Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2017, published 107th ILC session (2018)

Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100) - Japan (Ratification: 1967)

Article 1 of the Convention. Progress made in the application of the Convention: gender pay gap. The Committee notes from the Government’s report that the wage disparity between men and women narrowed slightly between 2013 and 2015 from women earning 72.7 per cent of men’s average wages to women earning 73.6 per cent of men’s average wages. It further notes from the summary of the White Paper on Gender Equality 2017, issued by the Cabinet Office of the Government in June 2017, that the rate of women’s employment continues to increase, with a rise of 5.3 per cent over the last four years. It further notes that the proportion of women in managerial positions is increasing slightly, although it remains low at approximately 13 per cent. The Committee asks the Government to continue providing statistical information on the gender wage gap in both the public and the private sectors, including statistics covering non-wage workers.

Articles 1 and 2. Legislation. Indirect discrimination. The Committee recalls that neither the Labour Standards Act nor the Equal Employment Opportunity Act protect against indirect gender discrimination affecting salary levels between men and women. It notes the Governments’ indication that indirect discrimination is considered to be a broad concept that could be used in almost all cases and that only a few specific actions have therefore been prohibited and set out in a Ministerial Ordinance of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW). The Committee asks the Government to supply copies of the ordinance on agreed measures that constitute illegal indirect discrimination based on sex, as well as information on any further discussions, decisions or actions taken to address indirect discrimination related to all the components of remuneration, and not only wages, received between men and women.

Article 3. Objective job evaluation. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that objective job evaluation methodology is not compatible with the salary system in Japan. The Committee also notes the Government’s acknowledgement that the classification and salary systems used by employers may be implemented based on a fixed perception of the division of roles between men and women and may influence assignments, promotions and personnel evaluations. With respect to its previous comment concerning the Guidelines for Job Evaluation through the Grading Method by Element of 2012 issued by the MHLW, the Government disagrees with JTUC–RENGO’s assessment and emphasizes that the Guidelines are used to grade the contents of duties by each constituent element, that comparisons are based on points and that they are not used as a system to evaluate performance. Nevertheless, the Committee notes that the Guidelines contain criteria such as expertise and suitability of human resources. The Committee notes the report of the Study group on wage disparity between men and women under changing salary and employment systems, and the guidelines developed in response to the report on support for initiatives taken by employers and employees to solve the wage disparity between men and women. The guidelines call for: (1) designing clear, fair and objective salary and employment management systems and securing their transparency; (2) reviewing and improving the handling of salary systems and employment management in terms of their operation, such as allocation of personnel and human resources development; and (3) taking initiatives (positive action) to reduce gaps which are substantially caused by the perception of the division of roles between men and women which are deeply rooted in the workplace with the aim of encouraging enterprises to review their systems voluntarily. The Committee continues to ask the Government to provide information on the measures taken to promote and develop ways in which the salary setting system can incorporate objective job evaluation methodologies, in both the private and public sectors, so as to ensure the possibility of comparing remuneration beyond the same or substantially similar jobs, job types and job classifications. Given the acknowledgement of the impact of persistent stereotypes concerning the roles of men and women on employment decisions, the Committee asks the Government to report on the awareness raising and educational measures taken to better inform employers, employees and supervisors of objective job evaluation and the importance of ensuring that gender bias does not enter into the remuneration system. The Committee asks the Government to specify the status of the guidelines on support for initiatives taken by employers and employees to solve the wage disparity between men and women and to provide information on the manner in which they are recognized, promoted and applied.

Enforcement. The Committee notes the Government’s indication that in 2015 it conducted 133,116 regular inspections and found three violations of section 4 of the Labour Standards Act due to gender disparity, and that corrective action was ordered. It further notes the summaries of judgments in which some courts have found gender discrimination related to remuneration, for example as a result of the job classification system, and others have recognized the reasonableness of job evaluation, although in many cases recognition of the element of reasonableness in section 4 of the Labour Standards Act is found to have provided employers with broad discretion in setting salary rates that impact women and men differently. The Committee notes the observation of JTUC–RENGO that there is inadequate labour inspection on compliance with section 4 and that there have not been any cases of indirect discrimination. The Committee asks the Government to put in place appropriate and effective enforcement procedures and remedies to ensure that the principle of the Convention is respected and to continue to supply summaries of actions by the inspection services and judicial decisions concerning violations of equal pay.