“Women,” observed Arthur Schopenhauer, “are by nature enemies.” Who cares what a crusty old 19th-century misogynist philosopher said? Shukan Bunshun (May 2-9), for one. The magazine quotes in a lengthy feature titled “Women Hating Women.”
Could he have had a point? Certainly there’s not much gender solidarity in Bunshun’s 32 pages. On average, it’s one poison pen portrait per page, each of 32 women celebrities pilloried by a woman writer who hates her.
Rich, brassy, pushy celebrities have often aroused the malevolence of their more sedate sisters. Talent, if they had it, would win the celebs absolution, but their only real ability, in the eyes of their detractors, is a knack for “getting the most results from the least effort.” That’s the nub of business writer Rumi Sato’s case against actress Rie Hasegawa.
Sato gives Hasegawa this much credit at least: “Once she sets her goal, she lets nothing stop her.” She does a lot of things, none of them particularly well in Sato’s view. She acts, runs, writes, appears as a “vegetable sommelier” – but mostly, says Sato, she chooses her men shrewdly and rides their coattails to fame and fortune. Her first coup was her affair with actor Junichi Ishida. Then there was actor Masaki Kanda. When thrown over, Sato says, she doesn’t nurse her wounds quietly – she writes an autobiography and rakes in “a small fortune.”
“She’s like the office screw-up who somehow always gets promoted and nobody can figure out why,” Sato sums up.
Saeko – that’s her stage name; her real name is a secret – is best known as the ex-wife of Major League baseball star Yu Darvish. Rumors swirl about her divorce settlement – 10 million yen a month? Two million yen a month? Whatever the figure, she’s doing very nicely – to the chagrin of writer Ami Takada, who sees nothing in her worthy of such heights. In March, Saeko released a photo collection titled “Saeko Snap!” It’s supposed to be about Tokyo, Paris, Hawaii – in fact, Takada complains, it’s almost exclusively about Saeko: Saeko in lingerie, Saeko sporting brand name handbags worth hundreds of thousands of yen each, and so on.
Takada feels sorry for Darvish: “He’s pitching in a foreign country, carrying the expectations of Japanese baseball fans on his back, while Saeko lives in luxury.”
“It wouldn’t be so bad if she was quiet about it,” Takada says, “but she’s not happy unless other people are jealous of her!”
Dewi Sukarno – businesswoman, actress, socialite and, most famously, Japanese widow of former Indonesian leader Sukarno – has her claws out for actress Mitsu Dan. “I have been on TV with her,” says Sukarno. “I hated her at first sight.”
Dewi (born Naoko Nemoto) was 19 when she married Sukarno in 1962. He was deposed in a coup in 1967 and died three years later. As for 32-year-old Dan, “She reminds me of a postwar prostitute, with her sultry eyes, half-open mouth and the way she wiggles. She’s a vulgar fake. If people are divisible into ‘real’ and ‘fake,’ she is most definitely fake.”
Imagine Schopenhauer reading Shukan Bunshun’s feature. Wouldn’t he say, “I told you so”?
© Japan Today
20 Comments
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Carolee Thumma
Women have been their own worst enemy for ever. Probably back to when the first cavewoman stole another's caveman because he was strong and brave. Woman will stab their bestfriend/sister/mother in the back to get what they. Granted not every woman, but it happens to women more than men.
I know I'm a woman and I've been paying attention. How many times have you started a fight with your man because you were mad at something else? How many times have you asked your man a question knowing there is no answer and you're going to be pissed no matter what. How many times have you said "I love you" to a man and got pissed because he didn't lie and say it back to you and then you got mad at him for being honest?
Yeppers...we're our own worst enemies.
bec
Wakarimasen
3 is still cool.
Moderator
Back on topic please.
tmarie
Yes and perhaps you should understand that the Kardshians are only "popular" because it's like watching the scene of an accident. You know you shouldn't watch but just can't not.
nath
Mitsu Dan is the best. Women using their assets to their utmost is pretty worldwide phenomenon = Kim Kardashian anyone?
Graham DeShazo
Moby, you nailed it. She was not much more than a prostitute herself and has lived off that "glory" ever since. The shows where she features her home are an abomination. Her house is one step down from a cheap bordello.
Moby Grape
Dewi Sukarno, the name the 19 year old bar hostess Naoko Nemoto took on after hooking up with the then 57 year Indonesian head of state, Sukarno, who she shared in a polygamist relationship with five other women. She continues to live on Sukarno's fame and money many years after his death. She appears on Japanese TV showing her vast skills in being selfish, vain and vulgar. Who is she calling a fake and a prostitute?
Japannna
Typical kuchikomi article, this is absolutely dreadful. I find it fairly disturbing that only one person has commented the thinly veiled misogyny here...
Morry
Japanese women are surely a bit LESS catty than Western women, aren't they?
That's my impression anyway....
tmarie
Guy's like her because she is sexy and attractive and plays the part. She is very intelligent , and holds a number of different licenses, including one as a JHS English Teacher.
Do you have any idea how easy it is to get the JHS English teaching license in this country? I think if you knew the process, knew what kind of student gets them you wouldn't be using this as an example of her supposed intelligence. Licensing here is joke and often is more about sales than about qualification and skill. Sorry but any woman who does as she does for money doesn't rank high in the intelligence ranking in my opinion. If she was that intelligent, she wouldn't be making money on her looks and playing the part of a damsel in distress with nothing between her ears.
Shi Yuehan
Ladies put away the knives, don't demean yourselves, life is too short- Kuniko Mukoda
ambrosia
Stupid, misogynistic headline. When women don't like each other they have their "knives out". Is that meant to conjure up images of "claws"? When guys don't like each other and bash each others brains out in bars, what's that, just boys being boys?
Yubaru
Like her or not I give her credit for being open about who and what she is. Guy's like her because she is sexy and attractive and plays the part. She is very intelligent , and holds a number of different licenses, including one as a JHS English Teacher.
She plays the game, is getting her 15 minutes of fame, and making a ton of money off of it as well. Hell she is in her 30's already and she knows her looks will only last so long.
Goals0
But Mitsu Dan has beautiful black hair. Is that not enough?
tmarie
Oh and yes, Mistu Dan... She's the one "star" that really makes my blood boil. Fake, an airhead and yep, no talent. Hubby has to change the channel when I see her. It disgusts me that anyone pays her for anything. Dewi is correct in her comments with regards to that thing.
tmarie
Takada feels sorry for Darvish: “He’s pitching in a foreign country, carrying the expectations of Japanese baseball fans on his back, while Saeko lives in luxury.”
Weell perhaps he should've been smart and put a "cap" on. Why any "rich" man in this country doesn't get the important of them using birth control amazes me. Well known here women here manage to get up the duff (not alone, of course) and demand marriage. Why the guys haven't figured this out and wrap up is beyond me. Sorry but Yu got what he deserved - a nasty, materialistic, spoiled wife. If there is pity to be had, it is for their two kids.
Dennis Bauer
Making money of cardinal sin number 6?
combinibento
You've got to be kidding me. Dude signed a $60 million contract.
Yubaru
Pot- Kettle-Black Ms Nemoto!
She should know, that's how she got noticed too, takes one to know one kind of thinking. Dan Mitsu is just playing a part and making cash off of it too. Maybe that's what Nemoto is really jealous about!
Yubaru
What was she, something like the 6th wife? Things must be pretty bad that she has had to sink so low as to be a "talento" on JTV.
If Dan Mitsu is an actress, then I am the president of the United States! She probably hated her because she is sexier and smarter than she ever was or will be.