Evaluating Labor Force Participation of Women in Japan and Korea: Developments and Future Prospects

ABSTRACT

The economic competitiveness of a nation in the 21^st century requires human talent, which has become essential for areas such as research, development, execution of innovative ideas, technology, and value creation. In this respect, nations face a fundamental challenge of both attracting and retaining talented individuals to secure their economic growth. Both Japan and the Republic of Korea (Korea) are nations in dire need of human talent. Although industries in both countries are mainly focused on manufacturing and services, their working population is aging. Rather than luring human capital from across borders, however, both nations must focus primarily on incorporating more women into the workforce; while the number of highly educated women has significantly risen over the last several years, such growth has failed to contribute to an overall enhancement in the labor participation of women. On the whole, the utilization of female labor is an important factor when considering future prospects of economic growth for Japan and Korea. While Japan has successfully increased female labor participation across all age groups over the last several years, including that of women in their prime working ages, Korea has also witnessed higher numbers of women in the workforce. This is so despite the continuous trend of women leaving the workforce during their prime working years. Hence, the primary task here is to compare and contrast policy initiatives from the two countries and identify those that have been relatively successful from those that have proven to be less so. This study seeks to examine the recent efforts made by the governments of both Japan and Korea to acknowledge and promote female participation in the workforce; in doing so, it explores the multi-fold blockades that women still face at present while entering into and advancing in their careers, and propose potential methods for improving things in the future.

ABSTRACT IN KOREAN

21세기 국가의 경제 경쟁력은 주로 연구, 개발, 혁신적인 아이디어, 기술 그리고 가치창출에 근간이 되는 인재에 의해서 결정된다고 할 수 있다. 이런 점에서, 국가는 경제 성장을 위해 능력 있는 개인들을 발굴하고 유지해야 하는 근본적인 도전에 직면하고 있다. 한국과 일본은 인재가 매우 절실히 필요한 나라들이다. 두 나라의 산업은 주로 제조업과 서비스에 집중되어 있는데, 노동인구는 노령화 되어가고 있는 상황이다. 이에 일본과 한국 두 나라는 외국에서 인적자원을 유인해오는 방법보다는, 여성들을 노동력에 투입시킬 수 있도록 우선 중점을 두어야 한다. 지난 몇 년간 고등교육을 받은 여성의 수가 상당히 증가하였지만, 여성의 노동참여에 있어서는 전반적인 향상에 기여하진 못하였다. 여성인재의 활용은 일본과 한국의 경제성장을 위한 하나의 중요한 요인이 될 수 있다. 일본은 지난 년간 모든 연령층에서, 특히 주요 노동연령 인구에 있는 여성들의 노동참여가 증가한 것을 볼 수 있는데, 한국도 그러한 사례를 경험하고 있다. 하지만 여성 노동참여율의 증가에도 불구하고 주요 노동 연령인구에 있는 여성들이 직장을 떠나는 추세 또한 지속적으로 나타나고 있다. 이 연구의 핵심은 한국과 일본에서 성공한 정책과 실효를 거두지 못한 정책들을 찾아 비교하는 것이다. 그리고 본 연구는 일본과 한국 정부의 여성의 노동참여를 인정하고 증진시키기 위한 노력을 검토하고, 그럼으로써 여성들이 직장에서 경력개발을 할 때 직면하는 현실적인 다양한 문제들이 무엇인지 모색하며, 미래를 위한 잠재적인 방안들은 무엇인지 제안하고자 한다.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender disparity
• female labor force participation
• human capital
• labor force

KEYWORDS:

• 성 차별
• 여성노동참여
• 인적자원
• 노동력

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by Ewha Womans University under the 2014 Ewha Global Top Five Project.

Notes on contributor

Jean S. KANG received her degrees from Wellesley College (B.A.) and Harvard University (A.M., Ph.D.). She is a diplomatic historian with a regional focus on contemporary China. Her research interests include modern U.S.-China relations, comparative East Asian regional politics, and U.S. foreign policy. Recent publications include articles examining U.S. foreign policy for China and comparative work on the PRC and North Korea. At the Division of International Studies, she teaches courses on International Relations, International Political Economy, International Peace and Security, both at the graduate and undergraduate level. She is a researcher at the Institute for Development and Human Security (IDHS) at the Graduate School of International Studies at Ewha Womans University, Seoul. Email: [email protected]

ORCID

Jean S. Kang http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8385-2951

Notes

1 The stagnant growth in the labor force participation of Japanese women in 2012 may be attributed to the weakened global economy due to the European sovereign debt crisis (MHLW, 2014). However, following 2012, it shows constant growth along with a growing economy.

2 Womenomics 4.0 (Matsui et al., 2014) also makes note that Japan’s ubiquitous “M-curve” (female labor participation by age cohort) has normalized somewhat in recent years, with the “valley” (between the late-20s and 30s) shifting gradually upward (Goldman Sachs, 2014).