Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives 1 (2019) 100009

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Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives

journal homepage: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/transportation-research-
interdisciplinary-perspectives

Progress or regress on gender equality: The case study of selected transport

STEM careers and their vocational education and training in Japan
⁎
Momoko Kitada a, , Junko Harada b
a
World Maritime University, Fiskehamnsgatan 1, 21118 Malmö, Sweden
b
Open University of Japan, 2-11 Wakaba, Mihama-ku, Chiba 261-8586, Japan

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article history: This paper examines the role of vocational education and training (VET) in the STEM workforce to advance women's in-
Received 7 March 2019 tegration into traditionally male-dominated workplaces. In Japan, it has been reported that the size of the workforce has
Received in revised form 28 April 2019 been substantially decreasing since 2011. One of the effective strategies to mitigate the risk of the shortage of human re-
Accepted 16 May 2019
sources is considered to be making use of women in the STEM field. In this paper, the Japanese transport sector is studied
Available online 03 June 2019
to understand the role of VET to support women in the STEM workforce. We shed light on the merchant marine as one of
Keywords:
the most male-dominated industries. A comparative institutional analysis was elaborated with other transport industries,
Vocational education and training (VET) such as air and rail. In addition, a narrative analysis was conducted with the empirical data as well as archived literature.
Gender The paper reveals that the merchant marine has failed to establish an institutional arrangement of maritime VET from the
Equal opportunities women transport workers' career-cycle perspective. The paper concludes that the role of VET is important not only before
Transport industries the employment but also after, in order to make sustainable use of women as human resources. In order to remove barriers
STEM careers to including women in STEM careers, institutional arrangement of VET should be reviewed through gender-
Life-cycle career mainstreaming and life-long VET would help to stop the leaky pipe line of STEM women in Japan.
Life-long learning

1. Introduction survey, which examines women's participation in business, reveals that

Japan's postwar recovery to become an economic giant tends to be nar-
rated as a legendary success. The process of its national recovery was sup-
ported by strengthening the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering,
and Mathematics (STEM). Behind the scenes, it was Japanese women
who devoted themselves to support men's success in STEM by fulfilling
their gender roles as wives and mothers. The expectation towards women
as subordinates to men remains strong even today and this also reflects
the fact that much fewer women are found in STEM fields in Japan. Accord-
ing to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology
(MEXT), female undergraduates in the Faculties of Science and Engineering
represent only 27.2% and 14.5% of the total, respectively (MEXT, 2017).
While Japan has well-established its education systems throughout the
country, ensuring high literacy and diligence among its citizens, opportuni-
ties are not always equally given between men and women. Indeed, Japan
is known as a low gender equality country in various reports. For example,
the World Economic Forum (2017) reports that Japan is ranked 114th out
of 144 countries in terms of the Gender Gap Index, making it the third worst
among the OECD countries after Turkey and South Korea. The Master Card
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: mk@wmu.se, (M. Kitada), jharada@ouj.ac.jp. (J. Harada).
only one out of four entrepreneurial activities in Japan are initiated by
women and highlights that Japanese social and corporate worlds continue
to perceive women as inferior compared to men (MasterCard, 2018, 31).
Among the selected G-20 countries, Japan is almost as low as Saudi
Arabia, which was ranked as the lowest in terms of the representation of
women on corporate boards and executive committees, in a survey con-
ducted in 2017 (Devillard et al., 2018). The lack of female political and
business leaders is considered to be one of the major reasons that Japan's
social structure has not been fundamentally changed, endorsing a patriar-
chal system which discriminates against women.
While evidence of gender inequality is widely observed throughout
Japanese society, the Japanese government recently started to promote
women in STEM fields to boost economic growth and meet the labour de-
mands of the country. Though this campaign has created a degree of gender
gap awareness from a top-down approach, the role of STEM education and
training is not very clear in terms of driving for change in the status-quo of
gender disparities and leading technology and innovation in the future.
Hence, this paper explores how STEM education and training, particularly
in the Japanese transport sectors where men are generally dominant, can
play an important role in empowering women in STEM fields.
This paper is structured as follows: First, the literature on Japanese ed-
ucation and gender is reviewed. Then, the role of STEM education in the

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2590-1982/© 2019 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access
article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
M. Kitada, J. Harada /
merchant marine is discussed in comparison with other modes of transport,
air and rail as well as medicine as a non-transport stem field. The methods
of this study are presented, followed by a preliminary analysis and
discussions.
2. Japanese women as under-utilised human resources
Japan has been recognised as the leading country in technology, which
has been considered to be a male domain. This attitude is already embed-
ded in the Japanese education system before young people enter labour
markets. Several studies on junior high-school pupils show that boys are ex-
pected to play central roles in science classes while girls are expected to as-
sist boys and play auxiliary roles (Akai, 1997; Muramatsu, 2004). A low
level of educational aspirations leads to inferior human capital and low-
status at work. Naturally, the majority of women occupy assisting jobs
and were, until the 1980's, expected to marry and quit their jobs before
reaching the age of 30. Subsequently, their status at work has gradually im-
proved in relation to legal changes, but equal employment has not been
achieved. Women's careers tend to be interrupted whenever family priori-
ties, including child-rearing and elderly care, arise. For those who prioritise
family over work, the common options available in the labour market will
be part-time contracts, where the tax system encourages women to limit
their working-hours in order to benefit the household. Due to cultural ex-
pectations of gender roles, the Japanese women's workforce is generally
less valued compared to men; therefore, women tend to receive lower cap-
ital investment in their lifetime (Ono and Zavodny, 2005). This is a vicious
circle and the status-quo of gender gaps is recreated over generations
(Brinton, 1993).
While such concerns are generally shared as a sustainability issue of the
country in conjunction with women's reproductive role, the institutions of
Japanese education and career development are generally discouraging
Japanese women from pursuing STEM careers, which are traditionally
regarded as unsuitable for women. The following sections discuss an over-
view of Japanese vocational education and training (VET) systems; why
Japan needs to make more efforts to change the current work-life balance
to support women's participation in the labour market; how Japanese edu-
cation has been reinforcing STEM as a male domain; and how strategic
Fig. 1. VET in the Japanese education system at a glance. * Both special training schools (e.g., schools for car maintenance, cooking, elderly care) and other schools
(e.g., driving schools) are approved by the respective authorities and their admission requirements vary from no academic qualification to high school graduate diploma.
(Source: Authors.)
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Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives 1 (2019) 100009
promotion of women into STEM careers has been nationally exercised in re-
cent years.
2.1. Japanese VET systems: An overview
The opportunities for VET in Japan are embedded in the institutional
framework of the Japanese education system. Compulsory education is of-
fered in the 9 years from elementary school (6 years) to junior-high school
(3 years). The majority of junior-high school graduates (98.8% in 2018)
continue to high school. Of those, in 2018, 73.1% went to general subject
high schools and 26.9% chose a path to VET through specialised training
colleges and technical colleges, with majors in agriculture, commerce, fish-
ery, engineering or others (MEXT, 2018). Those who graduate from high
schools can also choose VET schools, including vocational ability schools
as well as some VET-focused colleges and universities (e.g., law schools,
maritime schools, military schools). In Paragraph 1, Article 99 of the School
Education Act, some post-graduate universities are defined as VET in Japan
in the areas of law, medicine, public policy, education, psychology, and
others. Fig. 1 summarises VET in the Japanese education system.
Abumiya (2012) explains the historical division of education by gender
as well as the need for VET focus in Japanese education. Before World War
II, the Japanese education system considered high school as part of tertiary
education and male-only preparatory institutions for university. During the
post-war reform with interventions by the General Headquarters of the Al-
lied Forces (GHQ), pre-war high schools were absorbed into the liberal arts
courses of post-war national universities. Today's high schools are based on
three pre-existing schools: male-only pre-war middle schools, allowing a
pathway to universities; female-only general upper secondary education
schools; and sex-separated vocational schools. When Japan was recovering
from the lost war and proceeding to industrialisation, it was necessary to
focus more on VET with diversification and subdivision of vocational
courses, which Japan accommodates today (Abumiya, 2012).
On the other hand, company-led VET has been also developed in Japan.
The Japanese education system focuses primarily on general subjects
(i.e., Japanese, Math, Science, and Social studies) in order to pass entrance
examinations for privileged, branded universities, which is a pre-condition
for a promising future career. Therefore, it is criticised that many graduates
M. Kitada, J. Harada /
lack sufficient vocational skills when starting their jobs in a company where
many tend to stay for the rest of their careers. This justifies company-led
VET as a high-return investment in employees. The question here is, how-
ever, who are those “invested” employees? Women are less likely to be
hired as managers and leaders, compared to men. Hence, company-led
VET opportunities “naturally” select men as recipients for training benefits.
Unless a company employs women with the same expectations as their
male counterparts, women do not have the same level of access to
company-led VET as men do.
This phenomenon resonates the concept of company-specific skills and
general skills described by Becker (1993) in the human capital theory. Stu-
dents of engineering schools, for example, learn general skills in engineer-
ing, but there is still a need for company-led VET to foster specialists. In
prestige enterprises, valuable opportunities to learn company-specific skills
in the company-led VET are hardly accessible to women who tend to have a
lower employment rate than men with exactly the same qualifications. Gen-
der division of labour (Walby, 1988) has been in common in Japanese em-
ployment, but this practice is apparently not sustainable for the labour
demands in future Japan.
2.2. Women as potential human capital in Japan
The dwindling birthrate and aging population foreseen in Japan will
lead to a decline in the productive-age population. In Japan, it has been re-
ported that the size of the workforce has been substantially decreasing since
2011 (Chino, 2012). The problem is quite serious and it is forecasted that by
2050 only half of the total Japanese population will be of productive-age,
which indicates that the current dependence on a male workforce would
be unsustainable (Harada, 2018). According to the labour force report
(Statistics Japan, 2017), the number of female job seekers is recorded as
2.62 million, which is regarded as a great potential for the Japanese labor
force to fill the gap created by the predicted decline in the future
productive-age population as well as supporting the nation's sustainable de-
velopment. At the national level, it is therefore reasonable to consider a
strategic approach to building a labour market to utilise women in all
jobs (including STEM jobs) as potential human resources in Japan.1
Whilst such national-level promotion of the women's workforce is nec-
essary to establish a framework based on its vision for sustainable develop-
ment, how can such a framework be translated into the organisational
level? Generally, organisations have different concerns and interests in
investing in human resources from that of the country. When discussing
the promotion of women workers, it is important to understand how they
can meet the needs of organisations. Lepak and Snell (1999) propose, in
their theory of human capital allocation and development, that different
values and uniqueness of human capital determine employment modes in
organisations. For example, when human capital is found to be both valu-
able and unique, it is considered that the person should be internally
employed and trained within the organisation to play a key role for the
long term. However, when human capital is valued but not unique, it is
more rational to recruit on demand or by term-contract. When human cap-
ital is not valued but unique, it is reasonable to establish a human-capital
alliance where specialised knowledge is capitalised on and transferable
without relying on direct employment. Finally, when human capital is nei-
ther valued nor unique, the organisation can rely on casual contracts or
outsourcing for general skills. In many organisations, women tend to be
considered as less valued and less unique human capital and they are
assigned to jobs to assist specialists and positioned at the bottom of the
organisational hierarchy. It is arguable that this common employment prac-
tice of hiring women as less valued and less unique human capital should be
1
Women used to be forbidden to work overtime and on night shift in Japan. Based on the
understanding that both women and men should share family responsibilities, such restrictions
were abandoned during the revision of the Labor Standards Act in 1999, except for the rules for
expectant and nursing mothers. Article 65 of the Act specifies maternity leave for women
workers, usually six weeks before and eight weeks after childbirth. Both male and female
workers are entitled to parental leave until a child reaches one year old.
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Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives 1 (2019) 100009
changed in order to widen opportunities for women. Educating more
women in STEM fields makes a great deal of sense to break through such
employment practices and this may be the point of departure where both
national and organisational efforts can find common targets and priorities
to promote women professionals.
2.3. Japanese education reinforcing STEM as a male domain
Behind the fact that fewer women work in STEM fields, it is assumed
that the Japanese education system has been contributing to discouraging
women from studying in STEM fields. Isa and Chinen (2016, 104) discuss
how the production of scientific knowledge has historically been the task
of men. There are two Japanese terms, rikei and bunkei. Rikei can be directly
translated to natural science fields (e.g., math, physics, engineering, com-
puter science, medicine, biology, neuroscience) while bunkei refers to social
science fields (e.g., humanities, sociology, economics, laws, political sci-
ence). The division of rikei vs. bunkei mirrors the dichotomy between mas-
culinity and femininity. Rikei is popular among boys as rikei subjects are
characterised as masculine and dynamic; and bunkei is favoured by girls
as bunkei subjects are thought of as feminine and static.
According to a survey conducted by the National Institution for Youth
Education (2017), 29.1% of female high school students answered that
they like rikei subjects compared to 45.4% of male peers. Another survey re-
veals that only 18.5% of Japanese female high school students want to be
involved in STEM fields in the future, while in other countries female stu-
dents show higher interest in STEM careers, for example, 46.2% in the
United States, 23.5% in China, and 43.3% in South Korea (National
Institution for Youth Education, 2014). The fixed images of rikei and bunkei
reflecting gender norms in Japan seem to penetrate throughout the
Japanese education system to discourage women from considering STEM
as a life choice.
Recently, the Japanese government has been strategically promoting
women as human resources in STEM careers. This meets the needs of com-
panies since the shortage of human resources in STEM fields will be more
serious. Prime Minister Abe established “kagayaku josei ōen kaigi” (directly
translated to ‘shining women support convention’), which aims at promot-
ing the participation of women in male-dominated industries. The projects
include, for example, supporting STEM careers for female students; promot-
ing women in construction; agriculture women project; and women truck
drivers project (Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet, 2014). Such
Japanese political campaigns to promote women in STEM fields, however,
focus on VET in STEM schools only and lack a dialogue with companies
which can provide company-led VET for empowering women
professionals.
2.4. Challenges faced by women in STEM with higher degrees
Despite such state efforts to promote Japanese women in STEM fields,
rikejo (directly translated to ‘science women’) carries a stereo-type that
women are unsuitable for STEM fields. Following the rikejo path is largely
regarded, by parents and teachers, as disadvantageous for women who
would face reduced job and marriage opportunities (Osumi, 2018). This
kind of perception by parents and teachers is likely to be found with
Japanese women with high academic degrees because they generally
need to study for several more years at post-graduate level and even at
post-doctoral level. By the time they are formally employed in a very com-
petitive recruitment process and building their professional careers, they
might lose the opportunity to marry or be unable to find a man with equiv-
alent or higher qualifications (Honda, 2004).
Theoretically, shown in Fig. 1, VET is offered in higher education, in-
cluding post-graduate level. However, in practice, STEM fields without
high academic degrees tend to be seen as more physically-oriented
(e.g., carpenters, plumbers) than intellectually-oriented (e.g., medical doc-
tors, bio scientists). This downgrading of fostering specialists in the field is
sometimes understood as vocational training. Therefore, although it is not
always the case, VET is generally regarded as different from higher
M. Kitada, J. Harada /
education. In this respect, transport sectors which this paper deals with are
rather fitting to the latter example, referring to VET without necessarily
high academic degrees. Instead of receiving a potential disadvantage of re-
duced job and marriage opportunities, women in transport sectors would
have different disadvantages than those who study and work in medicine
and other natural sciences. The next section discusses the features of trans-
port sectors which present cultural and social biases to women.
3. Transport sectors: Women in the male-dominated workplaces
Transport workers are generally regarded as blue-collar with an empha-
sis on physical strength and lower degree of education, though such stereo-
types are not necessarily correct when looking at the diversified group of
high-skilled specialists within the transport sectors. However, the stereo-
types regarding physical strength in dangerous workplaces (relative to of-
fice work) is generating discrimination against women in the transport sec-
tors. In fact, a survey by the World Bank (2018) reveals that 104 out of 173
economies restrict non-pregnant and non-nursing women from pursuing
the same economic activities as men and many of these restrictions were
found in transport and logistics-related sectors. It is evident that gender in-
equalities are officially practised by setting unequal regulations for women.
Women are often seen as unsuitable for work in the transport sectors.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) made a comparison of the pro-
portion of women in transport and other labour markets in Africa, Asia and
the Middle East. They found that in all the countries they examined, women
are under-represented in transport work; and in Japan, women were found
to represent 41.9% of the total labour market but only 20.9% in transport,
storage and communications (Turnbull, 2013a, 3–4). The low representa-
tion of women in the transport sectors is considered to be a result of cultural
stereotypes in the transport sector, determining that women are physically
and mentally unable to perform as well as male counterparts. Such gen-
dered construction of skill reflects power relations that maintain the gen-
dered character of the labor market (Steinberg, 1990). As a result, some
employers are reluctant to hire women (Corral and Isusi, 2007), ensuring
the presence of horizontal gender segregation in the workplace (Hakim,
1979; Kitada, 2010).
Apart from cultural stereotypes, similar gender-related challenges are
observed across transport sectors. For example, working conditions may
be poor in terms of wages, access to training, odd working hours which
are difficult to balance with family responsibilities, male-centred ergo-
nomic working environments and equipment, and the risk of violence and
harassment (Corral and Isusi, 2007). These “women's” minority problems
are often overlooked at the organisational level due to the organisational
structure of horizontal gender segregation.
In order to address the common problems across the transport sectors,
ILO has developed a career cycle model for women transport workers, cov-
ering the six career phases: Attraction – Selection – Retention – Interruption –
Re-entry – Realisation (Turnbull, 2013b, 13). Attraction is to attract women
to STEM fields and make a successful transition from school to work. It con-
tinues to Selection where women are employed with sufficient STEM quali-
fications. Retention is achieved by human resource development through
training and work-life balance. However, Interruption may occur when
women's family responsibilities arise with children or elder family mem-
bers. Re-entry enables women to return to work after the peak of family re-
sponsibilities with flexible work hours or transfers, and eventually they
reach promotion at work in the phase of Realisation. This model is indeed
helpful to understand how, holistically, women in transport sectors need
different types of support at each career stage.
However, since the model is developed from the employment perspec-
tive, it is not clear what role education and training, in particular VET in
STEM fields, shall play in order to feed qualified women into this model.
The model assumes that women are given the same opportunities to
study STEM subjects; however, in the case of Japan where company-led
VET may be a key to fostering STEM professionals, women may be disad-
vantaged because they are not “selected” from their work entry point.
Niemeyer and Colley (2015) provide deeper insights into the historical,
4
Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives 1 (2019) 100009
cultural and socioeconomic reasons that impact the organisation of work
and training. Social division of labour is, therefore, ‘a complex mixture of
individual choice, social orientations and institutional arrangements’
(Niemeyer and Colley, 2015). In the case of Japanese women in the trans-
port sector, women are less encouraged to choose to study in the respective
VET schools, and socially unselected in employment, which institutionally
excludes them from company-led VET. There is little research on how dif-
ferent transport sectors (e.g., sea, air, rail) are including women in their
VET structures. This paper, therefore, examines selected transport sectors
in terms of their VET opportunities for women by reflecting the six phases
of the ILO model: Attraction – Selection – Retention – Interruption – Re-entry
– Realisation. The paper also explores the role of VET for the progress of gen-
der equality in the work of transport sectors.
4. Methods
From the literature review, it is evident that women are horizontally
segregated in the male-dominated occupations. This social division of la-
bour relates to VET opportunities for women. In Japan, VET schools focuses
on teaching general skills, while company-led VET provides training for
company-specific skills. This paper uses selected transport sectors as exam-
ples to explore VET structures and gender. Transport sectors generally re-
flect male-dominated work environments, but they may present different
VET structures. In order to explore the role of VET for the progress of gender
equality in transport sectors, a comparative analysis of three different trans-
port sectors (i.e., sea, air, rail) was conducted.
In this paper, we shed light on the merchant marine as one of the most
male-dominated industries. According to Kitada (2017), the percentage of
Japanese female officers on merchant ships was reported as 0.6% of the
total Japanese seafarers on 440 ships sampled in June 2015. In addition,
a comparative institutional analysis was elaborated with other transport in-
dustries, such as air and rail. These STEM careers are selected based on their
common features: (1) male-dominated occupation; (2) irregular work pat-
terns and odd work hours; (3) physical conditions required; and (4) trans-
port sector.
4.1. Selection of sample
In the merchant marine, VET to become a seafarer (i.e., deck officer and
engineers) is offered at maritime universities (4-year bachelor degree) or
colleges (diploma). These VET institutions focus mainly on theories and
some practical skills, but shipboard training is offered by a specialised na-
tional institution which owns five training vessels with licensed instructors.
It is mandatory for cadets to complete both maritime school studies and on-
board training to receive an international license called a Certificate of
Competence (CoC). In the last decade, three giant Japanese shipping com-
panies, Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK), Mitsui-OSK Lines (MOL), and K-Line
have recruited Japanese seafarers not only from traditional maritime VET
graduates but also from graduates of non-maritime universities who have
general skills to train them on their vessels. This shift from VET from
schools to companies appeared to be efficient and successful in terms of
training highly quality seafarers, though traditional maritime schools felt
discouraged. Though there is no restriction for women to apply from ordi-
nary universities to become seafarers, the male image of the industry is
striking and more men apply and are selected.
For air transport, we initially checked commercial aviation but this sec-
tor used to set strict physical requirements, including height. Before the
amendment of the rule in 2011, an applicants' height had to exceed
163 cm, while the average height of a Japanese woman was 157.7 cm in
the same year (Statistics Japan, 2014); therefore, average-sized Japanese
women were not eligible. Due to our research interest in analysing the rela-
tionship between education and employment, we looked into the air force
which implements a moderate requirement of 158 cm and has a reasonable
welfare policy as a public sector employer. It may be arguable to regard the
air force as a transport sector, but the nature of Self-Defense Forces is de-
fense rather than offense and part of their operations is to carry goods by
M. Kitada, J. Harada /
airplane or helicopter to natural disaster sites, which meets the conditions
of our research interest.
For the rail industry, our sample comes from the East Japan Railway
Company, one of the largest rail networks in Japan. Some train driver can-
didates study at specialised VET schools for train operations but others are
directly hired after high school or university and trained by the company.
4.2. Data collection and analysis
The research data were collected by multiple methods, including litera-
ture review on research papers and archives from reports, news articles,
website information, and international and national statistics for secondary
data analysis. The analyses include the information of VET systems and
flows to support women's careers in the three selected transport sectors.
We also examined the accessibility of respective VET in terms of the selec-
tion of candidates as well as budgeting. In addition, the researchers gener-
ated empirical data through face-to-face interviews with both male and
female transport workers, VET teachers, and human resource managers. In-
terview data were transcribed and coded to extract key narratives. Any per-
sonal data were anonymised to ensure confidentiality. A comparative
analysis among three transport sectors (sea, air, and rail) was conducted
in terms of how different types of VET in respective transport modes were
accessible by women and helped their career paths in STEM fields.
5. Results
Cultural and social barriers are generally embedded in Japanese society
to accept the social division of labour, such as rikei and bunkei, discussed in
Section 2.3. Social classification of gender roles rationalises horizontal seg-
regation in STEM jobs. It is evident that such social orientation discourages
Japanese women from studying in STEM fields, affecting individual choices
of work. The three transport sectors in our sample display different patterns
of institutional arrangements from VET schools to company-led VET,
highlighted in Becker's human capital theory.
The data uncovered several key issues relating to the lack of opportuni-
ties for women to participate in company-led VET in Japanese transport
sectors. Among three selected transport sectors, the merchant marine ap-
peared to be particularly ineffective in terms of the promotion of women.
The study identified that in the merchant marine, the linkage between
VET and employment is weaker than in other transport sectors (i.e., air
force and rail). The results are presented in three parts: (Section 5.1) A com-
parative analysis of VET school settings; (Section 5.2) An analysis of transi-
tion from school to work and further training; and (Section 5.3) Who pays
VET for whom?: there is less investment in women in Japan.
5.1. A comparative analysis in institutional arrangements of VET
Among the three transport sectors compared, the institutional arrange-
ment of VET schools is very different in terms of the bodies responsible for
various components of VET. For example, in the merchant marine, theoret-
ical knowledge and some practical exercises (e.g., rope work, simulator
training, rowing life boats) are provided at maritime universities for a bach-
elor degree or maritime colleges for a diploma. In order to obtain a license,
called a Certificate of Competence (CoC) as a third officer, cadets must com-
plete 12-months' onboard training under the International Convention on
Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers, 1978
as Amended (STCW). This required onboard training is normally provided2
by a specialised national agency, called the Japan Agency of Maritime Edu-
cation and Training for Seafarers (JMETS) which operates five large train-
ing vessels with qualified instructors and trainers in both deck and engine
departments.
2
Japan is one of the few countries that onboard training is offered on training ships owned
by the government through a specialised agency. Most other counties have different systems,
which cadets apply for apprenticeship on commercial vessels to complete their 12-month man-
datory onboard training (for the case of third officer class).
5
Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives 1 (2019) 100009
These responsible institutions are differently managed under two Minis-
tries. MEXT monitors maritime universities and colleges while the Ministry
of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) administers JMETS
and the CoC issuance. Indeed, the coordination of these different VET insti-
tutions is not always smooth or effective due to bureaucracy and inter-
organisational, co-management issues between the two ministries. For ex-
ample, the shortage of seafarers on domestic vessels is a serious concern
in Japan because 44.8% of the existing domestic seafarers are over
50 years old and expected to retire in the next decade or so (Tohoku
District Transport Bureau, 2017). Campaigns to increase the number of do-
mestic seafarers, including women seafarers, are being undertaken by sev-
eral District Transport Bureaus under the MLIT. A focus group discussion
including female cadets and marine officers was held in 2015 under the co-
ordination of the Kanto District Transport Bureau. From its press release,
some participants stated that early exposure to maritime fields helped
them to be interested in choosing maritime VET. Some heard about seafar-
ing jobs from their fathers, brothers, or relatives who were working in the
industry. Others took part in sea scouts or marine lectures on a sailing
ship when they were children. The need to widely promote maritime VET
among young children was widely acknowledged in the focus group
(Kanto District Transport Bureau, 2015). In reality, only a few shipping
companies are active in employing women seafarers in Japan (Kitada,
2017). MLIT conducted interviews with seven shipowners (3 domestic, 4
international) and a labour union in 2017. They shared a view that
women tend to quit seafaring after marriage; therefore, their retention is
low; It is not realistic for women with small children to work on board for
three months on domestic vessels (MLIT, 2017a). What we notice here is
the lack of institutional support for women for VET in both selection and in-
terruption phases. MEXT, which is a ministry responsible for VET schools is
no longer involved in supporting women once they graduate. This high-
level of disconnection between VET schools and maritime transport em-
ployment (with company-led VET) reflects an ineffective institution for
training women seafarers in the long term. Unless both ministries share
the common goals of securing future maritime labour and utilising
women as an important human resource and communicate regularly, it
seems strategically ineffective in terms of maritime VET as a whole.
In the Japan Air Self-Defense Force (JADF), the connectivity between
VET and employment is directly established. Some apply for a job after
graduating from ordinary universities/schools and more experienced appli-
cants with technical backgrounds come from the private sector. The benefi-
ciary of VET is in fact the employer itself. Unlike the maritime VET model,
women trainees will be employed if they pass all the required study compo-
nents. In addition, this air force VET model enables a high retention rate of
women pilots and officers to be maintained, as they can easily find female
role models and mentors while in school.
In rail, there are some VET high schools and colleges in Japan where
students can learn the theory and practice of driving trains. Some train di-
vers come from ordinary high schools and universities. It is because most
railway companies provide VET after hiring the candidates and this
company-based VET is conducted over the long term to foster qualified
train drivers within the organisation. Similar to the air force, once women
are hired, they have equal training opportunities to men.
5.2. The analysis of transition from school to work and further training
From the analysis, it is evident that VET interventions can influence em-
ployment and retention of female STEM workers in the selected Japanese
transport sectors of sea, air, and rail. Fig. 2 shows the estimated percentage
of women in VET enrolment, employment and retention in merchant ma-
rine, air force, and rail in Japan. In the merchant marine, female cadets
are the minority (6.7%, n = 6 out of 90 in deck and engine) in maritime
VET institutions. Many female graduates are not hired as seafarers by ship-
ping companies as discussed earlier; hence, women seafarers represent only
1.1% (n = 1 out of 90) or close to zero when freshly employed. This esti-
mated figure of Japanese women seafarers is consistent with other reports,
indicating 1 or 2% worldwide (Belcher et al., 2003; BIMCO and ICS, 2016)
M. Kitada, J. Harada / Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives 1 (2019) 100009

50
45
40
40
35 34
30
25
20
15 13.7

10 10
6.7
5 3.4
1.1
0 2.9 0
VET enrollment Employment Retenon (aer 10 yrs)

Merchant Marine Air Force Rail

Fig. 2. Estimated percentage of women in VET enrolment, employment, and retention in selected transport sectors in Japan.1 1 [Merchant Marine] The VET enrolment and
their employment percentage for women cadets were estimated based on the statistics from Faculty of Maritime Sciences, Kobe University. [Air Force] The VET enrollment
percentage was derived from JASDF (n.d.); the employment percentage was from the average recruitment data for executive trainees in all defense forces, including air, ma-
rine, and land; the retention percentage of 10% was estimated based on the fact that some women may quit a job to be full-time mothers while the others would utilise a job
rotation within the organisation. [Rail] Out of 351 in the (Rail) transport course at Iwakura high school, 12 female students were studying in 2017 (JS Corporation, 2018); In
the busy traffic of Yamanote-Line as part of the East Japan Railway, approximately 40% of train conductors (candidates of train drivers) are women and it was reflected in the
employment percentage; An overall retention rate for women after 10 years of its employment is reported as 85% (East Japan Railway Company, n.d.) and we estimate that
34% of the female train conductors would retain.
(Source: Faculty of Maritime Sciences, Kobe University, 2005, JASDF, n.d., JS Corporation, 2018, East Japan Railway Company, n.d., Interviews by authors.)

and 0.6% nationwide3 (Kitada, 2017). After 10 years of service, almost all the others would utilise a job rotation programme within the organisation,
women seafarers are likely to leave the sea because of the difficulty of a small degree of drop from 13.7% was estimated and this study considers
work-life balance. One woman seafarer (n = 1 out of 90) who was that 10.0% would be appropriate for the public sector where women tend
employed in 2006 quitted after marriage so the retention rate after to stay longer. In rail, the interview data note that in the East Japan Rail-
10 years in Fig. 2 shows 0.0% (n = 0 out of 90). A Japanese female engineer way, life-long learning support during maternity leave helped to achieve
states that: a high retention rate (85%) of women after 10 years of employment (e.g.
Harada and Kitada, 2017). We calculated that 40% of female train conduc-
‘Men will watch you what kind of job she is doing. They don't know how
tors would become 34% (=40% × 0.85) if 85% of them remain.
to work with women on board. We don't have a female role model, be-
It should be noted that the estimation of women's share in the Japanese
cause women will eventually quit when they marry or become preg-
transport sectors, shown in Fig. 2, includes a degree of unreliability. In air
nant.’
force and rail, the data used at three different career points (VET enrolment,
[(Female junior marine engineer)]
employment, and retention) were not derived from the same sample group.
For estimation purpose, any available statistics were utilised to discover fe-
Both air force and rail have low estimated representation of women in
male participation rates in air force and rail, which are otherwise unable to
VET institutions at 2.9% (n = 8 out of 280)4 and 3.4% (n = 12 out of
make an estimation. The only consistent and trackable sample was the one
351),5 respectively. In the air force, however, employment in both sectors
from the merchant marine. This particular sample group of female cadets
is open to ordinary universities and high schools and these extra entry chan-
graduated in 2005, and they were employed in 2006. Their job status in
nels encourage women to apply for STEM jobs. Air force female employ-
2016 was traceable because one of the authors belongs to this sample
ment statistics were adopted from the available data on number of fresh
group. It made the merchant marine data accurate and reliable.
recruits in all defense forces (air, sea, and land) in 2016. Women were cal-
From the charted percentages in Fig. 2, both air force and rail, which
culated to account for 13.7% (n = 54 out of 395)6 of total recruits. The cur-
allow a better integration of VET into employment, seem to succeed in
rent percentage of women train conductors (candidates of train drivers) is
higher retention rates of women professionals after 10 years. This suggests
reported as 40.0% in Yamanote-Line (East Japan Railway Company, n.d.),
that continuous VET can help women professionals in STEM jobs to develop
one of the most heavily trafficked lines in Tokyo.
their careers and succeed in the male-dominated workplace. The fact that
Women's retention rates after 10 years of employment were estimated
both air force and rail provide their own VET to foster human resources
at 10.0% in the air force and 34.0% in rail. In the air force, based on the
in the long-term matches the concept of valued and unique human capital
fact that some women may quit their jobs to be full-time mothers, while
discussed by Lepak and Snell (1999).

3
This figure was estimated by the author from the sample of 440 vessels during the month 5.3. Who pays VET for whom?: There is less investment in women in Japan
of June in 2015, derived from the data published by MLIT, ‘Seafarer Labour Statistics, 2016’.
4
The JASDF recruitment website (http://www.mod.go.jp/asdf/recruit/saiyou/index.html
Accessed May 17, 2018) includes the interview message from a human resource manager of Permanent employment (or standard work) has been customary in
air force, stating that eight female applicants out of the total of 280 successfully passed the en- Japan, especially for men who are considered to be higher human capital
trance examination for the VET institution in 2016. than women. Men's return on investment is regarded as high because
5
The Iwakura high school has been traditionally offering VET for train drivers since 1897. men are supposed to devote themselves to the company for approximately
Formerly called, Iwakura railway school was the first railway school established in Japan. Ac-
cording to the database (https://school.js88.com/scl_h/22038650/ Accessed May 17, 2018),
40 years, until they reach their retirement age of, for example, 65 years old.
the number of female students in the transport course were 12 out of 351 in 2017. Women are, on the other hand, generally expected to quit after five to ten
6
https://job.rikunabi.com/2019/company/r212310034/employ/Accessed May 17, 2018. years of employment due to marriage and family. Some women who

6
M. Kitada, J. Harada /
standard workers
non-standard workers
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
always employers mostly employers mostly employees always employees
Fig. 3. Who decide job training in companies?: Job training is decided mainly by
employers rather than by employees. Note: The data is in 2014.
(Adopted from: Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan (2015).)
work as standard workers have been forced to shift to non-standard
workers after having families in order to benefit from the Japanese tax sys-
tem, which justifies a patriarchal society. Indeed, this classical picture of
Japanese permanent employment changed during Japan's bubble economy
in the 1980s by diversifying work patterns and being tolerant of different
career choices. However, women's employment situations have not signifi-
cantly changed in Japan, maintaining more than a half of women's status as
non-standard workers. This also makes it difficult for Japanese women to
choose STEM fields where standard work employment is expected from
the organisational perspective.
Regardless of whether standard workers or non-standard workers, job
training is generally assumed to be given by the employer across the
Japanese society. This is partly because the large majority of individuals at-
tend ordinary high schools and universities without specifying their unique
skill sets before seeking a job in the labour market. Many Japanese compa-
nies are in favour of employing those non-skilled fresh graduates and train-
ing them for their company needs. As a consequence, many companies play
the role of providing necessary company-led VET to their employees. Fig. 3
shows that the necessity and conduct of job training are decided mainly by
employers, rather than by employees, regardless of whether they are stan-
dard workers or non-standard workers. The problem is that companies
tend to invest in men rather than women. A great number of women are
on a job track that lacks the opportunity for promotion and cannot expect
adequate and sufficient job training by employers. Moreover, public job
training cannot remedy the situation as it is significantly constrained in
terms of budget.
As illustrated in Fig. 4, public expenditure on training is 0.01% of
Japan's GDP and far below that of the top countries such as Denmark
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
Fig. 4. Public expenditure on training as a percentage of GDP in 2015.
(Adopted from OECD (2017).)
Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives 1 (2019) 100009
0.60%, Austria 0.46% and France 0.37%, and considerably lower than
the OECD average 0.13%. Similar to Japan, the United States shows low
public expenditure on training, and through an incentive scheme, the ex-
pansion of apprenticeship with diversity and inclusion policies is reported
in South Carolina (Kuehn, 2017).
The fact that the Japanese government does not invest in VET will have
more impact on women than men. Japanese men are able to access job
training provided by companies, whereas women especially in STEM fields
find it difficult to be hired and access training. For example, shipping com-
panies tend to choose male applicants over females if they have the same
qualifications or sometimes even lower. This globally common phenome-
non was reported by a Swedish woman seafarer who was told by one ship-
n.a. ping company that ‘girls fall in love and make problems on board’ (Kitada,
2010). This attitude by the employer is also observed in the Japanese mar-
itime sector. Due to different versions of stereotypes about women, it is
challenging for women in STEM fields to get employed and receive job
training. The leaky pipe line in Japanese STEM women makes it difficult
to seek substantial job training in reality.
In the merchant marine, the situation is serious. Japanese seafarers are
standard workers hired permanently by Japanese shipowners, whereas sea-
farers in foreign countries are employed by contract (or by voyage). In
Japan, unless women seafarers are hired by the company as standard
workers, it is no longer an individual level of effort to fulfil the requirement
of further onboard working records in order to apply for promotion to
higher ranks, including senior officers, Captains and Chief Engineers. It is
also worth noting that seafarers on ocean-going vessels can be hired from
outside of Japan. In fact, the number of Japanese merchant seafarers signif-
icantly decreased from 56,833 in 1974 to 2237 in 2015 (MLIT, 2017b).
Many ocean-going seafarers are in fact supplied by foreign countries, such
as the Philippines and India, with lower manpower costs than Japanese sea-
farers. It is therefore very difficult for shipowners to justify hiring women
seafarers as they can find better (and more economical) alternatives in for-
eign male seafarers. From a life-long learning perspective, the Seamen's Em-
ployment Center of Japan (SECOJ) offers various cost-free VET short
courses on Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) simu-
lators, tankers, radio communications and others, but these training courses
are only for employed or early retired seafarers (SECOJ, 2017), meaning ex-
clusively for men. SECOJ's other business includes VET for foreign sea-
farers. Again, it is possible to conclude that Japanese women seafarers are
systematically excluded from equal access to life-long VET opportunities.
In the air force, VET and employment is directly linked. The promotion
of women in STEM in public sectors like the air force is much more ad-
vanced by implementing the country's top-down gender equality policies.
In the air force, along with a well-established welfare system, including ma-
ternity and parental leave and family benefits, VET is offered from a life-
long learning perspective equally to men and women.
In the East Japan Railway Company, especially after the abandonment
of gender-specific laws forbidding women from night-shift work in 1999,
various job opportunities became open to women, including train conduc-
tors and drivers. To increase the retention of women professionals in
STEM jobs, distance learning has been introduced for women on parental
leave who can continue their VET from home and thus stay on career
track and even seek promotion (Harada and Kitada, 2017).
These examples show that the role of VET should be recognised not only
before employment but also after employment in terms of increasing
women managers in STEM careers, highlighted as the “Realisation” phase
of the ILO model. The leaky pipeline in the case of the merchant marine
can be argued as a failure in integrating VET into each stage of the ILO's
transport women's career cycle model.
6. Discussions
Based on the comparative analysis of three Japanese transport sectors
(merchant marine, air force, and rail), it appears that the case of the mer-
chant marine shows a gap between school-based VET and company-led
VET, limiting the participation of women in seafaring and contributing to
7
M. Kitada, J. Harada /
their poor retention rate. Male seafarers have access to life-long VET pro-
vided by the company or governmental agencies in an organised manner,
while women do not have the same training opportunities unless they are
recruited by the shipping company as standard workers who benefit from
all the training provisions. In addition, other human resources (foreign sea-
farers) as a low-cost alternative to Japanese women seafarers decrease
women's competitiveness in the labour market. The institutional arrange-
ment of life-long VET in the merchant marine is, therefore, creating a
leaky pipe line wherein properly trained female cadets after graduation
from maritime VET schools are not fully utilised as human resources.7
On the other hand, the case of the air force shows a better linkage be-
tween school-based VET and on-the-job VET, and the case of the East
Japan Railway Company presents a good practice of offering distance learn-
ing while on parental leave from a life-long learning perspective, serving as
a tool to promote women STEM workers and increase their retention. From
these examples, it can be concluded that education and training are the key
to promoting women in STEM fields. It would be ideal to make necessary
VET interventions at every stage of the ILO's women transport workers' ca-
reer cycle model, stopping the leak in the pipe line.
The importance of VET for women especially in the interruption phase
(when women's family responsibilities are in high demand and women
tend to leave the job) is also recognised in other STEM sectors. For example,
in medicine, the number of female doctors has been significantly increasing
in the last 40 years in Japan. Female doctors' share was only 9.4% in 1976
but gradually increased to 19.7% in 2012 (Gender Equality Bureau Cabinet
Office, 2017). Medicine is also a STEM field in which VET and employment
are closely linked. In addition, some university hospitals take active mea-
sures to provide life-long learning opportunities for female doctors after
maternity and parental leave. For example, Shiga University of Medical Sci-
ence started a gender programme in 2016, targeting early retired female
doctors by providing flexible VET. It is helping female doctors who had to
leave the job due to child-rearing but want to return to the hospital and sup-
port the local medical services (Shiga University of Medical Science, 2017).
While this study explains how Japanese women workers in selected
transport sectors (i.e., sea, air, and rail) can be attracted, selected, and
retained through VET, there is very little literature on VET for women trans-
port workers in other countries and how life-long VET may affect their cor-
porate performance. Bloomberg Finance LP (2019) reports that only 10% of
eligible companies in their study of the 2019 Gender-Equality Index (GEI)
are disclosing their workplace gender policies and practices. Transparency
in gender policies and practices is, therefore an important factor in facilitat-
ing firm-led VET opportunities for women workers.
VET programmes need to be more open to women in transport sectors
from a long-term socio-economic perspective. A rapid change in industries
and labour markets, such as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, implies the
need for dynamic intervention to educate future skilled workers with the
right qualifications, especially in STEM fields, through industry-academia-
government collaboration. Without a long-term vision and investment in
education and training, the country cannot socially and economically sur-
vive and would face a lack of human resources which cannot be produced
when needed. This is what Japan is paying a price for not investing in edu-
cating women as important human resources in STEM fields.
7. Conclusion
The paper reveals that among three transport sectors (sea, air, and rail),
the merchant marine has failed to integrate VET into women seafarers' ca-
reer cycle, therefore creating a leaky pipe line. For female cadets, VET op-
portunities stop after the graduation from maritime VET schools unless
7
The majority of female cadets in merchant marine tend to work ashore in maritime or non-
maritime jobs. Their maritime knowledge can be useful but their qualification as seafarers is
not fully utilised. In the last several years, some major shipping companies in Japan started
to recruit graduates from non-maritime universities and train them by the companies. A few
women are also recruited in the process while those female cadets trained at the traditional
maritime VET institutions still face the same challenges in employment.
8
Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives 1 (2019) 100009
they are employed by shipping companies, which is very difficult due to
the reluctant attitude of shipowners to recruit women among Japanese
and foreign male candidates. Stereotypes about women in STEM fields
are strongly observed in the maritime sector.
The other transport sectors, such as air and rail, are clearly advancing
gender equality and present good practices to offer life-long learning sup-
port during maternity and parental leave. This suggests that continuous
VET can help women professionals in STEM fields to develop their skills
and lead to career success in the male-dominated industries. Considering
Japan's low public expenditure in training among OECD countries, it is sug-
gested to increase the budget and prioritise women in STEM fields under
the Japanese government's strategic promotional campaign.
Furthermore, the study also referred to a non-transport STEM sector,
medicine, where a rapid increase in the number of female medical doctors
has been observed in Japan. The case of medicine again supports the find-
ings of this research on women in transport sectors, largely benefitted from
life-long learning support.
The paper concludes that the role of VET should be emphasised to sup-
port women transport workers from the life-cycle career perspectives pro-
posed by ILO: Attraction, Selection, Retention, Interruption, Re-entry, and
Realisation. Based on good practices in STEM VET in air force, rail, and med-
icine, it can be proposed that institutional arrangement of maritime VET
should be reviewed through gender-mainstreaming to eliminate the sys-
tematic problems of excluding women seafarers from training opportuni-
ties. Then, it can be considered to institutionalise VET support at each
stage of the ILO women transport workers' career-cycle model through
the partnership of industry-academia-government as well as transparency
in gender policies and practices.
The limitations of this research would be the small sample, which can-
not represent and reflect the whole transport sector in sea, air, and rail.
Most significantly, the commercial aviation industry was not examined in
this study due to the previous employment policy on minimum height for
air pilots, limiting data generation for this particular study. The accuracy
of the estimation of percentages of female transport workers can be im-
proved via large surveys and interviews with transport employers.
Future research can also look into legal and economic analyses on how
VET-related regulations and company policies can make an impact on gen-
der equality in STEM fields. It is predicted that transportation is one of the
most affected sectors by automation and robotics where many jobs may be
replaced by computer-controlled equipment (Dolphin, 2015, 75). This
technology-driven context may create new opportunities for those who
have not traditionally been considered to be suitable for working in trans-
port sectors, for example, women and the elderly. It is, therefore, interesting
to investigate how STEM education and training is possibly transforming its
operations to adopt future technological change in transport sectors to-
wards a diverse and inclusive workplace.
Acknowledgements
The authors express their appreciation to the anonymous participants
and contributors to this study.
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