A third of job seekers (32.8%) in Japan felt they had been discriminated against due to their gender, reports Nippon, citing a survey by the Japanese Trade Union Confederation Rengo. The nationwide survey, held online in early April, 2023, received a total of 1,000 valid responses from men and women aged 15 to 29 who had taken recruitment tests, either as a new graduate or mid-career, within the last three years. Of those who said they had been discriminated against, the most common answer, at 39.6%, was that the type of job available to them was different depending on their gender, for instance, men being offered career-track positions, while women were given general office work jobs. This was followed by 36.9% of respondents who stated that the number of people to be hired was different depending on gender, and 30.8% who said that hiring was for one gender only.

Japan’s Equal Employment Opportunity Law specifically bars companies from engaging in gender discrimination during the hiring process, the survey shows that the practice remains prevalent during actual recruitment. Meanwhile, at 19.5%, nearly one-fifth of all respondents felt they were subjected to inappropriate questions or comments during their job interviews. These included female candidates being told that they would just end up quitting, being asked if they would keep working even after marriage or becoming pregnant, and being told that women were more thorough in their work.