Maria Mercedes Corralesknows well the challenges of navigating the corporate world of Japan as a female boss.

玛丽亚•梅塞德丝•科拉莱斯(Maria Mercedes Corrales)深知作为一名女性老板游走于日本企业界的挑战。

When she took over the struggling Japanese operations of Levi Strauss

她还能清晰地回忆起2001年接管李维斯(Levi Strauss)陷入困境的日本业务时，部分员工与客户拒绝与身为女性总裁的自己讲话的情形。随着她成功扭转公司业绩，他们之间的沉默之墙才逐渐瓦解。

in 2001, she vividly recalls how some of her employees and clients refused to speak to a female president. That wall of silence came down gradually as she turned around the company’s performance.

“你是女人，就会经受考验，”她说，“你的价值由你做出的成绩衡量。”

“When you are a woman you are put to a test,” she says. “You are measured by the results that you deliver.”

科拉莱斯来自菲律宾。她后来还短暂领导过星巴克(Starbucks)日本分公司一段时间。因为她的经历，如今她再次以新的身份回到日本，为一批崭露头角的女性创业者担任导师。“世易时移。如今的日本像处于’女性复兴时期‘，”科拉莱斯说。

Backed by her experience — which later included a stint heading the Japanese unit of Starbucks

大部分变化源于日本首相安倍晋三(Shinzo Abe)推动更多女性进入职场的努力。高盛(Goldman Sachs)估计，如果他能成功地消除就业中的性别差距，这将为日本国内生产总值(GDP)带来近13%的增长。

— Ms Corrales, from the Philippines, has returned to Japan for a new role as mentor to a group of budding female entrepreneurs. “A lot of things have changed. It is like a renaissance in Japan for women,” Ms Corrales says.

尽管如此，推动更多女性担任高级职位的努力仍未能激发女性创业。日本国有银行——日本政策金融公库(Japan Finance Corporation)的数据显示，上一财年，仅有16%的新公司由女性创办。

Much of the change is driven by prime minister Shinzo Abe’s push for more women to be in the workforce. If he succeeds in closing the gender gap in employment, Goldman Sachs estimates it would boost Japan’s gross domestic product by almost 13 per cent.

“（日本女性）面临的问题之一是，在各行各业缺乏女性领导者和导师做楷模，”美国银行(Bank of America)国际企业社会责任执行官雷娜•德西斯托(Rena De Sisto)说。她领导着一个由为女性赋权的非盈利组织“关键声音”(Vital Voices)参与组织的女性领导者全球指导项目。

Despite this, efforts to promote more women to senior roles have still to inspire women to become entrepreneurs. In the last financial year, only 16 per cent of new businesses were started by women, according to Japan Finance Corporation, the government-owned bank.

当这一2012年发起的项目上月在东京举行活动时，有70名女性申请11个名额。为了担任导师，科拉莱斯取消了自己的旅行计划。现在，她正在指导32岁的董事总经理内田友纪(Yuki Uchida)，帮她为她的公司Re:public制定商业策略，该公司支持企业和城市中的创新。

“One of the things [Japanese women] face is access to women role models both in leadership and mentoring in different skill sets,” says Rena De Sisto, international corporate social responsibility executive at Bank of America. She heads a global mentoring programme for women leaders co-organised with Vital Voices, a non-profit organisation for empowering women.

“我们正处于一个许多初创企业都面临的阶段，”内田说，“我们需要考虑公司要往哪个方向发展，要扩大到何种规模。”

When the programme, launched in 2012, held an event in Tokyo last month, 70 women applied for 11 slots. Ms Corrales cancelled her travel plans to apply for the role of mentor. She is now coaching managing director Yuki Uchida, 32, in shaping her business strategy at Re:public, which supports innovation in companies and cities.

Social Concierge是一家以在线杂志和商店促进可持续生活方式的非盈利机构，其创始人林民子(Tamiko Hayashi)说，自己的障碍在于缺乏获得资本的技巧。通过这一项目，她学会了如何与银行家打交道，为企业扩张融资。

“We’re at a phase many start-ups face,” Ms Uchida says. “We need to think about where we want to take the company from here and how much we want to expand.”

分析师表示，日本创业活动不活跃还源于对创业的态度，包括对失败的恐惧。分析早期创业活动的《全球创业观察》(Global Entrepreneurship Monitor)去年发布的一份报告显示，在日本，表示恐惧失败的受访者的比例为54.5%，而英国的这一比例为43%，美国的为34%。

Tamiko Hayashi, founder of Social Concierge, a non-profit organisation promoting sustainable lifestyles with online magazines and shops, says the hurdle for her is the lack of know-how in gaining access to capital. Through the programme, she has learnt how to approach bankers to finance the expansion of her business.

作为导师角色的一部分，科拉莱斯还要设法缓解内田对自己前途和能力的担忧。“你必须相信自己。我们被推上这一岗位，因为人们认为我们有能力做好，”她说。

Analysts say the low level of entrepreneurial activity in Japan also stems from attitudes towards start-ups, including the fear of failure. A report last year from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, which analyses early stage start-up activity, respondents in Japan expressed a fear-of-failure rate of 54.5 per cent compared with 43 per cent in the UK and 34 per cent in the US.

回忆过往，科拉莱斯说，如果当时让她担任公司二把手，她不会接受自己在李维斯和星巴克的职位：“当你担任一把手时，就可以为组织定下基调。”

As part of her mentoring role, Ms Corrales also sought to ease Ms Uchida’s fears about her prospects and her capabilities. “You have to believe in yourself. We are put on the job because people think we are capable of doing it,” she says.

回报也可以战胜担任公司最高职位的恐惧。在科拉莱斯看来，回报就是她在李维斯工作期间与最初还对她持怀疑态度的男同事结下的友谊，如今这份友谊已有10年之久。

Looking back, Ms Corrales says she would not have accepted her jobs at Levi Strauss and Starbucks had she been offered a No 2 position: “When you are at the top, you set the tone in your organisation.”