ABSTRACT
In many western industrialized countries women’s labour market position has improved markedly in the 1970s and 1980s as a result of labour market pressures and equal opportunity legislation. Many of the labour market pressures are also present in Japan, and in 1985 the Japanese government passed the Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Law. In addition, Japan has come under increasing pressure from the international community to improve the position and status of women in all aspects of society. The EEO Law was partly a product of these external pressures. Indeed, labour market pressures and the EEO legislation appear to have brought about many changes in Japanese companies’policies on women in recent years.
