Japanese Society Has Finally Caught Up
The path to English teaching that had opened up for me after my first accomplishment was abruptly closed again when I failed the examination required for employment as a teacher. My dream shattered, I took a job with an electronics manufacturer. But it was that experience that led to me becoming the person I am now—which is what makes life so unpredictable and fascinating.
I joined the company in 1985, exactly the same year that Japan's revised legislation on equal employment opportunities for men and women came into being. But I was forced to give up work after only six years due to my husband's job relocation and the birth of our child. Yet I wanted to work and the company wanted me to work as well…the situation just seemed so absurd, and that was what spurred me to get involved in facilitating and promoting teleworking.
The "tele" in teleworking means "distant." In other words, teleworking is an arrangement that enables people to be at home or somewhere other than a company's premises, while performing the same work as usual to the same standards of quality as if they were in the office.
I started by launching Y's Staff Corporation in 1998. It's a unique organization that uses ICT networks to connect women who, like me, were forced to give up work despite having the ability and the desire to continue. We accept orders for a whole variety of jobs, and for each one we put together a team that can make the best use of workers' individual skills. (258 words)
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