Honda has assigned a woman, Kunii to its board for the first time and given a major promotion to a foreigner in a sign the automaker wants to change perceptions of a hidebound corporate culture. Honda Motor Co. announced Monday that technology expert Hideko Kunii, 66, will join the board, and Issao Mizoguchi, a Brazilian of Japanese ancestry, has been appointed operating officer. These appointments require shareholder approval at the June meeting of the establishment. The company has come under fire in Japan does not advocate any person other than Japanese men. Honda officials clearly stated that Kunii was chosen is because her’s ability and she is the right person but not because of the gender issue. Among Japanese companies, Nissan Motor Co., allied with Renault SA of France, has been the most progressive in promoting diversity. However, this has not yet appointed a woman to its board of directors. Placing women in leadership positions is a motive of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's policies to rescue the moribund Japanese economy. Japanese society is expected to lose its potential for growth and innovation, if it does not do more to encourage women to enter the labour market, because its population is aging and shrinking. This is because Japanese is a high masculine culture country which the society is driven by competition, achievement and success, with success being defined by the winner in field. This culture make women hard to climb up the corporate ladders in Japan with their masculine norm of hard. Women say the difficulties of finding proper child care as well as cultural expectations about women doing housework making it difficult to significantly pursue a career in Japan.