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Japan Times
7 days ago
- Business
- Japan Times
Women in Japan's fishery sector on the rise
An increasing number of companies in Japan are recruiting women for fishery work in an attempt to address the sector's declining workforce. Efforts to attract women into the industry reflect the struggles of many fishery businesses in finding young workers who can continue operations in the future. This summer, calls for female fishery workers were on full display at job fairs for the sector. One such fair was held on July 5 in the city of Fukuoka, while similar events are planned in Tokyo and the city of Osaka later this month. The events match companies and organizations seeking fisheries staff with aspiring workers. Although not many firms previously accepted women, over half of coastal fishery companies and organizations participating in this year's events said that they want to actively recruit women or are considering doing so. Starting this summer, the fair organizer has created a flyer touting its support for the success of female fisheries workers, as part of affirmative action measures promoted by the country for expanding female employment opportunities. The flyer is being displayed on the organizer's website and at event venues. According to the fisheries ministry, some 121,000 people in the sector worked at sea for 30 days or more in 2023. The figure is down over 60% from 1993, when it stood at about 325,000, highlighting the aging of the workforce. Women only make up around 10% of workers in the fisheries industry, which has long been dominated by men. While deep-sea fishing operations remain unaccommodating for female workers due to difficulties in securing women-only sleeping and bathing quarters on ships, coastal fishing has seen an increase in women as fishing trips are just a few hours long and only restrooms are needed to make ships female-friendly. Shizuku Urata, who graduated from a fisheries high school three years ago, is a fixed-net fishery worker at Ajiro Gyogyo, based in Atami, Shizuoka Prefecture. Urata leaves port with male coworkers before dawn to collect fishing nets and sort and transport catches. She has received positive feedback from her senior colleagues. In the city of Owase in Mie Prefecture, Maki Kanazawa became a fisheries worker two years ago. Kanazawa has liked fish and admired the profession since she was a child. "She works as hard as male fishermen," the president of her fishing company said. The success of such female fisheries workers has gained attention on social media in recent years, leading to an increase in both female fishery job applicants and recruiters. The job fair organizer is supporting such aspiring workers through online seminars targeted at women.
Irish Times
02-07-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
The Irish Times view on long school holidays: a relic of another time
Schools in Ireland enjoy some of the longest summer holidays in Europe and elsewhere. The three-month break for secondary school students – and the two-month shutdown of primary schools, beginning this week – is a hangover from a time when agriculture was the dominant economic activity and children were needed to help work family farms. Agriculture now accounts for little more than 1 per cent of the Irish economy and the use of child labour is tightly regulated. Thus it is reasonable at this point to postulate that long school holidays are an anachronism out of step with the needs of modern Irish society. Much of the increase in productivity that underpinned economic progress in recent decades is linked to an increase in the number of women in the workforce. Female participation – at 61.4 per cent – is now at its highest since records began in 1998. Despite a marginal shift towards a more even distribution of parental responsibilities over the period, women remain the primary caregivers in the majority of domestic arrangements and the bulk of the responsibility for caring for children during the school holidays falls to them. READ MORE It is not hard to make the argument that the current regime limits economic growth and that shorter school holidays could further enhance female participation and bolster productivity. The counter-argument is that if a system is not broken then it does not need fixing. Irish school students consistently score above the average in EU and OECD surveys of academic achievement. This is of course only one measure of the effectiveness of the current system. It does not follow that spreading teaching hours – which are amongst the highest in the OECD – over a longer period would be detrimental. Likewise, it is wrong to assume that teachers are opposed to shorter days and longer school years. In truth the debate about school holidays is not an economic or pedagogical one. It is about the growing disconnect between the way the school year is structured and how we live our lives.
Japan Times
17-06-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
Pacific Islands should boost women's participation in work, says World Bank
Less than half of working age women across the Pacific Islands are employed due to outdated laws and other barriers, the World Bank said in a new report on Tuesday, and said closing the gender gap could boost economic growth. The World Bank economic update for the Pacific also forecast regional growth slowing to 2.6% in 2025, down from 5.5% in 2023. With 57%, or around 500,000, of women not in work across the Pacific Islands, the report said boosting female participation to the same level as men could lift the region's gross domestic product by 22% by increasing household incomes and supporting private sector growth.
South China Morning Post
17-06-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Most Pacific island women don't work. The World Bank wants to change that
Less than half of working-age women are employed across Pacific island nations due to outdated laws and other barriers, the World Bank said in a new report on Tuesday. Advertisement The World Bank economic update for the Pacific, which said closing the gender gap could boost economic growth, also forecast regional growth slowing to 2.6 per cent this year, down from 5.5 per cent in 2023. With 57 per cent or around 500,000 women not in work across the Pacific, the report said boosting female participation to the same level as men could lift the region's gross domestic product by 22 per cent by increasing household incomes and supporting private sector growth. In Fiji , the biggest Pacific island economy, the boost to GDP could be 30 per cent, it said. A stallholder displays her wares to tourists at a market on Rarotonga in the Pacific nation of the Cook Islands earlier this month. Photo: AFP The gender gap in the labour market exists despite women attaining similar education levels as men and could be partly attributed to social norms, the report said. Advertisement Six countries did not have paid parental leave, often forcing women to leave the labour force when they started families, it said.
