Japan prefecture to stop hiring female ‘tea squad’ for meetings

Saitama assembly hopes move will reflect changing attitudes towards women in workplaces

A local government assembly is attempting to shake up Japan’s conservative workplace culture by ending the custom of employing women to serve tea at meetings.

Few official gatherings in Japan have properly begun until female employees – known collectively as the ochakumi (“tea squad”) – have placed cups of green tea in front of their invariably male senior colleagues, occasionally accompanied by something sweet.

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