{"id":860,"date":"2026-11-09T07:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T07:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/?p=860"},"modified":"2026-11-09T07:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T07:28:09","slug":"how-japan-has-changed-as-told-by-a-japanese-woman-in-her-50s-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/09\/how-japan-has-changed-as-told-by-a-japanese-woman-in-her-50s-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"How Japan Has Changed, as Told by a Japanese Woman in Her 50s (Part 2): The Employment Ice Age, Job Hunting as a Woman, and Long Hours as a Systems Engineer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"vk_block-margin-0--margin-bottom\"><strong>Key points of this article<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>After Japan's economic bubble burst in the 1990s, hiring of new graduates dropped sharply, and the period came to be called the \"employment ice age\". It was especially hard for women \u2014 far harder than for men.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I got a job as a systems engineer, but more than 100 hours of overtime a month, unpaid overtime and paid leave you could never take were all considered normal.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Workplaces like this were by no means unusual in Japan at the time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"what-was-japans-employment-ice-age\" class=\"wp-block-heading vk_block-margin-lg--margin-top vk_block-margin-0--margin-bottom\">What Was Japan's \"Employment Ice Age\"?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The employment ice age (\u5c31\u8077\u6c37\u6cb3\u671f, sh\u016bshoku hy\u014dgaki) refers to the period after the bubble economy collapsed in the early 1990s, when companies drastically cut back on hiring new graduates. It roughly covers the generation who went job hunting between the mid-1990s and the mid-2000s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Just before that, during the bubble years around 1989, a TV commercial for an energy drink \u2014 the kind you drink to stay awake \u2014 was hugely popular, with the catchphrase \"24\u6642\u9593\u3001\u6226\u3048\u307e\u3059\u304b\uff1f\" (\"Can you fight 24 hours a day?\"). Those boom times, when working at that kind of ferocious pace was taken for granted, came to an end, and suddenly we were in an era when jobs were hard to find.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-9-16 wp-has-aspect-ratio vk_block-margin-lg--margin-bottom is-short\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u3010CM 1989-91\u3011\u4e09\u5171 Regain 24\u6642\u9593\u6226\u3048\u307e\u3059\u304b 30\u79d2\u00d77\" width=\"1140\" height=\"855\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/746v_877dzI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">a TV commercial for an energy drink \u2014\"Can you fight 24 hours a day?\"<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>That's exactly my generation. On top of the bad economy, we were the children of the dankai generation (the second baby boom generation), so there were a lot of us, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"the-job-seminar-invitations-that-stopped-reaching-women\" class=\"wp-block-heading vk_block-margin-lg--margin-top vk_block-margin-0--margin-bottom\">The Job Seminar Invitations That Stopped Reaching Women<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Back then, there were events called <strong>sh\u016bshoku semin\u0101<\/strong> (\u5c31\u8077\u30bb\u30df\u30ca\u30fc, \"job seminars\"). Companies that wanted to hire new graduates would gather in a large venue, and each would hold its own company information session to recruit university students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The invitations were sent to students' homes by publishers of job-hunting information. They just turned up, whether you'd asked for them or not. Our seniors, only a few years ahead of us, received piles of them, men and women alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But by the time I was job hunting, they had almost stopped arriving for female students. Male students, meanwhile, were still getting them just as before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I had gone into science at university, so 90% of my classmates were men. So I went to the seminars by tagging along with male friends who had invitations (many of them let up to five people in on a single invitation).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In those days, it was far harder for women to find a job than for men. I took the entrance exams for lots and lots of companies, and finally got an offer from just one, as a systems engineer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"572\" src=\"https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/\u5c31\u8077\u8aac\u660e\u4f1a-1024x572.jpg\" alt=\"\u5c31\u8077\u8aac\u660e\u4f1a\" class=\"wp-image-869\" srcset=\"https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/\u5c31\u8077\u8aac\u660e\u4f1a-1024x572.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/\u5c31\u8077\u8aac\u660e\u4f1a-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/\u5c31\u8077\u8aac\u660e\u4f1a-768x429.jpg 768w, https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/\u5c31\u8077\u8aac\u660e\u4f1a-1536x857.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/\u5c31\u8077\u8aac\u660e\u4f1a-2048x1143.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/\u5c31\u8077\u8aac\u660e\u4f1a-320x180.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Concept of a joint job fair<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"maternity-leave-existed-but-you-couldnt-really-use-it\" class=\"wp-block-heading vk_block-margin-lg--margin-top vk_block-margin-0--margin-bottom\">Maternity Leave Existed, but You Couldn't Really Use It<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Even back then, maternity leave (\u7523\u4f11, sanky\u016b \u2014 leave before and after childbirth) was written into employment conditions. But in reality, I think many women quit when they got married or had a baby, because maternity leave was so hard to take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I asked about the maternity leave uptake rate at a company information session, one of the executives said this to my face: \"Personally, I think women should leave the company and stay at home once they get married.\"<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"compliance-was-just-a-word\" class=\"wp-block-heading vk_block-margin-lg--margin-top vk_block-margin-0--margin-bottom\">\"Compliance\" Was Just a Word<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I think it was around the time I joined the company that words like \"legal compliance\" (\u6cd5\u4ee4\u9806\u5b88) and \"compliance\" (\u30b3\u30f3\u30d7\u30e9\u30a4\u30a2\u30f3\u30b9) started to spread through society. But unless it was a large corporation, there weren't many companies you could honestly say actually followed the rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I worked as a subcontractor for large corporations. Some of those corporations had a \"leave-on-time day\" (\u5b9a\u6642\u9000\u793e\u65e5), or \"no-overtime day\" (\u30ce\u30fc\u6b8b\u696d\u30c7\u30fc) \u2014 \"On Wednesdays, let's all go home on time, no matter what\" \u2014 and on those days, only their own employees went home on time. The fact that they had to create such a day at all shows just how buried in overtime everyone was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"long-working-hours-for-systems-engineers\" class=\"wp-block-heading vk_block-margin-lg--margin-top vk_block-margin-0--margin-bottom\">Long Working Hours for Systems Engineers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I've heard that systems engineering is a gruelling job in any country. In Japan, I think it's right at the top of the list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>My company was a small one, with fewer than 50 regular employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Unpaid \"service overtime\" (\u30b5\u30fc\u30d3\u30b9\u6b8b\u696d, s\u0101bisu zangy\u014d) was taken for granted<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>We could hardly ever take paid leave<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Even when we worked on our days off, we couldn't take a day off in lieu<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It wasn't unusual to do more than 100 hours of overtime in a month<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Lots of people ruined their health and left. Because things were like that, after about ten years, my company gradually put systems in place so that women could keep working after getting married \u2014 for example, leaving the company once and coming back as a part-timer on shorter hours, or taking work home to do there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"572\" src=\"https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/\uff13\uff0e\u30d6\u30e9\u30c3\u30af\u4f01\u696d\u306e\u30a4\u30e1\u30fc\u30b8-1024x572.jpg\" alt=\"\uff13\uff0e\u30d6\u30e9\u30c3\u30af\u4f01\u696d\u306e\u30a4\u30e1\u30fc\u30b8\" class=\"wp-image-883\" srcset=\"https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/\uff13\uff0e\u30d6\u30e9\u30c3\u30af\u4f01\u696d\u306e\u30a4\u30e1\u30fc\u30b8-1024x572.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/\uff13\uff0e\u30d6\u30e9\u30c3\u30af\u4f01\u696d\u306e\u30a4\u30e1\u30fc\u30b8-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/\uff13\uff0e\u30d6\u30e9\u30c3\u30af\u4f01\u696d\u306e\u30a4\u30e1\u30fc\u30b8-768x429.jpg 768w, https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/\uff13\uff0e\u30d6\u30e9\u30c3\u30af\u4f01\u696d\u306e\u30a4\u30e1\u30fc\u30b8-1536x857.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/\uff13\uff0e\u30d6\u30e9\u30c3\u30af\u4f01\u696d\u306e\u30a4\u30e1\u30fc\u30b8-2048x1143.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/\uff13\uff0e\u30d6\u30e9\u30c3\u30af\u4f01\u696d\u306e\u30a4\u30e1\u30fc\u30b8-320x180.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The image of an exploitative company<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"young-people-today-are-so-lucky-they-can-take-time-off\" class=\"wp-block-heading vk_block-margin-lg--margin-top vk_block-margin-0--margin-bottom\">\"Young People Today Are So Lucky They Can Take Time Off\"<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>People of the older generation even grumbled about us taking paid leave all in one go: \"Must be nice. Young people these days can take a whole week off for their honeymoon. That would have been unthinkable in our day.\" In the high-growth era, I suppose that really was how things were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When I left the company, I still had the maximum 40 days of paid leave completely untouched. Even so, I wasn't allowed to use it up before leaving. I was told, \"Paid leave is for when you really need it, like when you're unwell. Using it all up and then quitting\u2026\" \u2014 and this from a company that paid nothing for overtime or for working on days off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I could go on and on with complaints, but I think companies like this weren't unusual back then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"572\" src=\"https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/\u30c7\u30b8\u30bf\u30eb\u4e09\u7a2e\u306e\u795e\u5668-in-English-1024x572.jpg\" alt=\"\u30c7\u30b8\u30bf\u30eb\u4e09\u7a2e\u306e\u795e\u5668 in English\" class=\"wp-image-867\" srcset=\"https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/\u30c7\u30b8\u30bf\u30eb\u4e09\u7a2e\u306e\u795e\u5668-in-English-1024x572.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/\u30c7\u30b8\u30bf\u30eb\u4e09\u7a2e\u306e\u795e\u5668-in-English-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/\u30c7\u30b8\u30bf\u30eb\u4e09\u7a2e\u306e\u795e\u5668-in-English-768x429.jpg 768w, https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/\u30c7\u30b8\u30bf\u30eb\u4e09\u7a2e\u306e\u795e\u5668-in-English-1536x857.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/\u30c7\u30b8\u30bf\u30eb\u4e09\u7a2e\u306e\u795e\u5668-in-English-2048x1143.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/\u30c7\u30b8\u30bf\u30eb\u4e09\u7a2e\u306e\u795e\u5668-in-English-320x180.jpg 320w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Typical household appliances that became widespread in ordinary homes during the 2000s<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"frequently-asked-questions\" class=\"wp-block-heading vk_block-margin-lg--margin-top vk_block-margin-0--margin-bottom\">Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>What is the employment ice age generation?<\/strong> It's the generation who went job hunting as new graduates between the mid-1990s and the mid-2000s \u2014 people who are now in their 40s to early 50s.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Why was it hard for women in Japan to find jobs back then?<\/strong> Hiring had been cut because of the recession, and on top of that, the idea that \"women quit when they get married\" was still deeply rooted in companies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"vk_block-margin-lg--margin-top\"><strong>Next time:<\/strong> I'll look at how people work in Japan today, and what \"work\" means to Japanese people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>*I write these posts in Japanese, and Claude (an AI assistant) helps me translate them into English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"vk_block-margin-lg--margin-top vk_block-margin-0--margin-bottom\"><strong>How Japan Has Changed, as Told by a Japanese Woman in Her 50s<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Part 1:<a href=\"https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/index.php\/2026\/11\/02\/how-japan-has-changed-as-told-by-a-japanese-woman-in-her-50s-part-1\/\" title=\"\"> Work in the High-Growth Era and the Father Who Put Work Before Family<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Part 2: The Employment Ice Age, Job Hunting as a Woman, and Long Hours as a Systems Engineer<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Part 3: Workplaces Changing Under Labour Shortages, and Japanese People Who Keep Working After Retirement<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Part 4: Do Japanese Women Really Treat Their Husbands Like ATMs? School Education and the Rise of Dual-Income Families<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li> Part 5: From Three-Generation Households to Nuclear Families, Husbands Who \"Help\" with Housework, and Osechi Today<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li> Part 6: Caring for My Grandparents at Home, Elderly Care in an Age of Only Children, and Japan's Ever-Evolving Ready-Made Meals (\"Nakashoku\")<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key points of this article What Was Japan's \"Employment Ice Age\"? The employment ice age (\u5c31\u8077\u6c37\u6cb3\u671f, sh\u016bshoku hy\u014dgaki) refers to the period after the bubble economy collapsed in the early 1990s, when companies drastically cut back on hiring new graduates. It roughly covers the generation who went job hunting between the mid-1990s and the mid-2000s. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"description":"What was Japan's employment ice age? A Japanese woman in her 50s on how women were shut out of job hunting, and the 100-hour overtime of a systems engineer.","title":"How Japan Has Changed, as Told by a Japanese Woman in Her 50s (Part 2): The Employment Ice Age, Job Hunting as a Woman, and Long Hours as a Systems Engineer - A Japanese Life"},"sns_share_botton_hide":"","vkExUnit_sns_title":"","_vk_print_noindex":"","sitemap_hide":"","_veu_custom_css":"","veu_display_promotion_alert":"","vkexunit_cta_each_option":"","_lightning_design_setting":[],"_slim_seo_primary_term_category":6,"_slim_seo_primary_term_post_tag":42,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[42],"class_list":["post-860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-life","tag-japanese-culture"],"veu_head_title_object":{"title":"","add_site_title":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":887,"href":"https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860\/revisions\/887"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.bita-d.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}