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

Bayari, Celal (2025): Japanese women doctors in the hospital system: Gender gap, professional burnout, and the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic.

Abstract

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.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Burnout, gender gap, Japan, women doctors, workforce participation
• Subjects: D - Microeconomics > D1 - Household Behavior and Family Economics > D13 - Household Production and Intrahousehold Allocation; D - Microeconomics > D3 - Distribution > D31 - Personal Income, Wealth, and Their Distributions; D - Microeconomics > D6 - Welfare Economics; D - Microeconomics > D6 - Welfare Economics > D63 - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement; H - Public Economics > H5 - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies; H - Public Economics > H5 - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies > H51 - Government Expenditures and Health; H - Public Economics > H5 - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies > H52 - Government Expenditures and Education; H - Public Economics > H5 - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies > H53 - Government Expenditures and Welfare Programs; H - Public Economics > H5 - National Government Expenditures and Related Policies > H55 - Social Security and Public Pensions; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I11 - Analysis of Health Care Markets; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I13 - Health Insurance, Public and Private; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I15 - Health and Economic Development; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I18 - Government Policy ; Regulation ; Public Health; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J3 - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J3 - Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs > J31 - Wage Level and Structure ; Wage Differentials; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J4 - Particular Labor Markets; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J4 - Particular Labor Markets > J41 - Labor Contracts; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J4 - Particular Labor Markets > J44 - Professional Labor Markets ; Occupational Licensing; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J4 - Particular Labor Markets > J45 - Public Sector Labor Markets; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J5 - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining > J53 - Labor-Management Relations ; Industrial Jurisprudence; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J5 - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining > J58 - Public Policy; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J7 - Labor Discrimination; J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J7 - Labor Discrimination > J71 - Discrimination; K - Law and Economics > K1 - Basic Areas of Law; K - Law and Economics > K1 - Basic Areas of Law > K12 - Contract Law; P - Economic Systems > P1 - Capitalist Systems > P16 - Political Economy; P - Economic Systems > P4 - Other Economic Systems > P43 - Public Economics ; Financial Economics; P - Economic Systems > P4 - Other Economic Systems > P46 - Consumer Economics ; Health ; Education and Training ; Welfare, Income, Wealth, and Poverty; R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics > R1 - General Regional Economics; R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics > R1 - General Regional Economics > R12 - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; R - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics > R1 - General Regional Economics > R13 - General Equilibrium and Welfare Economic Analysis of Regional Economies; Z - Other Special Topics > Z1 - Cultural Economics ; Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology > Z13 - Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology ; Social and Economic Stratification

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