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Japan – Companies lagging behind in tools and training for diversity

23 October 2014

Only 40% of Japanese respondents agrees that their employer provides diverse team tools and training, making them the lowest ranked of the 33 countries included in the Randstad Workmonitor Q3 2014 report.

The global average response to the same question found that 60% of employees feel that their organisation provides tools and training to ensure employees know how to work in diverse teams. This compares with an Asia average of 79%.

When asked if their organisation provides tools and training to ensure that employees know how to work in virtual teams with colleagues in different locations, only 35% of Japanese respondents agreed. This compared with a global average of 59% and an Asia average of 77%.

Japanese employees were also far less likely to agree that, in their experience, diverse teams always outperform teams with similar members. 

  Diverse teams always outperform teams with similar members
Agree Disagree
China 94% 6%
India 86% 14%
Hong Kong 82% 18%
Malaysia 80% 20%
Global Average 73% 27%
Japan 71% 29%
Singapore 70% 30%

Masao Karasawa, Head of Human Resources for Randstad KK Japan, commented: “The government of Shinzo Abe aims to utilise and develop the female workforce as an important part of society. The aim is to not only improve promotion opportunities and the working environment, but also to encourage women who are not employed to enter the labour market.”

“In addition, from 2018, firms and organisations will be obliged to employ people with disability. Alongside globalisation, this work will trigger further diversification of workplaces and change people’s work style from that in a traditional office to more flexible remote working.” 

“From a viewpoint of global competition… there is a tendency to encourage diversification within organisations. However, focusing on creating diverse teams, and providing training or tacking issues with regard to diversity is still not a priority in Japan, and the survey reveals this current situation. I believe that it is necessary to change the perception of diversity from something meaning ‘problems and challenges’ to that of ‘the origin of competition’ and an organisation’s ‘strength’ as a target of investment in the future,” Masao Karasawa concluded.