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Land of the Wasted Talent

Japanese companies are in a demographic pickle. The population which currently stands at 127m is predicted to fall by 40m in the next 30 years. This does not bode well for the workforce, which stands to suffer greatly due to a massive decrease in numbers. But what’s a country to do? As it turns out, women in Japan are significantly underemployed. A startling 49% of highly educated Japanese women who quit their jobs do so because they feel their careers have stalled. In fact, two-thirds of university-educated women see European or American companies as more female-friendly than Japanese ones. On the other side of the coin, foreign firms in Japan identify a wealth of undervalued clever women and make a point of hiring them. Will local firms be able to salvage all the talent is has spent so long wasting before it’s too late?

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