How This Startup is Getting Japanese Moms Back to Work – Waris

Miwa Tanaka, CEO of Waris, is working to make things better for working women in Japan.

Although things are slowly changing, most Japanese women still must leave the workforce when they have children. The Waris platform helps them get back on track, either as a freelancer or by restarting their career.

We talk about her startup, of course, but we also talk about the difficulties women still face, the kinds of roles they are traditionally placed into, and the traditional employment structures and roles are changing. It’s a optimistic interview and Miwa explains why she believes that corporate Japan truly wants to change things for the better.

It’s a fascinating discussion, and I think you’ll enjoy it.

Show Notes for Startups

Why Japanese women leave the workforce when they have children The problem Japanese women face during negotiations How the Tohuku Earthquake changed Miwa's life path Why the Japanese government changed its opinion on freelancers What "diversity training" actually means in Japan and why it's important The importance of startups selling to each other and bootstrapping the ecosyste Why Japanese women are attracted to entrepreneurship and freelancing

Links from the Founder

Everything you ever wanted to know about Waris Friend Waris on Facebook Follow Waris on Twitter @info_Waris The Waris community blog Cue for working women in Japan. Friend Miwa on Facebook

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Transcript from Japan Welcome to Disrupting Japan, -- straight talk from Japan's most successful entrepreneurs.

I am Tim Romero and thanks for joining me.

Miwa Tanaka, the CEO of Waris is working hard to make things better for women in Japan. The changing roles of Japanese Women in both start-ups and large enterprises is something we talked about quite a bit on disrupting Japan and Miwa has a unique perspective on this subject.

Waris is a platform that is helping Japanese women who've quit their jobs to have children, rejoined the work force. Now, of course, we talk about the social and business conventions that results in Japanese women having to quit their jobs to have children in the first place. But often the best solutions to these kind of social problems are small steady improvements, and that's what Miwa is trying to do. In fact, hearing Miwa explained what Waris is shows us some microcosm of women in Japanese business, --- the difficulties women face, the kind of roles they've traditionally been placed into and also how those roles and the traditional employment structure are changing but more important, perhaps, how Japanese women themselves are choosing to adapt, to work around, occasionally, walk away from those restrictions.

And as Miwa explains, another sign that things are getting better here in Japan is that Waris has a steady stream of corporate customers who are asking for diversity training. I think that this is a sign, much like it was with previous guest who discussed the demand for open innovation and LGBT sensitivity training that corporate Japan wants to change.

I think much of corporate Japan and the government as well, are sincere on their efforts to make things better. But as Miwa explains, sometimes those changes can painfully slowly, but Miwa tells that story much better than I can. So, let's hear from our sponsors and get right to the interview.

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[Interview]

Tim: So, I'm sitting here with Miwa Tanaka, the co-founder and the CEO of Waris. So, thanks for sitting down with us.

Miwa: Thank you so much for inviting me.

Tim: Now, Waris is an online job matching service to help women continue their career after they've had children. I'm sure you can explain it much better than I can. So, why don't you tell us about what Waris does?

Miwa: Okay. Thank you. Waris is a job matching company for women who have professional skill sets and we connect their skill sets with Japanese companies through a flexible work schedule, like a 3 days’ work a week or working remotely.

Tim: Is it telecommuting? Is it part time? What's the usual situation?

Miwa: Oh well, sometimes they work at the clients and they also work at their home.

Tim: Okay. So, it's both situations?

Miwa: It's both situations.

Tim: And is it usually part time work or there's some fulltime?

Miwa: Mostly they are part time worker. As you know, almost 60% of women quit their jobs after giving birth in Japan because in most Japanese companies, we have to work so long hours and it makes women very difficult to keep working.

Tim: Actually, a little later on, I want to get back into exploring details about this dynamic of women having to leave the workplace and trying to come back in, but for now, are these jobs permanent jobs or they're jobs that last for a few months?

Miwa: The average is 7 months. So, it's a kind of project work by contract. They're independent contractor or people who want to be independent contractor.

Tim: I see. So, it's kind of half way between a crowd sourcing platform and a job site. It's sort of in the middle there.

Miwa: Yeah. That's right. We are not crowd sourcing, we're agent for such women who would like to work by contract.

Tim: Are most of the people using Waris using it as a stepping stone to get back into the job market? Or, they're using it as a way to get part time work?

Miwa: 30% of our registrants are searching jobs and they would like to go back to workforce.

Tim: So, does that mean that they're using Waris just a temporary step before going back fulltime?

Miwa: Yes, that's right.

Tim: I see.

Miwa: And also, 20% of them are freelancers.

Tim: And they're just using the Waris platform to get more jobs??

Miwa: To get more jobs and to get new client.

Tim: Okay.

Miwa: But then in Japan, independent contractors is still rare and it's a little bit challenging for them to work with their clients. They tend to be weaker than clients.

Tim: They don't negotiate for as higher fees as they could?

Miwa: Yes. That's right.

Tim: I see.

Miwa: Many Japanese women are not so good at negotiating.

Tim: This is something that is very true in the United States as well.

Miwa: Oh, really?

Tim: Women in general tend to be weaker negotiators than men. I think it's a global phenomenon, but it probably is more extreme in Japan just because those social pressures are so much stronger here.

Miwa: Yes.

Tim: Let's take a step back for a minute, let me ask you a little about you.

Miwa: Okay.

Tim: You work in a magazine publishing before starting Waris. So, what made you leave publishing and want to start your own company?

Miwa: Before starting Waris, I worked as a writer and editor over ten years and I belonged to magazine named Nikkei Women. This is a magazine for Japanese working women. I interviewed a lot of Japanese working women and I found how difficult for them to keep on working in Japan.

Tim: What made it difficult for them to continue working?

Miwa: The working long hours. It's a Japanese traditional working way. In many companies, we have to work not only 8 hours but also maybe 10 hours.

Tim: Yes, crazy over time.

Miwa: Yes, 12 hours. It's really common in Japan. Women have their children, they have limited hours in taking care of their children, it makes them very difficult for working as usual.

Tim: It's a big jump from noticing a trend to leaving your job and starting up an new company. So, what made you decide to make that jump?

Miwa: The biggest incident was earthquake of 3.11. Can can you say in English?

Tim: The March 2011, The Fukushima earthquake.

Miwa: It was a kind of incident to me to decide this kind of life change because at the earthquake, I stayed at Tokyo but as you know, Tokyo is not the center of the earthquake but it was a really big event. Because of the earthquake, I thought about my career, or my future and I realized that life is not everlasting. I mean, suddenly, it would be stopped by such a kind of earthquake. Life is only once, so I would like to do what I really like to.

Tim: So, was starting a company something you wanted to do for a long time ago?

Miwa: No, when I was working in a publishing company, we worked with a lot of freelancers. I would have liked to be a freelancer but I didn't think about starting our business as a company.

Tim: Okay. And why did you decide on a company to help working moms get back into the work force?

Miwa: I thought I'd like to support women to keep on working. They thought exactly the same, we started to talk about how can we do that.

Tim: Are any of you working mothers yourselves?

Miwa: One of us. Her name is Fumika San. She is a mother.

Tim: Okay. It was a problem that was really right in front of you and we understood.

Miwa: Aha.