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© KYODOGender gaps deeply ingrained in Japanese society: U.N. official
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IronBeard
I recently discovered that the 遺族年金 system (basically small government life insurance for if your partner does so you can support your family) is higher if the man dies than if the woman dies. It doesn’t matter if the woman was earning and the man was looking after the kids: the government support received from the death of a wife is less than that for the death of a husband.
Was pretty gobsmacked to be honest. All this talk of womenonics and the system is still set up this way. In the past it seems that if the woman died the man got zero though so I suppose it has improved... a bit.
IronBeard
In fact I just read up on it and it’s worse than that even.
https://ma-bank.net/blog/1029/
TheLongTermer
Age gender and nationality discrimination is a real issue in Japan. I can still remember job postings for men in blue, and women pink
I see some changes, like women in construction and truck drivers but, its slow
The author is right, its their loss if they dont change.
SimondB
Who would have thought? After all is has been the norm for hundreds if not thousands of years. Kudos to the UN for brining it to our attention.
Toasted Heretic
Time for a matriarchy.
Jonorth
Womenomics is a total joke. The problem is, Abe doesn't really care about equality - he cares about using women as workers to solve a crisis on that front, and as mothers to solve the population-crisis, plus appeasing his conservative voters. That way nothing will truly change for regular women.
Jonorth
@Wobot
I think you have some points, and I think it underlines how the entire labour-market in Japan has gone awry. Women reject work because they know they'll end up in dead-end careers, serving tea and make photocopies (although I know it's a bit cliche), while at the same time keeping up the home front. As it is now there are just more incentives to be a housewife with maybe a part-time job. Few people really want to work like a salaryman, probably also explains why women are happier. So yes, we have to question what women want, but also why they want it - is it personal desire or the most available lifestyle in the current society? I would also recommend anyone the book you've linked, it's a very informative read and talks about some of the points I've raised here.
I also think Abe has purposely selected conservative women for his government so he can look like he's working for equality while maintaining the status quo.
JJ Jetplane
@TheLongTermer
I am with. One company that seems to way ahead of the curve in Japan is Yamato Transport. A large percentage of their drivers and delivery people are now women.
thepersoniamnow
One of the biggest drawbacks to Japan changing is the attitude of its women.
I see my mom and many women teaching their daughters to be this way and also raising their sons to be patriarchal as well!
If the women here don’t change and want more, the men probably won’t give it to them.
WilliB
The last thing Japan needs is advice from the UN.
Wesley
With all the things going on in the world right now, it's quite disappointing to see where "the highest-ranking Japanese at the United Nations" has her priorities.
Red suns
... so ?
BertieWooster
It's going to change. It is changing. But it will take time. You can't blame just the "oyaji's", as thepersoniamnow says this situation is being continued by women as well as men. If the media set an example, it would go a long way to fixing it because, as far as "terebi" is concerned, Japanese people redefine gullible.
Mark
I find that most Japanese women are happy with this fact, some may not be , but I find that the majority SEEM to accept it.
Bugle Boy of Company B
Just wanted to point out that gender gaps only exist between the two genders. Thanks!
noriahojanen
I'd suggest proper, active form of interventions such as quotas in employment and education, at the bottom, entry levels. A bottom-up solution may be less controversial, though it takes a while to make real outcomes.
I also hope that leadership positions will also emerge more diverse, but things would better come naturally, based on merit and qualification, through sound selection and competition processes.
In Japan, gender equality initiatives often fail especially in politics when male bosses try to look good or understanding by picking a woman among many other male candidates, on the ground that nothing else but she's a woman. And it's quite often the case she ends up facing (unfair, legs-pulling down) criticism and stands down at the end, worse, without any support by her boss. Such "failure" can reinforce the prejudice that women are naturally unfit to top exec positions.
Better stop 客寄せパンダ or hiring a panda or trophy (woman!) only to attract media/public attention, or in order to make an excuse on gender equality. It's a self-inflicting vicious circle. At best, it is only a makeshift solution.
Isa
I was talking to a colleague just yesterday about this. She's a part time worker - works for 3 hours a day, and then she goes and picks up her kids from school, does all the chores, and cooks food for her family. She hates it. She hates it so much. Her husband criticises any little mistake she makes because he says 'you don't have to work, why are you messing up this simple thing?' I said to her 'but housewife is a job too - and a difficult one at that' and she said agreed with me. She said she wished she could go back to her old job, long hours and all, because at least she got rewarded with money for all of her work. Being a housewife (in general, but especially here) is an exhausting, thankless job.
DNALeri
Sweden is one of the top countries when it comes to gender equality, so she is "lucky" to be married to a Swede.
TheLongTermer
Ive observed that also. In Japan, everyone sees to have a role or position, even the wife. If she does not work, she will manage the finances and school activities. The alternative, which many of them have done before marriage, is sitting at a shima style seating arrangement with a terrible tantosha sitting at the end, and enduring crushing hell all day. Taking orders from a sempai and other clown roles. Or working/drinking as a hostess all night. Most prefer to just chill at home, have love affairs if the husband is a tyrant and gossip. After kids its a sexless marriage anyhow for allot. Just being real, but thats Japanese way? might explain the low child birth rate also.
JenniSchiebel
If a picture on the wall is slightly crooked to the right, you don't fix it by making it crooked to the left.
You fix it by making it even.
Akie
Hahaha, that UNofficial doesn't represent UN.
CaptDingleheimer
Among most employers in Japan, it's a given that single young women live with their parents with limited expenses, and once married, will quit to become lifelong housewives. Therefore, they get paid peanuts.
When my Japanese wife got basically the exact same job here in the US as she had in Japan (lower-level in medical field), she was paid 4 times as much as in Japan. FOUR TIMES. And that was when she started, it's gone up significantly now.
Akie
"Gender gaps deeply ingrained in Japanese society".
True to the earth and heaven. Men and women are created differently, never the same.
Emily Jean
As a japanese
It may be a foreigner not a Japanese that changes Japan
I get tired of Japan to see most with eyes of the prejudice
many outdatedness
Non-generosity
Qualified voter of the vested interest of the stubbornness
GW
Been here almost 30yrs now, reading above posts I would say WOBOTs posts above has NAILED it BIG TIME!!!
Bottom line is Japanese ladies are not stupid most rightfully so DO NOT want to become SALARYMEN, as a guy working in Japan neither would I!!! YOU would have to be a IDIOT to want to!!!
Japan sadly is on a doomsday course it can likely NOT get off of.... future does NOT bod well for men or women here, it is insanely GRIM for ALL!
pandaclair
@Jonorth
Exactly. Little girls grow up watching the dynamics of their parents - their dads work long hours, are never home, and are always tired, while their moms spend their days doing fun activities with their friends, going to cafes, and spending time with their children. Until Japanese society and businesses start to make work-life balances a priority, I don't blame women for opting out of that rat race in favor of a more comfortable life style.