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Woman takes helm of Japanese Aegis destroyer for 1st time

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This is awesome. I'm tired of female role-models in Japan being air-headed, model-quality bimbos.

11 ( +22 / -11 )

Cool! Women rule!

-8 ( +9 / -17 )

Make women proud Capt Otani

0 ( +12 / -12 )

Good luck to you Otani san,

13 ( +17 / -4 )

Out of interest, what do SDF members earn medals for?

2 ( +7 / -5 )

Man,I can hardly believe it.

Well done and Godspeed.

1 ( +7 / -6 )

Out of interest, what do SDF members earn medals for?

The same sort of stuff that members of any military can earn in a non-combat situation.

For instance, saving the life of a fellow service member during a training accident.

11 ( +15 / -4 )

It's possible that the medals are given for peace-keeping missions or humanitarian missions, eg, tsunami or other disaster assistance.

8 ( +11 / -3 )

@Vince

You don't need to be at war to receive a medal.

We don't have enemies but we do have aggressive neighbors willing to shoot missiles, send ships, send planes around Japan.

7 ( +11 / -4 )

Amazing! Congratulations, Captain Otani! Fully deserved promotion in the ranks.

I have said it before and will say it again: Women can do anything in Japan.

-28 ( +9 / -37 )

Well done and congratulations.

6 ( +11 / -5 )

*I have said it before and will say it again: *Women can do anything in Japan.

While you will say whatever you want, it does not change the fact that Japan is one of the most sexist countries in the OECD and even one of the most sexist in Asia.

I was about to write a normal post congratulating her before I read your's, and now I have ended up having to criticize due to the inaccuracies that you spread.

2 ( +19 / -17 )

Well done her, but as a matter of interest how many of her crew are female?

-1 ( +7 / -8 )

A congratulations to Capt Otani and a safe voyage to all who serve under her command.

4 ( +11 / -7 )

I have said it before and will say it again: Women can do anything in Japan.

I don’t know if you’ve ever worked or even visited Japan, cobber, but after working in a large company here for 20 years and seeing talented women quit because of the dreadful view of women in the workplace, I beg to differ.

17 ( +25 / -8 )

Well done and good luck to Captain Otani.

I have said it before and will say it again: Women can do anything in Japan.

Have you ever actually been to Japan? You seem to have virtually no idea about what goes on here.

10 ( +20 / -10 )

englisc aspyrgendToday  05:55 pm JST

Well done her, but as a matter of interest how many of her crew are female?

That's not public information, but there are 15,000 female members of the JMSDF.

1 ( +7 / -6 )

good for her - a New Otani indeed.

2 ( +7 / -5 )

”wow, Classic British”

I thought that one might trigger you. You don’t react well to anything positive about the Brits ;)

-3 ( +4 / -7 )

I have said it before and will say it again: Women can do anything in Japan.

for sure this not a fact given the many issues women encounter having a career here.

Ganbare, you posted countless posts claiming non-facts (or taking extreme right wing position.

More like a member of the black van community?

8 ( +16 / -8 )

The crew are 300, all males.

And now one woman!

-4 ( +3 / -7 )

Women can fight and kill on battlefield. No doubt about that. But can they command a Navy ship and make right decisions in life-and-death situations?

-11 ( +1 / -12 )

“The challenge is how female members can work actively while balancing life events such as marriage and giving birth.”

The fact is there are many jobs in which balancing life events is practically impossible to pull off. A military commander is one of these types of occupations. The job requires significant sacrifices for the officer and their family. Though there will likely be many others following Captain Otani, females will never become a majority in these types of jobs unless there is a huge cultural shift in which children are no longer considered a societal benefit. Such a shift is against every human instinct.

I would be interested to know if Otani is married and has children. I would not be surprised if she chose to be single and to forgo having children.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

THANK YOU, Cap Otani, for the service.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Though there will likely be many others following Captain Otani, females will never become a majority in these types of jobs unless there is a huge cultural shift in which children are no longer considered a societal benefit.

The shift needed is not about having child are not but about who is supposed to care for them. If men can be in these position and have family, the same go for women.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Good for her, reflects years of dedication and merit. Something to consider for such a male-biased society is to just treat women like people. This will help

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Good for her!

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Ignore the naysayers who simply cannot let great news like this go without injecting their negativity. I say again, great for this woman!

-3 ( +3 / -6 )

Women will never be respected in these type of roles. End of the day, its just play acting, power game, look at me rubbish, over and over again. All the battles have been done, millions of men dead. And here we have one woman, acting out a role that will never see real action, ever.

-8 ( +2 / -10 )

Cool! Women rule!

I've worked with, worked for and supervised many women and yes I've been to Japan. They can be an absolute pain in the rear especially if you have more than one to deal with. Personally give me guy to work for or with especially if I'm going to war.

-4 ( +2 / -6 )

Out of interest, what do SDF members earn medals for?

Aside from the fact, like other have said, you can earn medals and awards while not in combat, the SDF has deployed on many occasions.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Small but firm, Japanese characteristic solution for women's problem.

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

Thank you Ossan and Zichi, it was an honest question as I was interested to know in contrast to the US &UK Navies. Fascinating that it got so many down votes? Why?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

A decent role model for Japanese young women and girls.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Semper Fi

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Meyoventi:

Women can fight and kill on battlefield. No doubt about that. But can they command a Navy ship and make right decisions in life-and-death situations?

I think women can make right decisions in life-and-death situations and have done so before.

But I would ask the question the other way around: Do you want a world in which women sacrifice their lifes for society? How is that society supposed to survive? Women create the next generation, men do not. That is why in wars throughout history, huge amounts of men could be killed on battlefields, and the populations could recover. If women were killed instead, that would not be the case. I wonder why nobody addresses this elephant in the room. There is a reason for the old evacuation rule: women and children first. And that is based on cold biological reality, not just some fancy politeness stuff.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

zichi:

In all societies the higher up the career ladder the less women there are.

Are coal miners and sewage workers at the top of the career ladder, in your mind? Because in dangerous and dirty jobs like that, the number of women is almost zero. Honest question.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Respect.

So all the 300 men below her have less potential ?

Imagine in combat mode...endurance and stamina is needed over days. I dislike when defense minister is a woman.

Personally, I can't be led by a woman as for something about power.

Don't judge me too fast, I fully pay tribute to her as a simple foreign man.

Good luck captain !

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Wolfpack:

Though there will likely be many others following Captain Otani, females will never become a majority in these types of jobs unless there is a huge cultural shift in which children are no longer considered a societal benefit.

When the ordinary thought of a highly cultivated people begins to regard "having children" as a question of pros and cons, the great turning point has come. For nature knows nothing of pro and con, everywhere, whereefer life is actual, reigns and invard organic logic, an "it", a drive, that is utterly independent of waking-being, with its casual lingages, and indeed not even observed by it.

---Oswald Spengler---

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Well done to her. The unfortunate situation is that the JSDF is an incredibly unattractive career prospect for you Japanese, especially so for young women. Until the issue of conditions and allowances are addressed, it is unlikely we will see more women flowing through the ranks.

Have a read here

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/japan-self-defense-force-crisis-ranks-79846

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Personally, I can't be led by a woman as for something about power.

Jonathan Prin - that says more about you than her.

Do you want a world in which women sacrifice their lifes for society? 

Willie B - yes.

I would be interested to know if Otani is married and has children. I would not be surprised if she chose to be single and to forgo having children.

Wokfpack - I suspect she doesn't, but I don't know. But then again, would you ever ask this question about a 48 year-old man?

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Ah So:

Do you want a world in which women sacrifice their lifes for society? 

Willie B - yes.

You do realize that such a society has no future, do you.

Wokfpack - I suspect she doesn't, but I don't know. But then again, would you ever ask this question about a 48 year-old man?

That is irrelevant. Wolfpacks point was that for society, men are disposable and women are not. It is so obvious, but somehow completely absent from public discourse.

>

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

I've worked with, worked for and supervised many women and yes I've been to Japan. They can be an absolute pain in the rear especially if you have more than one to deal with. Personally give me guy to work for or with

I personally prefer working with women more than men. I grew up with women though, and deal with them better than most guys. Best boss I ever had was a woman, worst number of bosses have been men.

Personally, I'll almost always take a girl to work for or with.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Women will never be respected in these type of roles

You mean you will never respect them. Many others will

2 ( +4 / -2 )

The Navy and Air Force have always been more about technical expertise than the Army or Marines. If the Navy deemed her capable of commanding a warship, I’d respect that decision until proven otherwise.

Technical advancements and automation have opened up many career paths in the military, that were previously unavailable to women.

The days of WW2 recruitment posters of a dainty Navy hospital nurse holding a clipboard, and a buff sailor hand-loading the big guns are over. A casual glance at modern navy recruitment posters show an emphasis in diversity and women in combat roles. That is the image the current Navy is striving to project.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Jason-rigby could be quite wrong when he says that women officers will never be used in battle. In many navies, including the Australian one, there are women ratings and officers; they are there to do their duty, and whilst this is a novelty in Japan and can be sceptically seen as another move for appearances sake, in times of war they'll surely need all the good crew they can get. Time will tell, but in the meantime it's a good and fair move to give women career paths in the armed forces.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Women will never be respected in these type of roles. End of the day, its just play acting, power game, look at me rubbish, over and over again. All the battles have been done, millions of men dead. And here we have one woman, acting out a role that will never see real action, ever.

You realize that women have been seeing 'real action' for at least a couple decades now? Like it or not, your attitude is antiquated at best. It's not the 1930s anymore.

While personally I am not so sure about all military specialties being open to women, if they are willing to go in harms way, then let's see what they can do.

3 ( +3 / -0 )

Well done her, but as a matter of interest how many of her crew are female?

It's never enough for progressives.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Lol...of all the uniforms visible, the only two ribbons are Fire Watch & Overseas.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

zichiDec. 2  07:07 pm JST

The crew are 300, all males.

Where did you find the gender breakdown for the 300 person complement of the DDG-175?

1 ( +2 / -1 )

It is plausible. Myoko was built back when they had no plans to have women on the ships - the quarters aren't built with things like separate female quarters that are deemed necessary to have women on ships in relative safety. The Captain is actually an easy replacement because she has her own room.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Zichi:

Woman Miners. There are hundreds and hundreds of them. Just Google it there are many links.

https://industryeurope.com/research-insight-women-miners/

There are also women sewers workers

What is the percentage? Because your claim was "the higher up the career ladder the less women there are", remember? By implication, coal mining and sewage work should be an overwhelming female occupation. Is it?

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

What is the percentage? Because your claim was "the higher up the career ladder the less women there are", remember? By implication, coal mining and sewage work should be an overwhelming female occupation. Is it?

You are confusing being in a blue collar job with being high on the chain of command in any job. Smooth one, William.

-1 ( +1 / -2 )

Do you dislike women being in high places, probably that's your beef.

I don’t think that is the point being made. True equality means that there must also be equality in the number of female sewage and garbage collectors as there are navy ship captains. Seems some people want men to be relegated to the dangerous and undesirable work while women not also enjoy the same opportunity.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I have said it before and will say it again: Women can do anything in Japan.

Saying it repeatedly doesn't make it true, unfortunately. Come live here and you'll see that women are still yet to be treated equally. Heck, just read some of the comments.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

zichiToday  02:29 pm JST

Where did you find the gender breakdown for the 300 person complement of the DDG-175?

I asked a friend who knows.

lol. Thanks for the link.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

A shame we have to look at promotion within the military as a sign if progress. Someone wrongly said that women don’t do the dying, when in fact so many women are killed by the system that Japan has opted to join.

A quote from a relevant article:

”feminists should not view this “rise” of women as a win. Feminism, as the most recent wave of imperial-feminist articles shows, is increasingly being co-opted to promote and sell the U.S. military-industrial complex: a profoundly violent institution that will never bring liberation to women—whether they are within its own ranks or in the countries bearing the greatest brunt of its brutality. As Noura Erakat, a human rights attorney and assistant professor at George Mason University, put it in an interview with In These Times, women’s inclusion in U.S. military institutions “makes the system subjugating us stronger and more difficult to fight. Our historical exclusion makes it [appear] desirable to achieve [inclusion] but that's a lack of imagination. Our historical exclusion should push us to imagine a better system and another world that’s possible.”

This pro-military media spin is no accident: Weapons contractors are working hard to sell a progressive, pro-women brand to the public. Raytheon and other firms spend millions on public relations painting themselves as noble empowerers of women and girls in the sciences. Raytheon champions its partnership with Girl Scouts of the USA. “Through a multiyear commitment from Raytheon, Girl Scouts will launch its first national computer science program and Cyber Challenge for middle and high school girls,” states a promotional page. A high-dollar promotional video quotes Rebecca Rhoads, president of Raytheon’s global business services, as stating, “Raytheon’s vision about making the world a safer place and the girl scouts’ vision of making the world a better place couldn’t be more well-suited as partners.” Such a claim is particularly brazen, coming from a company that supplies a steady stream of bombs for the U.S.-Saudi war in Yemen, which has unleashed a famine that has killed an estimated 85,000 Yemeni children under the age of five.”

From Women Now Run the Military-Industrial Complex. That’s Nothing To Celebrate.

http://inthesetimes.com/article/21682/women-military-industrial-complex-gina-haspel-trump-feminism-lockheed-marti

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Zichi:

No you said there were no female miners/sewer workers and I showed you were not correct. In nearly business/organisation the higher up the scale the less women there are like CEO/CFO/directors.

Reading comprehension? Your claim was that there are fewer women "the higher up the scale". I simply looked at the other side of the claim, namely there would have to be MORE women the lower down the scale you go. But that does not seem the case at all. Fact is, in very hard and undesirable jobs, there seem to be very few women.

So where does that leave your claim?

Maybe you should admit that the the true picture is not as simplistic as that.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Zichi:

There are thousands of female miners, sewer workers, construction workers and many many more than captains of military ships. women are under represented at the top levels of almost every business and industry.

"Thousands" is a vague term. There are also "thousands" of females at top levels in business and industry.

Your claim was that women under-represented at the top end. By implication that means they should be over-represented at the bottom end. Otherwise, the claim is nonsensical. Is that so hard to understand?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Your claim was that women under-represented at the top end. By implication that means they should be over-represented at the bottom end.

No that do not. There is several level. Not being at the top one doesn't mean being at the bottom one.

You seems to consider that sewer and coal miner are at the bottom. According to which criteria ?

Not salary, I guess.

Coal miner : 31$ hourly average

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/coal-miner-salary-SRCH_KO0,10.htm

Sewer : 12$ hourly average

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/industrial-sewer-salary-SRCH_KO0,16.htm

Regarding low paying job depending of which the partition between men and women change a lot.

https://www.myplan.com/careers/top-ten/lowest-paying.php

And as pointed before :

You are confusing being in a blue collar job with being high on the chain of command in any job.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Your headline "Woman tales helm"---does that mean that she will be actually steering the ship?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Flute:

No that do not. There is several level. Not being at the top one doesn't mean being at the bottom one.

You seems to consider that sewer and coal miner are at the bottom. According to which criteria ? Not salary, I guess.

Coal miner : 31$ hourly average

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salaries/coal-miner-salary-SRCH_KO0,10.htm

Sewer : 12$ hourly average

OK, so coal mining and sewage work are attractive jobs. Fine! Then please explain why Zichi and others are not clamouring for equal representation of women in these jobs?

My whole point is that equal 50/50 representation of women across all jobs is not a desirable natural state, it is politically correct fiction. Women tend towards some jobs, and men to others. That is simply human nature. Clearer now?

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Congratulations, I personally support her and am very proud to be a woman.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

My whole point is that equal 50/50 representation of women across all jobs is not a desirable natural state, it is politically correct fiction. Women tend towards some jobs, and men to others. That is simply human nature. Clearer now?

Not really.

There is nothing natural in job. So how could it be a human nature in job. I do not even get what is supposed to be human nature even less why should it be different in between men and women.

Nothing stop women neither me to do any job. One particular man as well as one particular woman can be more suited for one particular job or in the contrary totally unsuited for another one.

Using strength as basis but tha work for anything else : I have meet really strong women, really weak men, really weak women and really strong men (and obviously all the in between). If I am seeking an employee which need to be strong I do not care of that is a women or a men. I want one to be able to do the job and which want to do it.

I do not plan to take a look inside the undies of anyone before deciding if that person is worth the position ones is seeking. That is purely and simply irrelevant.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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