A well-educated, chain-smoking, occasionally foul-mouthed comic-book character has become a heroine for millions of Japanese women who are battling for recognition in the country’s male-dominated workplace.

Through her exploits, women have begun to see how, perhaps, they might overturn decades of gender inequality and chip away at one of Japan’s most frequently decried statistics – that, across all industries, only 10 per cent of managers are female.

To succeed in her working life, Hiroko Matsukata, a fictional magazine news editor, deploys a range of arts that her fans are quickly adopting themselves. The 28-year-old is sweet when she needs to be and flint-hearted when threatened. She is even able to control her use of Japanese, suddenly dropping the niceties of speech traditionally expected of women when she needs male colleagues to take her seriously.

But her most powerful weapon has turned out to be a controversial one: when work gets tough and her male bosses pile on the pressure, she flicks on her psychological “Man Switch” and is transformed into a career-focused, success-driven typhoon of productivity.

“Absolutely, women need a Man Switch,” Moyoco Anno, the 36-year-old creator of the comic, says. “It doesn’t imply that men are superior to women, but that people need to understand better the differences of how men and women behave in the workplace and use that.”

For decades the Japanese comic industry has done a roaring trade in cartoons that chronicle the miseries and triumphs of the salaryman. Anno’s comic is a deliberate role reversal. The mould-breaking comic, Hataraki Man (Working Man), tracks the agonising day-to-day trials of a woman trying to balance the modern desire for a career with the dead weight of traditional Japanese social values. It has become so popular that it has been made into an animated cartoon for girls and a prime-time television drama for women.

Hiroko’s adventures have also become the basis of a bestselling lifestyle guide for the modern working woman, teaching the art of remaining feminine during the fight for equality and showing how to cope with truculent bosses, difficult coworkers and unsupportive partners.

The Japanese Government has said that it wants 30 per cent of all managerial and leadership positions to be filled by women by 2020, which would require tens of thousands of real-life Hirokos.

But Anno argues that her comic is about much more than just the art of succeeding in a male-dominated work culture. Japan, she says, is a serial waster of both female and male talent. Part of the message of Hataraki Man, she says, is to highlight what she believes is one of the worst problems afflicting Japan – that the desire for a lazier, more comfortable lifestyle has gone too far.

She says: “The traditional virtue of Japan was that people took everything very seriously. As those traditions have been eroded, the quality of Japanese work has been downgraded.” She notes that women are in a strong position to capitalise on this changing atmosphere.

The adventures of Hiroko Matsukata have captivated women at a critical juncture: even the Government acknowledges that some of its demographic problems, such as the rapid ageing of society, can be solved only by redrawing the gender balance within Japan Inc. About 70 per cent of women quit their jobs when they become pregnant and most do not return to work for at least 15 years. According to research by Goldman Sachs, even a modest change in Japanese society – the addition of 2.6 million women to the workforce – would have a huge impact, raising long-term GDP growth from existing forecasts of 1.2 per cent to 1.5 per cent.

Another day at the office, Hatakari Man-style

It is another hectic day at the magazine for Hiroko Matsukata as she inches her way painfully to the top despite impossible colleagues and a messy personal life. Already there have been tears, stand-up office rows and endless cigarettes. Suddenly, the boss orders a massive feature on the Foreign Minister. She breathes deeply and focuses. “Work mode – on!!” she thinks. “Man Switch – DEPLOY”. Her eyes burst open and a surge of energy washes over her. Laser-focused, she works through the night, ignoring all distractions until the work is done.

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