Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in an effort to accelerate growth in Japan, has begun to emphasize the importance of supermoms, women who both work and have children. According to a recent New York Times article, Japan has traditionally been a nation in which juggling work and family is difficult. To encourage more women to work, Mr. Abe must overcome an entrenched corporate culture that treasures long, inflexible hours that work for men but not for working mothers.
It is true that the share of working women has been expanding in Japan and now exceeds the level in the U.S., but apparently at the cost of childbearing. The national birthrate in Japan is just 1.4 children per woman, among the lowest in the world and well below the level needed to prevent sharp declines in population. And when Japanese women do have children, they leave their jobs more often than mothers in other industrialized nations, leaving holes in an already shrinking labor force.
Correspondingly, Mr. Abe is focusing on things like childcare, which remains in short supply. His government strives to eliminate nursery school waiting lists by creating 400,000 new spaces by 2018. He is also working to loosen immigration restrictions that limit the arrival of foreign nannies and housekeepers.
