Japan is a developing country for women. Women don’t decide their working career by themselves nor getting engaged in the society compared to men. Specifically, only 22% do. In addition, WEF shows that Japan has the biggest gender gap in the G7 countries. Furthermore, this April, at the entrance ceremony of the University of Tokyo, a female professor made speech "Women will not be rewarded in society.”, which became a hot issue in Japan.

One of the most terrible phases about liberation of women is job hunting.

In Japan, women must wear typical outfits, black suits, black heels, black hair and black bag in the periods. It is odd that everyone goes to job interviews in the same uniforms and sacrifices their individualities and values. This might be attributed to Japanese ingrained perception that women are not meant to build succeccful carriers. Therefore, they can’t display who they are. As a result, many women don’t kick off their working lives positively. Almost 60% of women answered that they felt blue when deciding the job. Unfortunately, it’s hard for women in Japan to realize their hopeful lives.

We held “change” event, where Japanese young women exchanged black items , the symbol of melancholy of job hunting, with recipist’s skin care goods which advocates brightening women as its brand mission. It means “Change the black start line” This event was held at a shrine, a power spot for Japanese people, and imitates Japanese traditional ceremony which dedicates their graceful items to the Gods. We delivered a message “Stop being a prisoner of your past. You can move on and brighten your life .“In that way, we transformed negative feelings into positive toward their following working careers and their lives. We created this idea in relation to a specific issue” job hunting” in Japan.

We target Japanese young women who just finished job hunting as well as companies and media participated in job hunting activities. Women in target felt negative about job hunting that forces them to sacrifice their individualities and values, which indicates that women don’t need to build great career. We focused on “black job hunting items (black suits, black bag ,black heels and so on )“ the symbol of the black start line and painful memories. With these items, we pick the issue of the black start line and empower young women with the key message, “Change the black start line”. To deliver this message, we had an event and a web campaign where they can exchange the items instantly.

We conducted an online survey towards female students who are to start their working lives. It revealed that 57.3% of women felt blue when deciding jobs. After publishing this result, we collected job hunting items, from an event, an internet, and college communities for easier access. (campaign participants:4100)We piled those items at a graceful place for all Japanese people, “shrine”, in a traditional manner. After these activities, we exposed true feelings and mindsets of job hunters in Japan by items and episodes gathered. 4100 Japanese women took part in this project and shared on their SNS. Also, media postings were 284 earned and 1.9+ billion UU. It was also published on social aspect of an influential morning newspaper. We did it on a budget of 0.16 million dollars.

<4100 participants + 284 earned media & 1.9+ billion UU>

4100 Japanese women took part in this project and shared on their SNS. Also, media postings were 284 earned. It was also published in the social aspect of an influential morning newspaper. Besides, the project has brought a new custom after job hunting for Japanese women. It is way beyond a simple promotional campaign.

“This event allows Japanese women to live their lives with own will.” -Yomiuri Shimbun

After this event, job hunting has changed and some companies started to prioritize women’s individualities. They don’t have to wear black suits anymore.

This project changed SHISEIDO CSR activities. The company started activities to pull out women’s individualities.