The Council to Support Working Women (Principal Members: Ms. Kimie Iwata, Vice President, Shiseido Co., Ltd., Ms. Naomi Okamoto, Vice President, Japanese Trade Union Confederation, Mr. Takashi Kashima, Professor, Jissen Women's Educational Institute, Ms. Izumi Kobayashi, President, Merrill Lynch Japan Securities Co., Ltd.) was established to support working women and promote organizations that are gender neutral and with fair evaluation systems. (The secretariat will be performed by JPC-SED.)

For companies to achieve sustainable growth while the birthrate is low and proportion of elderly people grows, the hiring, utilization and development of female workforce is imperative. Coupled with the movement to promote work-life-balance, improving the quality of work and compensation of female workers is essential.

This Council was established against such background and would engage in activities to increase the awareness of executives and managers and to strengthen support of female workers through mentors. The Council would also establish network of people and companies that support business activities of female workers together with employer associations, labor unions, universities, etc. Specific activities are as follows:

(1) Increase awareness of executives and managers and promote gender neutral workplace culture

Increase awareness of executives and managers and promote gender neutral organizational culture so that aspiring female workers would be given jobs with broader responsibility and to introduce fair evaluation system for promotion. The Council will also encourage companies to establish plans to systematically promote female employees to executive and managerial positions and to include development of female employees as one of the evaluation criteria of managers.

(2) Development of skill through mentors

Mentors that understand the obstacles for female workers and provide advice and relief could greatly help them in fulfilling expectations and keep on working at the front line of businesses. The Council would promote the usefulness of mentors in developing female employees that would become key persons within companies.

(3) Formulation of network that support business activities of female workers

The network to support aspiring female workers and people and companies that are eager to provide opportunities to female workers will serve as platform to exchange experience and knowledge and accelerate promotion of females. National network of networks, employer associations, trade unions, productivity institutions and universities would be established.

(4) Realization of society that can fully utilize the female workers potential

Establish work practice/culture and social system that will enable female workers to continue to work through different phases of bearing a baby, raising children, or caring of parents, etc. Promote systems in which female workers can retain the status of full-time employee while working flexibly. Encourage flexible application of relocations and providing of various working patterns. Start classes for female high-school students to teach the value of financial independence and that certain university departments/degrees would result in improved chance of getting jobs.