From Catch up to Gear up - JR East Promotes Women in Workplace

Copyright East Japan Railway Company All Rights Reserved.

East Japan Railway Company (JR East), one of the major railway companies in Japan, announced its Action Plans for General Business Operators on March 30, 2016, setting out numerical targets for the employment and promotion of women based on a law to promote women in the workplace. In these plans, JR East focuses on the career development and retention of female employees - setting goals for hiring, career development and retention, and promotion to managerial positions - and will promote measures necessary to help women paint a concrete picture of their future careers.

In hiring, the company set a goal of increasing the percentage of women among new graduates to more than 30% by the end of March 2019, and the target for those who wish to become crew in the future is set at more than 40%. Examples of women's participation in the workplace, such as training highly skilled female engineers or involving women in a variety of projects and diverse workstyles, will also be reported on its website.

For career development and employee retention, JR East aims to diversify workstyles and improve work environments, which helps all employees to feel empowered and work actively. Innovative workstyles are to be promoted, including multi-site working, which allows employees to work from any location. The company also seeks to establish more flexible working systems, such as support for irregular working hours due to child rearing or nursing care of family members, and to encourage men's participation in child care.

As for the percentage of women in managerial posts, they set a goal to increase it to 5% by the end of March 2019 from about 3% as of April 1st, 2015. The company will share examples and strengthen networks in the entire JR East group to help employees plan their own career progressions and development, as well as creating workplace environments and opportunities that enable all employees to fully demonstrate their abilities.

Community Built at Evacuation Shelter without Placing Partitions

Copyright Ishinomaki Terakoya NPO Community Center All Rights Reserved.

Tohoku Fukko Nikki (Tohoku Reconstruction Diary), a weekly article in the Tokyo Shimbun, delivers news and stories on reconstruction efforts in the communities devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake. The article is submitted by the JKSK Yui-Yui Project, an initiative to support victims of the 2011 disaster by the non-profit organization JKSK Empowering Women Empowering Society. This month, Japan for Sustainability introduces an article, published on May 17, 2016, about an idea for shelter operation in disaster-struck areas.

Natural disasters could happen at any time. A boy, who was in the elementary fifth grade at the time of the 2011 earthquake, said "Please make plans within the scope of assumption" at the public forum of the third United Nations World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR) held in Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture, in March 2015. When the earthquake hit on March 11, 2011, people who evacuated the coast line by remembering local tradition were able to escape the tsunami. Japan is known as a land of earthquakes, so we have valuable teachings in our history. We should review our methods for creating towns and communities, where convenience is prioritized.

At the time of the earthquake, I was living in Ishinomaki City, Miyagi Prefecture, and I barely escaped alive after the earthquake and tsunami. In Ishinomaki City alone, we had 259 evacuation shelters, which needed to house more than 50,000 people.

I spent about seven months at one shelter, four and a half years in temporary housing, and finally moved into a house in Osaki City located inland in April 2016.

During the first seven months at the shelter, a training room at Ishinomaki High School, we maintained an open space, focusing on children, without placing partitions of cardboard and curtains. We lived in a family-like community with 231 people, including 21 children up to high school age.

This open style was adopted based on advice from Unni Krishnan, a medical doctor and disaster relief specialist. He visited our shelter nine days after the disaster. He said that it was important in times of disaster to support people with both materials and mental health care, keeping human rights and dignity at its core.

We opened an Ishinomaki Terakoya, an open school for children, at our shelter during summer holidays to provide children with a space to spend time. Teachers from the Tokyo area came to this open school to support children with their studies. Thanks to the idea of not having partitions in the room, we enjoyed interacting with our neighbors, and children felt secure and remained active. Although parents and elders were considerably discouraged by the tough situation, the presence of children helped to inspire hope.

Michiko Ohta
Chief
Ishinomaki Terakoya NPO Community Center