News & Events

The Gender Center of the School of Information and Communication held a special lecture titled “Diversity management as envisioned by corporate leaders” at Surugadai Campus Liberty Tower on October 20. This lecture series invites corporate executives and experts to deepen discussions on the theme of diversity management, which is a practice that respects diverse individual characteristics such as race, gender, sexual orientation, disability, age, values, and experience, and leverages them as organizational strengths.

This lecture series, now in its eighth iteration, featured two guest speakers: OKINA Yuri, Senior Fellow at Japan Research Institute, Ltd., and GOTO Saeko, Representative Director, President of Hagoromo Foods Corporation. Following the lectures by both speakers, a discussion was held with Professor USHIO Naomi of the School of Information and Communication, who also serves as Director of the Gender Center, followed by a Q&A session with participating students. The current state and future challenges of diversity management in Japanese society were discussed.

Ms. OKINA, the first speaker, presented Japan’s structural challenges of population decline and labor shortages. She stated that investment in human resources is essential for improving productivity. She further pointed out that factors hindering women’s opportunities to thrive in society include constraints on working styles, particularly those related to the spouse deduction, long working hours, and career interruptions during child-rearing periods. She stated that reforms, including changes to the social security system, are necessary.


Next, Ms. GOTO talked about corporate initiatives to promote diversity. As examples of actual corporate practices, she introduced programs such as leadership training for women to support their career development and childcare leave systems to encourage men’s participation in childcare. She stated, “It is important to respect each individual’s work style, regardless of gender.”