Tokyo (Reuters) – Recruit Holdings, the company that owns Glassdoor, says it wants women to hold 50% of senior executive and managerial positions within the next ten years.This is a rare promise in a country where men are more likely to be at the top of businesses, politics, and government.
The most senior female executive at Japan’s largest staffing agency, Ayano “Sena” Sencha, said that the push for more women at the top is part of a drive for diversity that aims to ensure a steady flow of good business ideas.
According to company data seen by Reuters, as of April 1, 21 percent of Recruit’s top executives, including the heads of major business units, were women. This is an increase from 10% the previous year.
In an interview with Reuters, Senaha told Reuters, “It’s a way to stay alive, and it makes business sense.” “Unlike many other Japanese companies, we don’t make things.” Instead, our employees come up with new ideas for services that we then use to start them up.“
Recruit is already a company that stands out in Japan, which is the oldest country in the world and where many graduates still expect to work for the same company for their whole careers.
MSCI index data shows that three-quarters of Japanese companies have one or two women in charge, but only 5% have three or more.
In contrast, at least three women are directors in at least two-thirds of US companies, eighty-five percent of UK companies, and all French companies.
Half of the people who work at Recruit are women. Senaha, who is 39 years old, was put on the board in June 2020. This made her the youngest woman director of a Nikkei 225 company.
She got the job she has now in April 2021. A month later, the company made its pledge public as a measurable goal to speed up its diversity drive.
Senaha said, “We need that stress.”
At the annual shareholder meeting next month, Recruit will put forward Keiko Honda as a third woman to join its 10-person board as an outside director. Eiko Kono, a woman, was CEO of Recruit from 1997 to 2004.
Expert on corporate governance, Nicholas Benes, said, “It’s a great first step, and I hope they add more measures of diversity and tell everyone everything.”
“Foreigners, nationality, upbringing, education, and key skills should also be part of diversity,” said Benes, who is in charge of the Board Director Training Institute of Japan.
In the last 10 years, Recruit bought the U.S. job search engine Indeed and the job review site Glassdoor. This increased the company’s overseas sales from less than 4% to about half of the total. It is worth $60 billion on the stock market.
Rony Kahan, who helped start Indeed, is the only foreigner on the board.
In the past few years, each new prime minister has stressed how important it is for Japanese companies to be more diverse and offer flexible work.
Japan’s corporate governance code was changed last year to encourage companies to share their goals for promoting diversity. The business group Keidanren wants 30 percent of executives to be women by the end of the decade, but these kinds of voluntary calls to action haven’t always worked out well in the past.
Japan is still known for its long work hours, and many women still quit their jobs when they have kids. Not many men take a lot of paternity leave.
(This story is resubmitted to get rid of extra words in paragraph 4 and to add a word that was left out in paragraph 14).