The Potential for Women's Career Development through Overseas Employment and Accumulation of Management Know-How

The long-term development of ability in the workplace through transfers and job rotations and the accumulation of diverse experiences and skills can be cited as important factors in promoting the formation of women's careers. In recent years, globalized companies have sought increasingly to expand their human resources and training bases, not only within Japan but also overseas. Some of these companies have posted female employees overseas actively in order to bring about long-term internal human resource development by building up their experiences in diverse workplaces.

In this paper, we carried out an interview survey of female employees working at companies that actively promote overseas postings with the aim of developing women's careers. Interviews also were carried out on women who abandoned continuous employment at their previous companies in order to seek a new start overseas. The paper considers the relationships between experience working overseas and women's career development and the application of women's abilities.