In April 2020, Naoko Takara became the first woman to be appointed general manager of one of Okinawa Prefecture's three regional banks after becoming head of the Business Promotion Department at the Bank of the Ryukyus.
Takara, 55, currently the general manager of the bank’s Personnel Department, has also now been joined by Yukako Sakima, 57, who became the general manager of the Operations Department in 2021. The two women have broken the glass ceiling limiting the promotion of women to senior management positions in the prefecture’s financial institutions.
When they joined the bank in the late-1980s, the working environment was a far cry from what it is today. Employees were allowed to smoke at their desks, while some senior staff were known to drink alcohol in the office after 5 p.m. Working long overtime hours was routine, and they often began working at 7 a.m. and not returning home until around 11 p.m.