 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., along with its brand names “National” and “Panasonic,” is a general electronics manufacturer whose products range from: electronic components, home appliances, consumer electric products, factory automation equipment, information & communications equipment, housingrelated products for manufacturing, and sales and service operations.
When the Equal Employment Opportunity Law passed in 1986, we restructured the company environment to work towards “enabling the women's workforce” to participate more fully in the company. Furthermore, since the amendment in the Equal Employment Opportunity Law in 1999, we have been working to improve in the area of “Equal Partnership.” In our personnel policies there is no distinction between men and women. However, there was a discrepancy when looking at the number of men and women and who held management and high level positions within the company. This was caused in part by people’s lack of awareness of equal employment opportunity rights in the work place. In order to establish “Equal Partnership” in the work place, we have been working on four goals; “Work Culture Reform,” “Promoting Equality,” “Support Success at Work and Home,” and “Consultation Services for Women.” In addition, we took various measures such as providing management training courses, Matsushita’s “positive action” program and creating opportunities for women to demonstrate their abilities. Through these measures we areworking towards establishing a work environment where individuals can, regardless of their gender, actively participate within the company.
In April, 2001, as part of the reform process, the “Kagayaki Women’s Division” was founded. In order for Matsushita to continue providing customers with great products into the 21st century, it’s important to develop a corporate culture that embraces diversity and utilizes talented people from different fields. One measure taken to accomplish this goal is to create more diversity by utilizing women who represent the largest minority group in the company. The “Kagayaki Women’s Division,” now called “Corporate Equal Partnership Division Organization,” under the direct control of the company’s president is working towards three goals. First, develop a company culture that is receptive and open to diversity. Second, increase the rate of women's participation in management positions. Last, create new business models and products by utilizing diverse insight. For the last three years, we have been putting women role models in the spotlight inside and outside the company. This has allowed employees to see the achievements women have made.
Thanks to these measures, 1,600 women now hold management and high level positions. Furthermore, the number of women division leaders has tripled. Now we can even find women holding positions as laboratory and division managers in many areas such as manufacturing, sales, and development.
Developing a company culture that utilizes the diverse talents of its workforce is a key to future success. We will continue to encourage “men and women working towards great achievements at Matsushita.”
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 The “Future” Club was started by women who had become aware of gender issues through attending lectures given at the Kishiwada Municipal Women's Center in Kishiwada city, in the southern part of Osaka Prefecture. These women founded “Future” club wanting to do something in the hope of realizing gender equality in society.
We have seven members most of who are in their 30’s and have children up to seven years old. For the past two years, we have been meeting three times a month to study and learn about gender issues. We have also conducted lectures and held exhibitions on related issues.
Last year, we had the opportunity to make a video for distribution, thanks to a “Jump Activities” subsidy from Osaka Prefecture. The content of the video included the message that mothers in the coming generations should not take on raising their children by themselves and they should not follow the same sense of values and ideas that were passed on from their parents. It also had a funny puppet show about gender free childraising, so everybody would enjoy learning. Because we lacked the money, we had to perform and make everything like the script, puppets, music, and illustrations with the exception of filming and editing. We were able to discover and use the different talents of each member during the production process. We also were able to grow individually and develop a stronger connection with each other.
The Kishiwada Municipal Women's Center asked us this year to plan and organize two lectures. The lectures are on children’s rights. We are also planning to conduct a questionnaire survey about the child abuse case that took place in Kishiwada and make suggestions in regards to the kind of support that mothers need for raising their children, from a mother’s standpoint.
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