ABSTRACT
In 2016, the Equal Employment Opportunity Law (EEOL) celebrated its 30th anniversary. Initially in reaction to outside pressure to demonstrate a commitment to gender equality, the current Abe administration regards the potential of women as essential to respond to the demographic challenges that Japan needs to tackle. This chapter provides an overview of the EEOL, its enactment, and two revisions in 1997 and 2006. Problems persist, such as the lack of obligation for companies to adhere to the EEOL and a tax law enacted in 1961, which favours the part-time employment of married women. Furthermore, the EEOL intersects with a deregulation of the labour market and a fragmentation of work patterns that contribute to higher occupation rates of women but also create job insecurity. Drawing upon governmental sources, labour reports, and literature on gender studies in addition to interviews with women about their work biographies, I argue that the EEOL has not resulted in satisfactory progress of gender equality. The implementation of gender equality continues to be hampered by rigid gender divisions, a lack of role models, and a corporate governance system which does not genuinely commit to gender equality.
