Womenomics, the Workplace, and Women: Stanford Silicon Valley US-Japan Dialogue 2016

Friday, November 4, 2016
9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
(Pacific)

As Japan faces a shrinking and aging population, it must pursue productivity growth to remain a wealthy nation. Women, long underrepresented Japan’s workforce, are receiving renewed attention with the Abe administration’s slogan of Womenomics as part of his Abenomics economic reform package. In the second World Assembly for Women in Tokyo (named WAW!) in late August 2015, Prime Minister Abe even went so far as to say “Abenomics is Womenomics.” At the same time as the WAW! meeting, the National Diet passed a law requiring large companies to analyze their current status of women and set numerical targets in one of several areas. Now that the issue of women in the workplace is being taken more seriously than ever before, it is time to mobilize serious research in the form of policy evaluation, create a new dialogue that can spark innovative ideas by injecting Silicon Valley ideas and people into U.S.-Japan policy discussions, and link entrepreneurs, policymakers, and researchers from both sides to cultivate sustained interpersonal networks. 

This conference takes on the issue of women leadership and women’s positions in the Japanese workforce and society, with the objective to bring issues to the table and explore concrete mechanisms by which government policy, business practices, and social factors can be influences to make concrete progress for women's leadership and participation in Japan.

Sponsored by the US-Japan Foundation (USJF), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), and Stanford University's Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (S-APARC) and Clayman Institute for Gender Research.

 

*The below program is subject to change.

Conference Program

8:55-9:25                  Registration and Breakfast

9:25-9:40                  Welcome & Opening Remarks

Takeo Hoshi (Stanford University)

David Janes (US-Japan Foundation)

Toru Tamiya (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science)

9:40-11:00                Panel Discussion I:

Women in the Silicon Valley Ecosystem- Progress and Challenges

                                  Chair:                     Shelley Correll (Stanford University)

                                  Panelists:             Ari Horie (Women's Startup Lab)

 Yoky Matsuoka

                                  Emily Murase (San Francisco Department on the Status of Women)

Mana Nakagawa (Facebook)

 

11:00-11:20              Coffee Break

11:20-12:40              Panel Discussion II:                                 

Women in the Japanese Economy- Progress and Challenges

                                  Chair:                    Mariko Yoshihara Yang (Stanford University)

                                  Panelists:             Mitsue Kurihara (Development Bank of Japan)

 Akiko Naka (Wantedly)

 Yuko Osaki (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japanese Government)

                                  Machiko Osawa (Japan Women's University)

                               

12:40-14:00              Lunchtime

14:00-15:20              Panel Discussion III:  

Women's Advancement in the Workplace

                                  Chair:                 Takeo Hoshi (Stanford University)

 Panelists:             Keiko Honda (Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), the World Bank Group)

 Chiyo Kobayashi (Washington Core)

                                  Sachiko Kuno (S&R Foundation)

  Kazuo Tase (Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting)        

                                 

15:20-15:40             Coffee Break

15:40-17:00             Panel Discussion IV:  

Work-Life Balance and Womenomics

                                  Chair:                     Kenji Kushida (Stanford University)

                                  Panelists:            Diane Flynn (ReBoot Career Accelerator for Women)

Atsuko Horie (Sourire)

Nobuko Nagase (Ochanomizu Women's University)

                                 Myra Strober (Stanford University)

17:00-17:05            Closing Remarks