With the 21st century on the horizon, Japan is going through a period of major transition with a variety of challenges to undertake; deregulation and globalization of the economy, restructuring of corporate management, more flexible employment system, and the aging of the population.

Today, due to these structural problems, the Japanese economy is in a deadlock. To cope with and tide over the upcoming changes, we must work to further encourage the participation of women, who make up half of the population, in a wider range of economic activities. The Revised Equal Opportunity Law and the Fundamental Law Designed to Promote a Gender Equal Society recently introduced, will certainly help women perform more active roles in economy. In fact, women are already pursuing more professional and/or managerial careers than ever before. Nevertheless, the number of women who hold top management and/or executive positions or play any other core parts of economic activities is still very few.

While there are many activities underway in Japan to help remove barriers for women at work ranging from flexible time off to child care, there is virtually no effort to crack so-called invisible “glass ceiling” or even “glass walls”.

Our goals are increased role of women at work with increased profits to corporations, effective positive actions, realization of new societal system with smaller families and better work life balance.

We are sincere and eager to make significant impact to the women’s advancement at corporations thereby contributing to the societal development.