Tokyo

Japan's female researchers want respect and equal opportunity — without having to meet unreasonable standards of achievement.

That is the prevailing sentiment that arose from the landmark first meeting of a Japanese liaison council for gender equality on 7 October, which brought together 29 academic societies to find ways of improving the status of female researchers in Japan.

Education minister Atsuko Toyama — one of four women in the government's 18-member cabinet — opened the meeting, which members hope will mark the start of a serious effort to tackle a long-term problem. The percentage of women scientists tails off into single figures in the upper levels of both industrial labs and universities.

Speakers outlined various ongoing efforts to create a more even playing field, including the introduction of crêches at society meetings and appeals to government, universities and granting agencies to create more transparent evaluation and recruitment systems.

But the meeting heated up when several delegates objected to a mission statement honouring cancer researcher Marie Curie for “having proven the outstanding ability of women in the natural sciences”. “The statement implies that only special women with tremendous abilities can compete with men,” said Kay Domen, a researcher on blue semiconductor lasers at Fujitsu Quantum Devices. “Regular women also need to be able to compete.” It is now being revised.

The committee's first task is to conduct a nationwide survey. One of the organizers, Kazuo Kitahara, president of the Physical Society of Japan, says she is confident that the committee will get a grant from the education ministry to collect statistics on the number of women in different fields, their success in obtaining grants, and even information about the prevalence of sexual harassment. Female researchers say that a lack of detailed information has exacerbated their problems (see Nature 410, 404–406).

Despite some scepticism from meeting participants about its chances of making a difference, the committee has at least raised awareness. For example, the Society of Chemical Engineers, Japan, now recognizes that only 2% of its members are female — and none of these women holds a senior position in industry or academia. “Until now we had never thought about building a society based on equal participation by men and women,” the society admitted in a statement.