本需要女性工人; IMF博客; 2017 年11 月21 日\n  - 本周图表：日本需要女性工人; IMF博客; 2017 年11 月21 日 (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - 本周图表：日本需要女性工人; IMF博客; 2017 年11 月21 日 (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n- 今週のグラフ: 日本では働く女性が求められている;   IMF ブログ 2017年11月21日掲載\n  - 今週のグラフ: 日本では働く女性が求められている;   IMF ブログ 2017年11月21日掲載 (Markdown version){rel=\"alternate\" type=\"text/markdown\"}\n  - 今週のグラフ: 日本では働く女性が求められている;   IMF ブログ 2017年11月21日掲載 (PDF){rel=\"external\" type=\"application/pdf\"}\n\n---\n\n References\n\n- https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/BLOG2-1024x600-JAPAN-motherchild-002iStockby-Getty-Images.jpg\n- https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/ENGNov15JPNGender.jpg\n\nSource: https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2017/11/21/chart-of-the-week-motherhood-and-work-in-japan"
    }
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    "Authors: The Editors",
    "Published: November 21, 2017",
    "Japan is the most aged society among advanced economies: almost 27 percent of its people are over 65.",
    "Japan faces a shortage of labor: unemployment is just 2.8 percent.",
    "Both aging and labor shortage limit the country’s growth potential.",
    "After 2018, the number of women of reproductive age will decline sharply.",
    "Japan’s total population is expected to drop between now and 2025 by almost 4 million—roughly the population of Los Angeles—and to decline even faster beyond that.",
    "Institutional and cultural factors discourage childbearing and full-time female employment: the tax code, social norms and corporate labor practices.",
    "Lifetime employment has traditionally benefited Japanese men; the same isn’t true for women.",
    "More than half of Japanese women with jobs choose part-time or temporary work, largely to balance child care, elder care and housework.",
    "Frequent demands for overtime in regular employment—often underpaid or unpaid—discourage full-time participation and have led to cases of “karoshi,” or death from overwork.",
    "Part-time workers earn about half that of full timers, which has helped limit wage gains despite low unemployment.",
    "Wage scales are based in part on the number of dependents in the household, assuming the husband is the sole breadwinner.",
    "Many women choose part-time work to stay under the minimum income levels that are subject to tax.",
    "Evidence from Scandinavia suggests it is possible to reconcile higher female labor force participation with higher fertility.",
    "Research by IMF economists Naoko Miake, Kalpana Kochar, and Yuko Kinoshita supports the view that policy and norm changes can help.",
    "Reform the tax code to eliminate disincentives to full-time work for women.",
    "Provide more child-care facilities to reduce the childcare burden.",
    "Limit overtime hours to give men more time to share in housekeeping and childrearing duties, and to encourage mothers to keep their jobs.",
    "Encourage cultural and social-norm changes that support professional women having families.",
    "Promote greater time spent at home by men; studies suggest couples have a better chance of having a second child if the man spends more time at home.",
    "**本周图表：日本需要女性工人; IMF博客; 2017 年11 月21 日**",
    "**今週のグラフ: 日本では働く女性が求められている;   IMF ブログ 2017年11月21日掲載**",
    "[https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/BLOG2-1024x600-JAPAN-mother_child-002_iStockby-Getty-Images.jpg](https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/BLOG2-1024x600-JAPAN-mother_child-002_iStockby-Getty-Images.jpg)",
    "[https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/ENG_Nov_15_JPN_Gender.jpg](https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/ENG_Nov_15_JPN_Gender.jpg)"
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