The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences was awarded on Monday to Claudia Goldin, a Harvard professor, for her work to advance the world’s understanding of women in the work force. She made history by being the first woman to win the award solo rather than sharing in the prize. To honor her achievement, we discussed our own gender pay gap research that is in part informed by academics like Dr. Goldin, focusing on a new regulation in Japan that mandated companies disclose their pay gap data. And then, after we go through the numbers, we have a special part of this episode where colleagues come on to share their experiences of work before and after motherhood.

Japan’s government has set goals for increasing women’s participation and promotion in the business world, a policy that research shows could have substantial benefits for Japanese firms and the overall economy. Women are a historically underutilized resource in Japan; their greater participation and advancement in the workforce could have substantial benefits for the Japanese economy and long-term portfolio returns. The Japan Empowering Women Index (WIN) aims to overweight companies whose...

Overtime work is a deeply rooted social issue in Japan as 21% of employees worked over 49 hours weekly in 2015, which is the highest percentage among major developed countries1. In 2016, the Japanese government tightened its scrutiny on companies’ overtime work management2 and started discussions on possible new rules to limit overtime work hours3. Moreover, recent controversies relating to overwork such as an employee’s death resulting from overwork in Dentsu turned much public attention to...

Are Improved Returns for Japanese Companies Smoke and Mirrors? Following decades of recession and slow growth, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe introduced a revitalization plan – dubbed Abenomics – in 2012 to address the key barriers of economic growth. In particular, the third “arrow” of Abenomics, the growth strategy, focused on a series of government‐driven initiatives impacting corporations and capital markets. Among them was the establishment of Japan’s Stewardship Code and Corporate...