Tokyo

For what is believed to be the first time, charges of sex discrimination against a professor in a public university have been upheld by a Japanese district court.

In a recent ruling, the government of Japan's Nara prefecture has been ordered to pay ¥550,000 (US$5,000) in compensation to Kumiko Ogoshi, an associate professor in the department of public health at Nara Medical University.

In addition to some minor charges, such as the disposal of liquid waste in the plaintiff's office, the professor supervising Ogoshi was found guilty of “unjust distribution of research funds”, “refusals to sign necessary documents”, and “attempts to urge Ogoshi to resign or transfer”.

But, referring to a legal exemption for government officials acting on duty, the court said that the compensation should be paid by Nara's prefectural government, rather than by the academic himself.

Three years ago, after more than two decades as an assistant professor, Ogoshi decided to sue her supervising professor on the grounds of unfair treatment and “bullying”. She says that she took this action only when the situation became “unbearable” after she launched an association of assistant professors in 1993, which drew attention to problems in Japan's academic research system. “I simply couldn't continue doing my research work any more,” she says.

Many female scientists in Japan say they have been exposed to similar pressures. The percentage of female scientists in career positions is very small.

Only 7% of professors in Japan's public universities are female. And as most of these are concentrated in disciplines such as household economics or literature, the number in science and engineering departments is considerably lower.

This is in sharp contrast to an increasing number of female science graduates in the country — and a comparable increase in co-authorship by female scientists of highly cited papers. But, in a system where hiring and promotion decisions often depend heavily on personal contacts or recommendations from a senior professor, female scientists face significant career barriers.

A researcher at a national research laboratory who prefers to remain anonymous says her promotion to group leader was evaluated negatively on the grounds of a lack of management experience. “But in reality, they just didn't want to have a woman at laboratory-chief meetings,” she says.

In one high-profile case, Akiko Itai, an assistant professor in the pharmaceutical department at the University of Tokyo, decided to set up her own company after the university repeatedly refused to promote her to professor. Today she runs the Institute of Medicinal Molecule Design, a rational drug-design company and one of Japan's most successful new biotechnology ventures.

Ogoshi says she is pleased by the court's decision to award her compensation, but adds that the courts have shown “little understanding” for the situation in Japanese universities where an organizational model called the 'koza system' gives professors almost unlimited control over their juniors.

Although Ogoshi says she does not expect the situation in Japanese universities to change soon, she argues that changes will never arrive “if women scientists don't speak out”.

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