All-male BOJ selections another blow for gender equality in Japan

All-male BOJ selections another blow for gender equality in Japan

Gender, that's not the only selection criteria. Any candidate for leadership in Japan should be in their late 60s or 70s.

As long as they’re the best for the job then that’s all that matters. It shouldn’t be like the US and UK where first they chose skin colour, then female with skill level being last if at all.

Until women stand up for their rights, this male dominated antiquated old boys club will go on forever. It's up to women to fight for equal status as the men in Japan.

Power is never just given to you.

It is not about number of female appointed, it is about same chance of nomination of a position where competencies are about the same.

Something I am sure about is that women in Japan hardly ever ask for management position.

Sadly it would take more than a "qualified" woman to take a position like this with the BOJ. The other members would hardly see her as anything other than window dressing, no matter her qualifications. She would also have to deal with them misogynistic atmosphere that permeates the entire insitutition.

I hope I'm wrong, but I think this issue is going to take a while to fix.

All-male BOJ selections another blow for gender equality in Japan

An elderly individual with different genetalia who also rubber stamped QE monetary easing which is a guaranteed subsidy for large capital holders would work just as well.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2013/12/18/qe-the-greatest-subsidy-to-the-rich-ever.html

She could mouth the same excuse that it will trickle down to raise wages.

I couldn't care less about their gender, as long as my money is managed well. This article fails on facts - who would, in their honest oppinion, be a good female member of the board?

 who would, in their honest oppinion, be a good female member of the board?

The question should be who in their opinion would be a good member of the board.

You obviously care about their gender

The BOJ governor and board members should be chosen by their competence, not by gender. Will you just stop making fuss about gender equality?

Japan is different.

Below is a URL to the full (rather lengthy) report. The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (USA) is ranked #1 with both a female governor and deputy governor. Banks ranked around the same level as Japan includes banks from Djibouti, Oman and Mongolia.

https://www.omfif.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/GBI-2022.pdf

I'd say the lack of female representation in Japanese "leadership" is the least of its problems. How about tackling the rampant corruption and the "old boy," "school chum" network?

Not concerned unless a more qualified woman was not selected simply because she is a woman.

At least Japan has not progressed (yet) to claiming to not be able to identify what is a woman.

Lack of female representation can only mean one thing. Females in Japan are not qualified enough.

Today  07:02 am JST “ As long as they’re the best for the job then that’s all that matters. “

Today  07:50 am JST “ The BOJ governor and board members should be chosen by their competence, not by gender. Will you just stop making fuss about gender equality? “

You’re missing the point here…; you can’t talk about competence without first addressing the real problem, the roots, where it all begins…; women are not given the same opportunities/chances as men in Japan.

As the article points out, this is a “societal problem”, but it doesn’t (specifically) mention the causes of the extreme gender inequality in Japan, it only talks about statistics…; women in Japan are, in a way, brainwashed into thinking that their role in society is… “limited”… and that affects their education, their dreams, their future.

..

“ Shinzo Abe, a long-serving predecessor of Kishida's, had touted "womenomics", vowing to make Japan a nation where "women can shine". But his government delayed from 2020 to 2030 its target of boosting the proportion of women in leadership posts to 30%. “

What a joke.

..

[ "The fact that there had been a great deal of chatter about having women in the central bank's leadership was actually refreshing," said Shihoko Goto, deputy director for the Asia Program at the Wilson Center, a U.S.-based think tank. ]

”Refreshing”, yes,

but

that’s not enough.

Ironic, given that women are likely managing the majority of household budgets.

The best people were chosen for the jobs!

Three goals

The best people were chosen for the jobs!

Seems unlikely, considering no women were chosen.

It's weird how people here be acting like even wanting a single woman on the board is wrong.

Some of y'all be pretty transparent.

When it comes to gender equality in the workplace, I don't care if you use the male or female restroom. Just so long as you're the right man for the job!

I'd say the lack of female representation in Japanese "leadership" is the least of its problems. How about tackling the rampant corruption and the "old boy," "school chum" network?

They're the same thing.

As long as they’re the best for the job then that’s all that matters. It shouldn’t be like the US and UK where first they chose skin colour, then female with skill level being last if at all.

Saying this implies women (and by extension people of colour) are inherently less qualified/competent. If things were truly fair and the "best for the job" were selected, the proportion of people in positions of power would roughly match the percentage within the population. That's not the case in the US, Japan or most other places in the world though.

Japan's economy is so doomed, low birthrate, exports shifted to other countries, nothing exciting. The only thing Japan has going for it is Nintendo and Toyota.

#gogogo

Spot On!

Japan ranked 116 out of 146 countries on gender parity in the World Economic Forum's global report last year, the lowest of any country on the International Monetary Fund's list of advanced economies.

That's downright embarrassing.

Gender equality and Japan should not be in the same sentence.

Exactly.

The question is, how many women were qualified ? I need to know. If they were many qualified women for the job but were deliberately ignored, then we have a case. But where's that data?

Everyone talks about having "someone qualified" here. There are no real "qualifications" in these positions aside from having been working in government for X number of years. They shuffle these clowns around to new positions every couple years, or when they have a goof. I'm sure hiring someone in their 40's who has been working and studying with things more current day would be a far better choice than the next dinosaur who doesn't change anything.

The misogyny on display here is stunning. Look at the numbers - Japan ranked 116 out of 146 countries on gender parity in the World Economic Forum's global report last year, the lowest of any country on the International Monetary Fund's list of advanced economies. Or Women make up just 15% of Japan's senior public and private-sector officials and managers, according to data collected by the International Labour Organisation. Are there really NO qualified women here? This sort of figure, in 2022, points to something systemic.

Tokiko Shimizu and Yuri Okina were high on the list for potential candidates. Both have long careers in finance. They'd have been good. On the other hand, given that the job this round is a bit of a poisoned chalice - the two top men in contention absented themselves from consideration one way or another - perhaps it's best a woman not be part of what's likely to be a rocky couple of years.

Japanese citizens can’t just get to grips why our country is going to trash for over 22 years, while being led by 70 year old male right wing dinosaurs.

love Japanese people, just can’t understand why they can’t understand.

Lack of female representation can only mean one thing. Females in Japan are not qualified enough.

It's hard to imagine anyone less qualified than the current BoJ leadership, given what they're doing to the working class through inflation and devaluation. Unless being "qualified" means not how you can steer the ship for the benefit of the people, but for the benefit of politicians and big corporations. Once you see that, you can see why the 'old boys' network never relinquishes power.

One problem with focusing on the top 3 people at the BOJ is that you are looking at a very small group at the top of the ladder. The bottom and middle rungs of the ladder are where attention should be focused.

Large Japanese institutions - both public and private sector - tend to hire their regular employees (ie not their part time or contract labor) right out of university. Each year a new cohort enters and begin their careers. At that early stage when they are all still at the bottom of the ladder, choices are made about their future. Some of them get put into positions that will groom them for higher levels and set them on a path to the top, or near the top, of the ladder. Others get put into positions that don't have that option, where by design their careers will peak somewhere near the middle of the ladder or even lower.

It'll surprise no one to hear that a significant percentage of women get shunted into the latter type of position very early, regardless of their skills or potential, while more men get put on the former.

This is what needs to be fixed, because as the law stands now there is nothing to prevent this practice. And it leads to situations like this, decades after this sorting occurs, where there seems to be this mysterious dearth of qualified female candidates for positions at the top of the ladder. Its not because there aren't capable and smart women out there, its because the whole career system has been set up to exclude most of them from getting the kind of experience necessary to meet the qualifications for those positions.

This is slowly changing and I think employers are a lot better about this than they were 20-30 years ago, but there is a huge lag between making reforms to these types of practices on the one hand, and outcomes 30-40 years later when those people reach the age when they can get to the top rung positions.

People saying they choosed qualified people regardless of the gender. Are you living under a rock ?

Japanese economy is almost the same as 30 years ago. Previous governor were clueless about how to deal with the stagnant wage situation.

And it seems there will be continuity to that mess...

They choosed a crook regardless of the qualifications for the job.

rainydayToday  09:57 am JST

“ One problem with focusing on the top 3 people at the BOJ is that you are looking at a very small group at the top of the ladder. The bottom and middle rungs of the ladder are where attention should be focused.

Large Japanese institutions - both public and private sector - tend to hire their regular employees (ie not their part time or contract labor) right out of university. Each year a new cohort enters and begin their careers. At that early stage when they are all still at the bottom of the ladder, choices are made about their future. Some of them get put into positions that will groom them for higher levels and set them on a path to the top, or near the top, of the ladder. Others get put into positions that don't have that option, where by design their careers will peak somewhere near the middle of the ladder or even lower.

It'll surprise no one to hear that a significant percentage of women get shunted into the latter type of position very early, regardless of their skills or potential, while more men get put on the former. 

This is what needs to be fixed, because as the law stands now there is nothing to prevent this practice. And it leads to situations like this, decades after this sorting occurs, where there seems to be this mysterious dearth of qualified female candidates for positions at the top of the ladder. Its not because there aren't capable and smart women out there, its because the whole career system has been set up to exclude most of them from getting the kind of experience necessary to meet the qualifications for those positions. 

This is slowly changing and I think employers are a lot better about this than they were 20-30 years ago, but there is a huge lag between making reforms to these types of practices on the one hand, and outcomes 30-40 years later when those people reach the age when they can get to the top rung positions. “

This goes hand in hand with what I said in my previous post and you elaborated it impeccably…; thank you for your comment.

Chances are, there are far fewer women than men who even WANT a position like this. Fewer willing to do the 20 plus years of unpaid overtime and stress than men. The genders are different in temperament and desire and we need to recognize this basic fact. Of course they are equal, but different.

This shows up in many jobs, not just the ones at the top one percent. How many women work construction, work as bricklayers, even as truck drivers? How many men are in nursing or child care? I don't hear too many feminists crying that more women should be trash collectors. The idea of "gender parity" is nonsense.

From a nation that manages its money like a child with its first allowance, maybe it's time to switch things up.

Chances are, there are far fewer women than men who even WANT a position like this

Ask a room full of teenagers who wants to be a Central Bank governer; you would notice the girls significantly outnumbered among those who would want to.

^ sorry yes so I 100% agree

So what? Whoever is fit to do the job get the job… why does it have to be of certain gender if skin color?

Seems unlikely, considering no women were chosen.

I am assuming there was no discrimination. If there was I agree with you. You choose someone for the job because they are qualified not because they are a women. It should be the best people chosen for the jobs because they are qualified not because of gender or ethnicity.

No woman has held any of the top posts in the central bank's 140-year history, though several were considered contenders for deputy roles this time.

No has held any of the top posts in the 's __-year history, though several were considered contenders for____ roles this time.

Fill in the blanks with a different race/nationality, company, years established and a position and tell me if this isn't also a good topic for equality too?

@Micheal Machida

Power is never just given to you.

This part of your comment is true.

That really isn't fair. Women could screw it up just as well as the old gits.

Japan has had two women foreign ministers but none as prime minister or finance minister. 

Imagine if there was a woman Finister Minister - given that the men have racked up 1,000 trillion yen of debt with little pay off expected for it, we have to conclude they have been an abject disaster in the role.

This is why many Japanese oyaji’s are on okodukai-sei under their wives, no?

Let’s have a woman as Finance Minister and start to manage the budget properly asap.

I'm all for equality of work opportunity. All for it. Ladies, the offshore oil rigs and construction sites await you.

Sorry, forgot. It's not those sorts of male-dominated jobs you want. It's the ones where you get a prestigious title and a fancy corner office.

Yep