FOCUS : PR Executive Is Role Model to Japanese Women : Bias: Sex discrimination in employment was made illegal in 1987, but change has been slow in the male-dominated corporate world. Kumi Sato is an exception.
For Kumi Sato and many other women in Japan, 1987 was supposed to mark the beginning of a period of expanded opportunity for females in the work force.
After all, Japan’s legislature had just passed a law prohibiting sex discrimination in employment, and much of the Japanese media had begun to suggest that the late 1980s and the 1990s would be the Onna-no Jidai, or “Era of Women.”
Sato’s life certainly changed. In 1987, she achieved a lifelong goal--becoming a business owner--by acquiring Cosmo Public Relations, a well-established Tokyo-based firm. President since the acquisition, she has successfully managed Cosmo--adopting strategies that have helped the company double its revenue over the past four years.
Indeed, Sato has become a role model for many Japanese women--a living symbol of the change taking place in the male-dominated Japanese corporate world. However, a large percentage of Japanese women are dissatisfied with the pace of progress since 1987, and many are pessimistic about their prospects for future advancement in Japan’s business environment, according to recent surveys.
For example, Philip Morris K. K., the Japanese subsidiary of New York-based Philip Morris Cos., recently polled nearly 1,500 working women in Japan. It reported that 55% of the respondents believe that women aren’t being treated equally in the workplace. A comparable Morris survey in the United States yielded very different results--only 29% of American women said they faced unequal treatment on the job.
When Morris asked 3,000 Japanese women and 1,000 Japanese men if young adult women can expect a more equitable corporate environment 20 years from now, only 30% said the situation would improve. In contrast, 52% of the American respondents expected improvement.
To be sure, there have been improvements in hiring and promotion practices in Japan in recent years. Faced with a growing labor shortage and prodded by a government that officially opposes gender-based discrimination, Japanese firms have hired and promoted thousands of women. A recent study by a quasi-governmental agency determined that the number of women in mid- to upper-level management positions increased by about 5% between 1987 and 1990.
Overall, women make up about 40% of the work force. However, many Japanese women are dissatisfied because women hold only about 1% of management jobs.
Sato is among those who have been frustrated by the pace of change. However, she is also optimistic about the future.
“The situation is changing,” she said. “There’s more female entrepreneurship . . . and even women working for large companies have more opportunities. . . . If a woman wants to get ahead--and is willing to pay the price--she can do it.”
Sato’s road to the top was unconventional. Born and reared in Japan, she attended international schools in Tokyo before entering Wellesley College in Massachusetts.
After graduating in 1981, she joined McKinsey & Co., a New York management consulting firm.
She first took the entrepreneurial plunge in 1983, forming her own public relations firm in New York City. She was following a family tradition. Her mother--also a trailblazer--founded Nippon Homes Corp., which introduced Western-style housing in Japan. Sato’s father was a naturalized American who returned to Japan, establishing Cosmo Public Relations in 1960. He died in 1980.
The Sato family regained control of Cosmo when Kumi Sato and her husband financed a buyout of the firm in 1987. However, many of the company’s employees were reluctant to accept her leadership, Sato recalled.
“For some, it was a cultural shock to suddenly have a young, American-educated woman telling them how to run the company,” she said. “I had the feeling that no one was following me.”
Sato concluded that she had to learn Japanese management style to be effective. She consulted with other corporate executives and adopted many of their methods.
“The Japanese way involves consensus building, socializing with employees and selling employees on your (business) philosophy and vision of the company,” Sato said. “After five years, I’ve won over their hearts and minds. Instead of just thinking of me as a woman, they now think of me as the boss.”
Sato said she commands respect partly because the company has prospered during her tenure. It generates about half its revenue by counseling clients--including Westerners--on how to improve their image and develop business contacts. Cosmo’s revenue rose from $6 million in 1986 to about $13 million in 1990, Sato said. General Motors and Motorola are among its clients.
Sato has given birth to three children while leading the company through four years of change--effectively challenging the notion in Japan that motherhood and career are incompatible.
“The social pressure (to resign) in that situation is strong, and women don’t have access to (day care) and other support services available in the United States,” she said.
However, there are signs that Japanese women are becoming less complacent about their situation. For example, a Japanese court last year awarded damages in a sexual discrimination case for the first time, giving $640,000 to 10 female workers.
An editorial in the Yomiuri Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper, supported the ruling.
“Companies should adopt policies sympathetic to working women, such as maternal leave and re-employment,” the Yomiuri said. “Japanese society needs to effect a perceptional change from the outdated notion of gender roles to the modern idea of job assignments based on ability, achievement and enthusiasm.”
