Tokyo, Japan (CNN) -- Change a few circumstances in her life and Sakie Fukushima says she would have been a housewife. She was raised to be a good Japanese wife and homemaker, after all. That's what was expected of women of her generation -- to sit behind their men, make their bentos, iron their shirts and watch them rise to lead Japan's economy. Life did not go as Fukushima expected. 60-year-old Fukushima is one of Japan's most powerful executives, sitting on the board of both U.S. and Japanese-based multi-national companies. The fact that she is a female in one of the most male-dominated business cultures is a stunning backstory in one woman's remarkable ascent through the so-called "bamboo ceiling." Bamboo bends, and unlike glass, never breaks. But Fukushima managed to crack through, by working for a U.S. company.
@highlight
1.4 percent of Japanese executives are women
@highlight
Women in Japan are pushed to traditionally female roles
@highlight
Leading businesswoman thinks Japan may be ready for a change
@highlight
First woman on board: Corporate Japan wants to change; doesn't know how
"If I was to work for a Japanese company, a large @placeholder company, I don't think I would have come this far."
She is the first female to be elected to the @placeholder company's boardroom.