This paper examines how women’s status and leadership capabilities developed through club sport seldom manifest in sport-related employment in Japan. Female student-athletes have long invested in the school club sport system in Japan to augment personal growth, social status, and educative or career opportunities. The cultivation of life skills and leadership attributes are important aspects of sport club pedagogy for females. However, the status and skills women foster through club sport less often materialise in sport-related workplaces due to the centralisation of male-male hierarchies and conservative gender ideologies. The qualitative data utilised in this paper was collected through field work and a questionnaire survey (n=240) at a sport university in Japan in 2022. The data provides a sample of female student-athletes’ views on post-university life options that are shaped by gender norms and their perceived leadership attributes. Literature and statistics on women’s employment in Japan are drawn upon to examine how gender inequity continues to play out in sport-related workplaces despite shifts in women’s consciousness and the capabilities developed through university club sport. Women’s leadership capabilities are underutilised and Japan could make better use of human capital like other countries that are better at harnessing the capabilities of women.