Ms. Watanabe s Profession

TOKYO Ms. Watanabe, age 40, is hesitant.

One day, Ms. Watanabe received a call from a headhunting firm. She was recruited to work in the accounting department of a Japanese import export company.

Should she take up an important role at this stage? Or should she pursue happiness as a woman?

The other women who joined the company at the same time as Ms. Watanabe married colleagues and quit to devote their time to raising children.

Before she knew it, Ms. Watanabe was in her thirties. Her mother, Mrs. Watanabe, used the money she had made through financial trading to fund her daughter s study abroad.

TOKYO Ms. Watanabe, age 40, is hesitant. Her mother, Mrs. Watanabe, is known for moving the world s markets with the financial trading that occupies her breaks from housework.

Would maternity leave be possible if she were appointed as an officer? Prime Minister Shinzo Abe s government says that it will establish daycare centers, but is this really true?

Ms. Watanabe s story helps to illustrate a remarkable disparity. While productivity in Japanese factories is the highest in the world, owing to robots and other types of automation, the productivity of Japan s white collar workers is the lowest among OECD countries.

Companies pay for men to study abroad, but will not invest in female employees. Without other options, Ms. Watanabe took a long term unpaid leave of absence (which her company typically does not grant to women) to study for an MBA in America.