Kirsty KawanoA survey conducted by a job-change assistance service has found that about 15% of people in Japan change jobs to avoid sexual harassment. The difference in ratio between men and women with that experience turned out to be only 8%.
Career Tenshoku Center surveyed 4,802 people aged 20 or over nationwide between September 27 and September 30, asking if they had ever changed jobs due to sexual harassment. A total of 748 people, or around 15.6%, responded that they had.
The difference between genders was much narrower than expected. 54% of female respondents and 46% of men saying they had changed jobs due to sexual harassment.
Among those who changed jobs due to sexual harassment, 409 respondents, or 54%, said they did not act on the problem other than leaving.
Workplace sexual harassment comes in forms of comments, touching, prying and coercion
Career Tenshoku Center divided the types of sexual harassment that respondents experienced into five categories: verbal comments, touching, gender-based discriminatory words or actions, persistent questioning about private details, and being coerced into an intimate relationship.
Examples of verbal comments include a woman in her 40s being told that women over 30 years of age have no value. Another woman was told to abort her child and work, while another man in his 40s had obscenity said to him.
Both male and female respondents complained of being touched on the hand or bottom. One man in his 40s informed his employer about such touching from his male boss, but the company just brushed it off by saying he imagined it. A man in his 50s gave the example of a female employee being made to sit on his lap when managerial staff went out for drinks together.
Harassment based on gender discrimination included a male nurse who has had patients refuse treatment from him because he is a man. A woman in her 20s said comments that discriminated women were said to her, while another said she was not being given work as an engineer because the company assumes that women will resign early to take on motherhood.
Examples of prying into personal details included a man in his 40s who overheard colleagues being asked details of their sex lives. A woman in her 30s said that after telling a male boss that she wasn’t feeling well, he asked, “Is it because it’s just before your period?”
A woman in her 50s said she was being badgered into forming an intimate relationship after having dirty jokes told to her daily. When she clearly rejected those advances, she was forced to resign. Another woman, also in her 50s, shared how she was pushed toward forming a relationship even though both parties were married. She was then subjected to various types of provocations when she rejected those advances.
Marital status not a factor in workplace sexual harassment
Marital status makes little difference in the likelihood to fall victim to workplace sexual harassment, as the survey showed 47% of such respondents were single, while 53% were married.
Among those who changed jobs due to sexual harassment, 76% said the move had been positive, the survey showed.
Respondents who acted against the harassment before leaving their jobs also shared what actions they took.
- 205 (27%) said they consulted with a boss or workmate
- 99 said they told their abuser to stop the harassment
- 64 said they discussed the issue with a consultation office inside the company
- 33 said they discussed it with a consultation body outside the company
- 55 said they took some other types of action.
It is troubling that just over half of those who changed jobs due to sexual harassment didn’t do anything to deal with the problem. It indeed partly reflects the Japanese cultural preference to avoid confrontation and potential ostracism, but also shows how those on the weak end of Japan’s corporate power structure hold little hope for justice.
[Website] Career Tenshoku Center survey (in Japanese)
