Male colleagues of the first woman to head Japan’s largest trade union association begged her to turn the job down because they believed her gender made her incapable of fighting corporate Japan for higher wages.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Tomoko Yoshino described a barrage of efforts to derail her promotion to presidency of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo). The organisation, she said, was supposed to represent all workers but had for years maintained a “male-centred image”.
“Men told me I should definitely decline the offer, as not only were we going to have a general election [in October] and an upper house election [in 2022], but next year’s wage negotiation was also going to be tough due to the coronavirus pandemic,” Yoshino said.