To give you some idea what women are dealing with in Japan and Korea, if the prejudice that they have to contend with on a regular basis were instead directed at people of color — to give but one example — there'd be a world-wide uprising, and rightfully so.
It might surprise you to learn that most of these companies have transported these sexist attitudes to North America, and that many Canadian women aren't given the same chances to advance as men.
It's also fair to point out that these feelings aren't universal in foreign car companies, that there are a few men who understand the value and fairness of promoting women to all levels of the company. This is true around the world, but particularly in Canada and the US where our more enlightened thinking has greater influence.
Notwithstanding those few positive areas and because I'm a child of the sixties and an early early supporter of the feminist movement, this general situation just drives me crazy. If I were a social activist today instead of a burned-out hippie, and if I wanted to do something to improve the rights of women around the world, I would take this situation on.
Which brings us to the psychological point I made earlier about positive reinforcement for negative behavior. Which means I am indeed talking about simply not buying vehicles from Asian and European car companies, or whichever ones are judged to offend society's sensibilities enough.