Statistics on Gender Equality in NAOJ

Figure 1 shows that, among a variety of job categories in NAOJ, Research and Academic Staff (regular) have the lowest percentage of female employees: only 6%. The second-lowest percentage of female employees is for Engineering Staff (regular) at 19%. This figure is not as bad as that of Research and Academic Staff, but cannot be considered sufficient. Figure 2 shows the percentage of female employees in each position of Research and Academic Staff and Employees on Annual Salary System. You can see that the female shares in Project Research Staff, in which younger generations account for the majority, exceeds 20%. However, the female percentages drop significantly as the position level gets higher. On the other hand, Figure 3 shows that, as in the case of Project Research Staff, the proportion of women among graduate students exceeds 20%. We therefore believe that it is important to establish a working environment where these younger generations can flourish in the future, and we are now working to improve and develop a range of support systems including childcare.

Figure 1
Figure 1: Male-to-female ratios in each NAOJ job category in FY 2019. Research and Academic Staff includes Professors, Associate Professors, Assistant Professors, Senior Research Engineers, and Research Engineers. Employees on Annual Salary System include Project Professors, Project Associate Professors, Project Assistant Professors, Project Research Staff, and Senior Specialists.
Figure 2
Figure 2: Trends in the numbers of male and female employees in research-related positions. The green lines represent the percentages of female employees each fiscal year.
Figure 3
Figure 3: Trends in numbers of male and female students of the Department of Astronomical Science, SOKENDAI. The green line represents the percentage of female students each academic year.