Sexual and Gender Minorities in the Workplace in Japan: Persistence of Labor Market Inequality

• In Event: 115 - Section on Asia and Asian America Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 10. The Sociology of Gender and Work across Asia and Asian America

Abstract

This is the first paper written in English that explores the associations between gender assigned at birth, sexual orientation, transgender status, and labor market inequality in Japan. The effect of sexual minority status (and gender minority status, to a lesser extent) on earnings has been increasingly documented in Western countries, but there is a limited number of studies in Japan. Moreover, previous literature fails to address the complex realities of different sexual and gender minorities. Based on the “Survey on LGBT Issues in the Workplace Environment 2015,” the only existing survey on sexual and gender minorities in the workplace in Japan conducted by Nijiiro Diversity, a nonprofit organization, and the Center for Gender Studies at International Christian University, this paper demonstrates that there is a negative association between sexual and/or gender minority status and income among both designated females at birth and designated males at birth in Japan. Further, the analyses conducted in this research are explicitly informed by queer and feminist theories, making it possible to document rich varieties within sexual and gender minorities. Findings indicate that there is a huge gender and sexuality inequality within sexual and gender minorities, and suggest that it is indispensable to investigate the processes through which various categories of sexual and gender minorities function differently. Since this paper utilized a non-probability web survey, the conclusions should not be overgeneralized.

Author

• Daiki Hiramori, University of Washington