Katsumi Nishimura, a 76-year-old who lives in Osaka Prefecture, boarded a plane at Kansai International Airport on Oct. 14 bound for Geneva, Switzerland.

For the first time in eight years, she was off to the United Nations. 

Nishimura had zero connections with the organization prior to her first journey 30 years ago. That initial trip and the following three throughout the years were filled with a range of emotions—anger, joy, hope and frustration. 

This fifth one is marked by the passing of the baton to younger generations in a conflict far older than Nishimura's own war.  

It was when she entered her 40s that Nishimura started to feel that something was wrong with her workplace. 

Men who started to work for Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. at the same time as her held managerial positions.

Younger men who entered the company later than her were also promoted one after another.

However, all women remained rank-and-file employees.

Nishimura had spent her entire career there, joining after graduating from high school and choosing to stay following the birth of her two children.

She wondered why women were not entrusted with positions that granted greater responsibility and joined a study group made up of working women.

Soon after that, Nishimura learned there was a place where this resentment was recognized as something more—sexual discrimination. That place was the United Nations. 

As a platform where she would be able to submit a report of the reality of the Japanese workplace and observe discussions, Nishimura resolved to make a trip happen.

Nishimura flew to New York in the winter of 1994 when she was 45 years old. 

Flier and translation machine in hand, she made it to the venue for the Committee of the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) with members gathered from across the globe.

She found herself unexpectedly welcome as she spoke with members.   

At work and the union, nobody had listened to Nishimura's complaints about discrimination against women.

“You are the first working woman to visit other than researchers,” said a committee member. “Your effort will lead to eliminating discrimination against women,” another said.

In 1995, a year after she first visited the committee, Nishimura and other women filed a lawsuit against Sumitomo Electric for gender-related wage discrimination.

The group lost its first case in 2000.

In 2003, when CEDAW convened to review the Japanese government's work on sexual discrimination, Nishimura and other women flew to the United States to attend. Their presentation on Japan's actual situation where the courts did not provide redress proved impactful. 

The committee issued strong recommendations to the Japanese government in its official observation; in a way, this could be seen as a reaction to Nishimura’s presentations.

CEDAW expressed serious concerns about the wage gaps between men and women, particularly those arising from the hiring practices for non-career positions and those with promotion prospects.

Even if Japanese companies’ regulations may appear unrelated to gender on the surface, they may still result in one gender being at a greater disadvantage—in other words, indirect discrimination.

The committee required the Japanese government to define “indirect discrimination” and establish domestic laws to prohibit it.

Japanese media reported widely on this strong recommendation, changing Nishimura’s life.

In the winter of the same year, the presiding judge brought forth a settlement recommendation, which was unprecedented, in the appeal trial.

The judge mentioned CEDAW's findings, “All women hold the right to receive the benefits from outcomes that arise from social reform that aims to realize gender equality.”

“I didn’t expect it," Nishimura said. "The presiding judge accepted the international trend over the issue.”

The settlement recommendation was practically a victory for Nishimura.

She was promoted to a managerial position the following year.

In 2006, the Equal Employment Opportunity Law was revised to include a prohibition against indirect discrimination, even if it is only partial.

THE FIGHT CONTINUES

A ruling that for the first time recognized the “indirect discrimination” established by the Equal Employment Opportunity Law at that time was delivered in a wage discrimination case filed by a 45-year-old female company employee at Tokyo District Court in May.

One of the company’s employee benefits for housing, which was only available to employees in positions with promotion prospects—mostly men—was declared illegal.

The woman has been working for a subsidiary of AGC Inc., located in Tokyo, as a non-career position.

The old plaintiffs Nishimura and other women, who had fought against sexual wage disparity for a long time, helped the woman while she was fighting the legal battle.

Nishimura and other women gained the unprecedented ruling at that time, but the company kept treating women as staff to do supplementary jobs even after the ruling.

Japan ranks 118th out of 146 countries in the 2024 Global Gender Gap Report published by the World Economic Forum.

Women’s income is 70 percent that of men.

The situation has been changing, but there is a long way to go.

The woman who learned how Nishimura paved the way for gender equality said, “I will do everything I can for the benefit of younger generations.”