In Part One of Key Factors To Achieving Diversity, Equity & Inclusion In Japan, I covered Building Trust and Psychological Safety as well as looking at the issues around Cultural Awareness.  In Part Two, let’s tackle Dealing With Unconscious Bias In Japan.  Those living in Japan might be grimacing right now, because there is the view that the bias is quite conscious and out in the open. Some of our clients tell us that they have a good proportion of their male staff, who do not support the attention being given to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and say they feel they are the victims.  The post-war period in Japan saw a number of transitions.  One was from farm-based work to factory and service industry work in cities, as people moved out from the countryside.  The US Occupation sponsored breakup of absentee landlord ownership of farms, to having tenant farmers becoming owners of their land, created the Middle Class.  Thanks to Japan becoming a major supplier to the US military during the Korean War, Japan’s economy started to recover from the devastation of World War Two.  The role of women changed too.  They had been important labour inputs for farming and factory work and now full-time motherhood became possible, as the economy improved.  The labour split was such that the men would become the breadwinners and work six days a week, putting in long hours every day and the mothers would raise the children and focus on their education. This effectively meant that men monopolised the key jobs, incomes and promotions.  Today women are more active in the workforce, although many are working part-time.  For example, 70% of male workers work five days per week, whereas the corresponding number for women is 40%.  Surprisingly, overall, Japan has a greater rate of female workforce participation than the USA.  Men have had a monopoly on work opportunities, but that is being challenged by the emergence of well-educated and talented women and unsurprisingly some men working for our clients, are feeling threatened by all this talk about Diversity and Inclusion. Those are the conscious biases.  The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research estimates Japan’s population will decline by 21% to only 100 million by 2049.  Companies recognise this and so there is a greater requirement for female participation in work and the push is on the make Japan more inclusive of women in the workplace. Unconscious biases however still need addressing. Political correctness drives the resistance underground and unconscious biases become the next hurdle to overcome.  Here are seven biases which need addressing 1.     Confirmation Bias This occurs when male bosses look for information which supports their bias or stereotype.  For example, working mothers won’t be able to be promoted, because they cannot put in the same hours as their male colleagues or be given the same amounts of responsibility, so better not to promote these women.  Or when women get married, they will disappear from the workforce to have children, so no point in giving them a lot of accountability, because they won’t be around. This reduces the opportunities that these women are given and negatively impacts their progress through the ranks into leadership positions.  Data from the Teikoku Databank showed that in April 2021 only 8% of Japanese company Presidents were women.  Additionally, half of these women took over the family business when their husbands or relatives passed away. A lack of female role models becomes a vicious cycle where women conclude they cannot get to the top.  The system seems to be against women succeeding for those at the bottom levels.  As companies move away from “hours contributed” to “results produced” this bias will be reduced.  Most of those long hours the men are putting in are not effective and are more a nod to social convention, than to increasing productivity.  Currently, according to a Robert Walters June 2022 survey, only 30% of r