Name and shame: Japan’s tame answer to jobseeker sex harassment
Final-year students invited to recruiters’ apartments for help with their applications. Coffee dates with alumni who promise to explain how the company works. Inappropriate interview questions about boyfriends, marriage plans and sex lives. For young women in Japan, looking for a job has long entailed submitting themselves to the skewed power dynamics of the recruitment process. And before…
Japan has finally enacted legislation to address jobseeker sexual harassment, a long overdue measure according to critics. The amendments to the Equal Employment Opportunity Act came into effect last week, targeting harassment in various settings, including job applications. This is the first time official legal safeguards have existed to protect jobseekers from such misconduct.
According to the ministry's website, examples of job-seeking sexual harassment include sexual jokes, pressure into a sexual relationship, and repeated invitations to one-to-one meals or drinks during the recruitment process. Employers are now legally required to take steps to prevent harassment among their staff, with potential consequences including public naming of offending companies and the threat of civil lawsuits and financial damages.
A survey of 1,000 recent jobseekers conducted by Japan's labour ministry in 2023 found that 31.9% of respondents reported being harassed. The most common forms of harassment were physical contact (25% of respondents) and sexual questions or teasing (25% of respondents). The effect of such experiences on jobseekers' mental health was severe, with one in three reporting feelings of anger, dissatisfaction, or anxiety, and two dozen experiencing the need for hospital treatment.
While campaigners and advocates have welcomed the change, they criticize the legislation for lacking teeth and coming years too late. Chisato Kitanaka, an associate professor of sociology at Hiroshima University, stated that government measures against sexual harassment in Japan are weak. The only real sanction is the ministry's public naming of offending companies, which Kitanaka believes is insufficient.
She expects large companies and organizations to enforce the rules more strictly than smaller firms, but notes that part-time workers, freelancers, and others in precarious jobs continue to have too few protections.
Written by urgent.news from South China Morning Post's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
