Implications of Womenomics on the Relationship between Female and Male Workers in the Professional and Social Environment: A Preliminary Study

This article analyses the implications of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's womenomics policy on the relationship between female and male workers in Japan in professional and social environments. The objective of this study is to explore how Shinzo Abe's womenomics affects the relationship between female and male workers in professional and social environments. The conceptual framework used is the concept of patriarchal culture in order to find out the influence of patriarchal culture on the implementation of womenomics in Japan, considering that Japanese society still holds patriarchal culture in their social interaction. This article suggests that the dominance of patriarchal culture has prevented the implementation of womenomics from giving effect to changes in the way people view women's position. This article shows that womenomics policy, in spite of the claim of its success and capacity to increase Japanese economic growth, has implications with regard to the relationship between female and male workers in Japan. Womenomics has a positive impact in terms of increasing number of female workers thus allowing female workers to reach high positions in the professional work such as managers. However, the patriarchal culture retained by the community has undermined womenomics as a mere tool for achieving Japan's economic development targets (economic policy), and is not related as an effort to improve the position of women in social and work environments (gender mainstreaming).