Japanese women bear brunt of recession as virus unravels Abe’s ‘Womenomics’

The number of such “non-regular” workers posted its biggest drop on record in April, declining by 970,000 to 2.02 million. Women accounted for 710,000 of the decline

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has long made creating jobs for women central to his economic policy, but now women are suffering a bigger share of the pain as the country heads for its worst economic slump since World War Two.

Helped by a worker shortage, female labour participation hit a decade-high of more than 70% under Abe’s campaign, often dubbed “Womenomics”. The catch: many women lack the job security of male workers, with more than half holding vulnerable part-time, contract or temporary jobs. The number of such “non-regular” workers posted its biggest drop on record in April, declining by 970,000 to 2.02 million. Women accounted for 710,000 of the decline.

That makes women workers “the shock absorber” of the world’s third-largest economy, said Mari Miura, a Sophia University political science professor. Only about one in five male workers hold non-regular jobs.

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Temp worker Miyuki was told in April she would lose her job on a farm-equipment assembly line at the end of the next month, so she quit to take another offer. But that job disappeared too as the coronavirus outbreak ravaged the economy…Read More