日本年輕女性收入首次超過男性

Not only can young Japanese women look forward to a longer life than their male peers, now they also make more money.

Income for single women under 30 hit an average of 218,156 yen ($2,680) a month in 2009, edging above the 215,515 yen ($2,640) of their male counterparts for the first time ever, according to an Internal Affairs ministry survey.

The change, which saw women's incomes surge 11.4 percent from the previous survey five years ago compared to a 7 percent fall for men, was driven by the plunge of the global economy and the fact that men's incomes simply had more room to fall.

"Basically, men's salaries were much higher in general, and they took a much bigger hit when the economy worsened," said Hideo Kumano, chief economist at the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute.

"In addition, many more men work in manufacturing than women, and after the Lehman failure things for this sector really chilled."

Japan's economy has always been export-dependent and centered around manufacturers, who suffered especially badly from the late 2008 failure of Lehman Bros and the global stock market plunge that followed. In early 2009, Japanese stocks fell to a 26-year closing low.

By contrast, women are much more involved in jobs in medicine and nursing care, which have surged as Japan's population ages.

In addition, Kumano said, younger women may finally be starting to reap the rewards of the trails blazed by older predecessors in white-collar jobs such as finance.

"Women are now more able to take career-track jobs like this thanks to those in their 40s and older, who now are taking up managerial positions," he added.

But Kumano cautioned the figures may be a one-off fluctuation and it is still too early to see if the change is lasting.

According to the 2009 United Nations Development Programme's Gender Empowerment Measure, Japan ranked 57th out of 109 countries in political and economic participation for women.

Women accounted for only 4.1 percent of department managers in private corporations in 2008, according to a study by Japan's Gender Equality Bureau of the Cabinet Office.

日本年輕女性不但預期壽命會比男性長，如今她們賺的錢也比男性多。

根據內務省的一項調查，30歲以下的單身女性2009年的平均月收入達到21.8萬日元（2680美元），有史以來首次以微弱優勢超過了同一年齡段日本男性的平均月薪（21.55萬日元，合2640美元）。

相比於五年前的調查結果，女性的收入上升了11.4%，而男性的收入下降了7%。這一變化一方面是由於全球經濟的蕭條，另一方面也是因爲男性的收入確實有進一步下降的空間。

日本第一生命經濟研究所的首席經濟學家熊野秀夫說：“一般說來，男性的收入總體上會比女性高得多，在經濟惡化時受到的打擊也大得多。”

“另外，在製造業工作的男性要比女性多得多，而在雷曼兄弟公司破產後製造業嚴重衰退了。”

日本經濟一直是依賴出口並以製造業爲中心，2008年末雷曼兄弟破產，隨後全球股市暴跌，日本受創尤其嚴重。2009年初，日本股市收盤跌到了26年以來的最低點。

相比之下，隨着日本人口的老齡化，在醫藥和護理行業工作的女性大大增多了。

另外，熊野說，青年女性也許終於能夠開始收穫前輩們在金融等白領行業的耕耘成果了。

他還說：“多虧那些如今擔任管理職位的40歲以上的女性，日本女性現在更有能力勝任這樣有職業前景的工作。”

但是熊野提醒道，這些數據可能只是曇花一現的波動，要想知道這一變化是否會持久還爲時尚早。

根據2009年聯合國發展計劃的性別權力指數，在女性參與政治和經濟的情況上，日本在109個國家中排名第57位。

根據日本內閣辦事處性別平等局的一項研究，2008年私營企業的部門經理中，女性只佔4.1%。

Vocabulary:

edge: to increase or decrease slightly 略爲增加（或減少）

one-off: made or happening only once and not regularly（一次性的；非經常的）