“Having it all” – at what cost? Strategies of Chinese highly skilled women in Japan to combine career and family

Abstract

Being both foreign and female, Chinese highly skilled women face double discrimination in corporate Japan. Yet this study argues that due to their transnational networks and expertise they turn unfavorable circumstances for work–family balance into strategies to improve work–career compatibility to a degree still unattainable for many Japanese women. While outcomes thus seem rosy from a labor market perspective, these strategies come at a cost both for the women and for the Japanese labor market. Strategies include leaving Japan to join the Chinese labor market, family separation, and delayed marriage or childbirth.