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Nikkei's Changemakers: No girls allowed!
Everyone loves the idea of "change," but business publisher Nikkei has yet to acknowledge the "change" that the females of the species are bringing to Japanese business and society
We don't care if you are rich and powerful, Changemakers: Lose the black silk pocket square.Nikkei Business -- the online magazine of business newspaper publisher Nikkei -- has announced the candidates for its "Changemakers of the Year 2010" awards. Readers are now able to vote on the 54 individuals in three fields (Business, Crafts/Creative, Research) until April 19.
One little hitch: If you were planning to vote for your favorite female business leader or creative industry pioneer, you are out of luck. Nikkei included zero -- yes, zero -- females in the 54 slots. (We know, the name Miki Watanabe sounds like a woman, but he's definitely a man.)
Japan is often accused of being a rigid patriarchy with a kilometer-thick glass ceiling, so maybe Nikkei was not actively discriminating as much as just reflecting the sad state of female contributions in Japanese industry. But this is certainly not true. For example, eight architects were nominated for the award, yet recent Pritzker Prize winner Kazuyo Sejima (of SANAA) -- a woman -- was left off the short list.
We'd rather not assume that Nikkei wants to perpetuate the Japanese business world's sexist hegemony. I mean, they did go as far as name the prize the gender-neutral "Change Maker" rather than "Businessman of the Year" or "Big Strong Change-making Man," etc. So we are going to go with the only other plausible explanation for ignoring 50% of Japan's population in coming up with the nominees: They already hired the male model for the official logo photo and didn't want to have to go back and add a woman to balance it out. Seriously, those reshoots cost a lot.
(Hat tip to Hiroko Tabuchi.)
