Japanese women doctors in the hospital system: Gender gap, professional burnout, and the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic

Japan’s national hospital system, which consists of a combination of private, national, prefectural and metropolitan hospitals, is the largest employers of the of the doctors. The article provides details on the women doctors’ discontinuous workforce participation in the Japanese hospital system, the dominance of part-time work patterns, and the nature of inflexibility in the work structures that disallow the maintenance of separate work and life spheres. This paper further discusses the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic on Japanese healthcare provision structures in hospitals and the extensive inhibitions that the pandemic placed on the careers of women doctors. The article details the nature of the chronic doctor shortage in Japan, and professional burnout incidences among the women doctors, and how the COVID 19 pandemic intensified these two factors. The analysis herein raises the policy issues at government and workplace level. The article argues that the establishment of free and universal childcare facilities, and family caregiving mechanisms via government fiscal restructuring would assist in the dissolution of gendered work patterns.