This summer, Japan’s legal prohibition on women working in tunnel construction is set to be lifted.
A panel from the Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry agreed in May that “there was little need to keep women out of tunnel and mining work” said reports.
Like many countries, Japan had folklore that said the presence of a woman in a mine or tunnel was bad luck. The legislation, however, arose from a desire to protect pregnant women from working in a dangerous environment when it was enacted in 1947 and the coal industry was widespread with many female coal miners.
In time, the law was revised to allow female journalists or medical professionals underground, but female employees of construction companies could not be put in charge of tunnel construction.
With increasing numbers of female engineers, conflicts have become more common over the types of assignments they can be given said local reports. The latest revision to the legislation this summer should address this.
