Does a decade make a difference? A second look at western women working in Japan

To assess changes over the past decade in the self‐reported levels of adjustment, job performance, and professional acceptance of western women professionals working in Japan.

Napier and Taylor's benchmark 1995 study of western women working in Japan is replicated ten years later on a similar sample group of women in Japan. Questionnaire responses to questions about cultural adjustment, job performance, and professional acceptance are compared for the original and new samples.

Despite increased westernization of business practices in Japan and a greater representation of Japanese women in management positions, no statistically significant change is found in the scores for the three measures examined over the ten year period. The incidence of formal training, preparation, and support provided by employers was higher for the more recent sample.

The sample size is relatively small and represents only women in the Tokyo area, which may limit the study's generalizability to women in less metropolitan areas of Japan.

Both for those women professionals who live and work in Japan and for HRM professionals responsible for expatriation and adjustment issues involving those women, provides evidence that adjustment challenges persist despite changes in Japan's sociocultural environment.

By carefully replicating the original study and sample characteristics as closely as possible, this paper provides a useful longitudinal perspective on the situation of foreign women professionals in Japan.