Culling the short and the ugly in Japan

Press, 19 February 1983, Page 14

Culling the short and the ugly in Japan

From BRUCE ROSCOE, in Tokyo

If you are a Japanese woman who wears glasses, takes an interest in law, has worked on a school newspaper and looks a bit plain, chances are that Kinokuniya, one of Japan’s leading bookstores, will not give you a job.

“Do not employ ugly girls under any circumstances,” and “definitely do not employ women -less than 140 centimetres tall,” are among the instructions contained in an employment guide devised by the store’s personnel department.

Japanese women, who still generally admit to fulfilling a subservient role to men both at work and in the home, almost without exception face a rigorous screening process when they apply for vacancies at “good" companies that will pay them, according to the latest female labour status report by the Ministry of Labour, only 53.3 per cent of the average wage for men.

A common method of investigating women aspirants is to commission a private detective agency to send someone into the women’s'neighbourhood to ask neighbours questions such as when does the candidate usually come home. -Just how rigorous the screening process has become in the case of some companies was brought to light with the disclosure of the Kinokuniya employment guide document which lists 23 categories of undesirable women, starting with divorcees in the case of part-time employees. • _ Women seeking full-time, positions at any of the- store’s 4 •

28 branches throughout Japan, according to the document, are disqualified if they are too short, wear glasses, like to discuss things, have a record of illness, display rural airs or are “foolish.” Those who have belonged to college newspaper clubs should be “observed very carefully” as should those who have been sick because they could experience a recurrence of the illness and “easily become tired and therefore dissatisfied.”

For part-timers, caution is advised against women whose husbands are college professors or whose work involves writing. women who live away from home, women who have worked as nurses, those who have frequently changed their jobs, and those who have been idle at home for long periods. Those with religious or political persuasions are unwelcome because they “won’t be able to change their way of thinking.”

“If a woman supports a reformist political party, ask why, and listen to the tone of voice when, she answers,” the document says. Women who have “complicated home lives” and those who-“respect passionate artists such as Vincent van Gogh” are also Suspect. Ms Etsuko Aoki, a reporter on the “Fujin Minshu Shimbun” (“Women’s‘Democratic Newspaper”), a weekly that obtained the document from a member of Kinokuniya’s in-house labour union, believes the bookstore wants “pretty dolls” to sell its books, not intelligent women. “Considering the line of business they’re in, it’s quite a

contradiction. If you look at all the categories described as prohibitive or undesirable, you find that the type of woman Kinokuniya fears most is thet woman of independent who has the ability to think. “But it is not only Ki-? nokuniya. This whole employment process is evident throughout Japanese society,” Ms Aoki said. Ms Fusako Honda, editor of . the weekly, says the conditions tk\at Kinokuniya insists prospective women employees meet are “intolerable.”

“This is a typical example of corporate discrimination against women but it is unusual to see such blatant discrimination in document form," says Ms Honda. The personnel department of the bookstore, whose sales in the September, 1981-August, 1982, year reached $276 million, admits to having drawn up the document. Mr Masaru Furuuchi, director for personnel, says it was prepared in 1972 when the store’s general affairs officials met to discuss employment standards. He denies it is used as a guide. “If we hired women strictly in accordance with those standards, we might miss out on, some good people,” he says. Many shoppers, particularly knowledgeable bookworms, may disagree that Kinokuniya’s women employees, about 1000 of them, have been selected on their merits. An interviewee of the “Women’s Democratic Newspaper” says the store has “a lot of pretty women shop assistants who just don’t know anything about books."