Women still face career obstacles

Workers are expected to put in a lot of overtime.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
TOKYO -- When Princess Sayako of Japan married a middle-aged Tokyo city bureaucrat of average means Tuesday, she lost her royal status and was thrust into the role of an ordinary woman.
Far from the fairy-tale extravaganza one might expect for the only daughter of the current emperor, the streets of Tokyo are bare of trappings, department stores are devoid of commemorative crockery, and even the tabloids are mostly sticking to sports and politics. The Shinto-style wedding was attended by around 30 people from both families at the plush Imperial Hotel, and followed by a press conference rather than a parade.
Reared in the cloistered atmosphere of an ancient imperial dynasty, with her every need catered to, the 36-year-old princess may wonder what to expect as the wife of town planner Yoshiki Kuroda.
Royal watchers have noted that Sayako has quit her part-time job an ornithologist to spend time receiving last-minute survival tips from her once-commoner mother, and bone up on such domestic practicalities as grocery shopping.
Her decision to quit work mirrors the life paths of millions of her female subjects, but is an option younger Japanese women increasingly eschew because of the damage it can cause their careers in a society that is only slowly moving to address the needs of working parents.
The problems that "highly skilled women have in finding work of a similar quality once they have left the work force to raise children has become a major issue," says Naohiro Yashiro, an expert on economics and society at International Christian University in Tokyo. "The system needs to be reformed so as to allow people to both work and live their lives so that raising children is possible," he says.
The government wants to encourage people to get married and have children to stem Japan's falling birthrate. But lawmakers also realize that tax revenues to fund pension payments for a rapidly aging population will dwindle if mothers face large obstacles in re-entering the work force.