1/Today's @bopinion post is about Japan's next Prime Minster, Yoshihide Suga, and what he needs to do in order to revitalize Japan's economy.
bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
2/Suga's predecessor, Abe, managed to put Japanese people back to work. COVID will interrupt that success, but only for a short while.
3/The problem is productivity.
Japan saw good productivity growth under Abe -- better than the U.S.! But it still lags BADLY behind other rich nations.
Suga needs to change this.
japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/12/1…
4/Japan has an unproductive, inefficient corporate culture. It's holding back everything else in the economy.
This is what Suga needs to change.
5/The first way to change this corporate culture is to encourage more REMOTE WORK.
6/Fortunately, COVID has already pushed Japanese companies to implement remote-work policies.
Now Suga just needs to deploy the correct incentives to make sure the new approach is permanent.
bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
7/The second important change is MID-CAREER HIRING.
Employees must flow between companies!!
8/And the most important corporate reform is to PROMOTE MORE WOMEN!
Abe set a target for promotion of women, but failed to meet it.
Suga must succeed where Abe failed!
mainichi.jp/english/articl…
9/Economic analyses show that gender equality is a powerful engine of economic growth.
Women's talents must be fully utilized!!
review.chicagobooth.edu/economics/2020…
10/As things stand, Japanese women tend to get pushed into low-paying, dead-end "irregular" jobs.
bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
11/The Japanese government can deploy many tools to fix this.
First, it can use preferential government contracting to award companies that promote more women.
bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
12/Next, Japan can repeal a very bad tax law that discourages women from making over a certain amount of money!!
taxfoundation.org/how-tax-code-c…
13/Remote work and mid-career hiring will also help women get promoted.
Remote work will help women balance career and family. Mid-career hiring will enable women to go from the "irregular" to the "regular" job track.
14/And a general corporate culture of efficiency and productivity will be good for woman managers!!
bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
15/In addition to all these reforms, Suga should substantially increase the minimum wage, to prevent inequality from rising, and to make sure every Japanese worker can put food on the table.
15/With these reforms -- remote work, mid-career hiring, promoting more women, and raising the minimum wage -- Suga would have a chance to go down in the history books as a truly great leader.
(end)
bloomberg.com/opinion/articl…
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.