By Kie Noguchi and Mako Nagaiwa / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers
It has been 40 years since the Equal Employment Opportunity Law was enacted. Since the enactment of the law, which was the fist step to eliminate gender discrimination in job opportunities, efforts have been made to promote the development of an environment in which women can work comfortably.
The way women are perceived — from powerful to sweet — has been reflected in economic and social developments up to the present day.
The law was enacted in 1985. That same year, the then Group of Five advanced nations signed the Plaza Accord, which was aimed at taking coordinated action to address the appreciation of the U.S. dollar. The yen rapidly appreciated after that, and monetary easing and measures to expand domestic demand served as a catalyst for an unprecedented economic boom.
What followed for the Japanese economy was an economic bubble, with the benchmark Nikkei-225 stock average climbing to a then record 38,915 by the end of 1989.
Companies hired many new graduates and crawled over each other to lock in new recruits as quickly as they could. Women, who had previously been given supportive positions in the workplace, began to be offered promising career opportunities under the new law, putting them on track to secure even managerial posts.
However, at the time it was enacted, the law required nothing more than for companies to make an effort to treat women equally as men in terms of...
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