Two senior public servants recalled the challenges they faced as female workers, 40 years after Japan enforced the law on equal opportunity and treatment between men and women in employment in April 1986.
Tokyo Vice Gov. Akiko Matsumoto, 60, and Riwa Sakamoto, 53, director-general of the Business Environment Department of the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency, looked back at their struggles balancing work and child care, saying that younger generations should have fun both in working and having families.
Matsumoto joined the Tokyo Metropolitan Government in 1989. Although the equal opportunity law had taken effect three years before, the law at that time merely stipulated an obligation for employers to make efforts to treat men and women equally in employment and promotion.
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