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shiseido

Home / Posts Tagged "shiseido"

Tag: shiseido

LGBT and Japanese companies
kanako-otsuji

Kanako Otsuji, campaigning as she said in her speech, not just for lesbian rights, but so that everyone in Japan can be who they want to be.

Kanako Otsuji, who was Japan’s first openly homosexual member of Japan’s Diet (parliament) spoke at the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation last week.  Her term in office expired this July – she had replaced a party member who had resigned, and she now runs the Policy Informatics Center of LGBT, based in Osaka.  One of her main campaigns is to try to get Japan’s first ever diversity law passed by 2020, in time for the Tokyo Olympics.  There is already an Equal Opportunities Law in Japan, in effect since 1986 and prohibiting gender discrimination.  Presumably the proposed diversity law would be to prohibit discrimination on the grounds of sexuality – and maybe other characteristics as such laws do in Europe, such as ethnicity/race, age and religion?

Homosexuality is not illegal in Japan, although I was surprised to hear that it is illegal in nearly half of the countries of the world.  My understanding was that Japan’s attitude to homosexuality, whilst not openly hostile, was one of viewing homosexuality as just a phase people go through and certainly not something to bring into the workplace.

Nikkei Business magazine had a special feature on LGBT earlier this summer, titled “LGBT – your company cannot ignore it”.  It cited the Dentsu Diversity Lab’s findings that around 7.6% of Japan’s population are LGBT in terms of gender identity/sexual preference, and of the LGBT people surveyed, 43% said they had come out of their own accord, but only 2.4% had come out to their boss and 4.8% to their colleagues.  Consequently, 60% have changed their jobs, compared to 50% of the heterosexual employees surveyed.  Some of the case studies included:

  • A person who turned down a job offer because the President said in the interview that being gay was a lifestyle choice so if it caused stress in the work place, that was their own responsibility.
  • Someone who had been at a major trading company for 7 years, and the next step of their career was to transfer overseas, but there was an unwritten rule that you had to be married first. The person was also worried that even if they were sent on their own, it might be to a country unfriendly to gay people. So the employee has registered with a recruitment agency to change jobs.
  • Another person who was transgender – male body but a woman at heart – was working in a major electronics company R&D lab, where almost everyone is male. The employee was having to put up with daily conversations that would be considered sexual harassment if a woman was present, and had to go to hostess bars at night with colleagues.

The feature then goes on to describe Japanese companies undertaking some kind of LGBT focused initiative including:

  • Kao started a study group on LGBT issues in 2014.
  • Suntory Holdings has also started seminars on LGBT for employees
  • Hitachi has started training centred on the HR departments of each of its group companies.
  • NEC is considering training on LGBT issues for the staff of its internal hotline.
  • Dentsu already surveys its employees on LGBT and has internal training – its Diversity Lab has noticed a big increase in people wanting the training.
  • Microsoft Japan has changed its benefits to include LGBT relationships in its definition of dependents. GLEAM started in the US HQ and has now come to Japan.
  • Nomura has “I am an LGBT Ally” stickers up in its offices. Since acquiring Lehman Bros which had its on LGBT community, it realised it had to respond.
  • Shiseido participated in Tokyo Rainbow Pride in April 2015

So there is not much political pressure on Japanese companies to consider LGBT in any diversity initiatives, as there is with gender.  Japanese consumers are fairly supportive, with over half saying that they would view positively a company which was supportive of LGBT people.  In terms of shareholder pressure, Daniel Loeb of Third Point, an activist investor in Fanuc and Sony is a supporter of LGBT rights, and foreign shareholdings in many Japanese companies is creeping up.  Indeed the Nikkei feature points out that “LGBT Is the latest management issue outside of Japan”.

Rudlin Consulting is about to launch its own Diversity & Inclusion consulting services, to support Japanese companies in Europe who want to gain the engagement of their Japan headquarters and take their D&I initiatives a step further.  We suspect that initially this will mainly be gender based to begin with, although I note that my old employer Fujitsu has already set up their high profile LGB+ network, Shine, in the UK.

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Shiseido top the employer rankings for women in Japan for the second year

shiseidoJapanese cosmetics and skincare company Shiseido has topped the 2015 “Companies where women flourish” rankings by the Nikkei Woman magazine.  The metrics used are

  • Proportion of women managers
  • Work/life balance
  • Use of women
  • Equality between men and women

Other companies who  have done well include All Nippon Airways (up from #6 to #3), and Mizuho – unlisted previously, and now at #17.  As always, the life insurance companies do well (they traditionally have used a large number of women in their salesforces) as do non-Japanese companies such as IBM Japan (down from #3 to #6), Janssen (previously unlisted, now #13), Eli Lilly (#18, down from #14) and Accenture (previously unlisted, now #20, bumping Hewlett Packard out of the top 20).

The article that accompanies the rankings points out that in some ways Shiseido has become tougher on the women in its workforce.  Previously there had been a big increase in female beauty consultants/shop assistants working “short shifts” so they could balance childcare with work, but now even those on “short shifts” are expected to take their turn to work on Saturdays or work in the evenings.

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Top 20 Japanese companies most supporting women

This is the twelfth year that the Nikkei publishing group have announced their rankings for the best companies in Japan in terms of supporting women.  This year they highlight two retailers – Seven & I Holdings (7- Eleven convenience store chain) and Aeon (supermarket chain strong across Asia), who are ranked 7th and 9th respectively.  Companies are scored on how many women are in management positions, work/life balance, utilisation of women and the balance between males and females in the workforce.

Those people not so familiar with the Japanese corporate landscape may wonder why life insurers score so highly (Sumitomo Life at #2, Daiichi Life at #5, Meiji Yasuda Life at #8, Nissay at #15, Sompo at #19) – but those who have worked in Japan will be familiar with the life insurance sales ladies who used to roam the offices dispensing sweets and namecards.  Other less surprising entries are Shiseido (cosmetics and skincare) at number 1 and All Nippon Airways (#6).

Foreign companies also usually do well – Japan IBM at #3 (although down from #1 last year), Johnson & Johnson, Eli Lilly and HP are all in the top 20.

Other Japanese companies in the top 20 from rather more male dominated industries are Daiwa Securities (#13) and Sony (#17).

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Only 17% of Japan’s CEOs have global experience thanks to takotsubo (octopus pot) appointments

takotsuboOnly 17% of CEOs in Japan have worked outside Japan, according to a survey of 2500 listed global companies in 2012 by Booz & Co.  This compares to the overall global average of 45%, and is barely higher than China’s 15%.  25% of Japan’s CEOs have worked in another company (and I bet many of them are related subsidiaries or joint ventures of the Japan parent) whereas 86% of North American and 88% of Western European CEOs have worked elsewhere.

The Nikkei Business magazine quotes this survey, in an article (Japanese, subscription) speculating as to whether a new CEO can really help Japanese companies compete globally.  The positive side to hiring from within, it points out, is that it encourages a competitive but also united spirit within the company, but the negative side is that it leads to a reluctance to make risky decisions such as undertaking M&As or restructuring unprofitable businesses.

Booz & Co also comments that “it will be difficult for a company headed by a senior executive who has not had to make tough decisions about subsidiaries and overseas operations to compete globally”.  There are some signs that Japanese companies are aware of this judging by the appointments being announced for this April – for example Konica Minolta’s next President headed a US acquisition.

This “takotsubo”  (literally “octopus pot” – a way of catching octopus by trapping it in a pot) management selection style means that Japanese companies are also not very adept at bringing in outside management experience.  Shiseido has just hired the former chairman of Coca Cola Japan as its President and LIXIL has hired executives from Misumi and Calbee, but these are rare examples.

Similarly, most instances of hiring foreign executives (Sony, NSG) have not gone well.  Only 1% of CEOs appointed in Japan over 2009-2012 were “foreign” compared to 17% in North America and 30% in Western Europe.  As noted previously, it is not surprising there is much doubt as to whether Takeda’s new President, Christophe Weber, from GSK, will be able to buck the trend.

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Shiseido’s President steps down for “health reasons”

Resigning for “health reasons” isidx_pic_01 often a Japanese corporate euphemism for the executive suddenly discovering a sword to fall on.  Certainly Suekawa, soon to be ex President of Shiseido, Japan’s best known cosmetics and toiletries brand,  at 53, seems rather young to have lost his health so dramatically, but you never know, maybe a stay in hospital is really beckoning, unlike the case of Fujitsu’s former President Nozoe.  Suekawa was only two years into the job, and although Shiseido has been flatlining in terms of growth, it was hardly in the critical ward, although there have been recent downgrades of its forecasts.

The Nikkei is critical of Shiseido’s decision, calling the resignation a “powdering over” (see what they did there?) of accountability and is unimpressed by Maeda, the former President, who appointed Suekawa, coming back as President again.  “An organization needs self-discipline to maintain the strength of its brand. With Shiseido simply reverting to its old president without clarifying the responsibility for its sluggish growth, the company’s future remains uncertain.”

Suekawa was behind the acquisition of US company Bare Escentuals, while Maeda was President – it seems this investment has still not borne many fruit, and Shiseido’s big foray into China has also been hit by the recent anti-Japanese sentiment there.

I’m a huge fan of Shiseido’s cosmetics and skincare range, but am frequently frustrated by the high prices and limited distribution in Europe, in contrast to Japan where they are a mainstream brand, and had been perfectly willing to develop lower priced ranges for China.

Update (28th March) – a more detailed article on this has appeared in the English language Nikkei Weekly ($) Seems like the “advisers’ society” of top executives were not sufficiently “socialised” to accept Suekawa’s appointment as President by Maeda.  Which answers the question I am often asked – how powerful are the “retired” executives who take up advisor roles – they can be extremely influential even if not overtly in positions of power.  Sounds like they have told Maeda to take the reins in sorting out the mess they think he created.

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Last updated by Pernille Rudlin at 2015-10-21.

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