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Messages from Keidanren Executives November, 2022 Increase the number of Rikejo (Women in STEM) and enhance our value creation

Hiromichi SHINOHARA Vice Chair, Keidanren
Executive Advisor, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation

For a company to achieve sustainable growth, it is essential to continue to create new value. KEIDANREN (Japan Business Federation) advocates for "Co-creation of Value through Digital Transformation (DX)" and highlights the importance of collaboration among various entities such as companies, startups, academia, governments, and local governments. To create value, it is necessary to enhance the ability of the company itself while collaborating with external parties. I believe that one of the sources of value creation is the participation of diverse employees in innovation activities.

Currently, Japanese companies do not have sufficient participation of women, especially in STEM and its related innovations. One of the reasons for this is that the proportion of women who go on to study science and engineering has remained low at around 20%. In some specialties, the proportion of women is even lower. Shouldn't companies be more proactive in increasing the number of Rikejo to strengthen their ability to create value?

Unconscious biases in households, the educational setting, and society are major obstacles to women's advancement in the sciences. Bias such as the idea that "science and engineering workplaces are for men" is a barrier that prevents women from choosing diverse career paths. This bias is due to a lack of understanding of the science and engineering workplace and overly simplified images and assumptions.

Therefore, the business community must send a message to eliminate unconscious bias. The most effective message is to present an image of women (role models) who are active in the company. It is more effective to present a role model that can relate to more closely than a "superwoman" who completes housework, childcare, and company work perfectly. To demonstrate that there are various places where people can play an active role, how about companies work together instead of each company promoting its own initiatives? Of course, eliminating unconscious bias within the company, formulating a system that considers life events, and creating a comfortable working environment are also pressing issues.

We should establish an environment in which diverse human beings can play a role as soon as possible without the need to overly emphasize gender differences as the word Rikejo tends to imply.

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