Japan Times: "Trapped by old gender roles"

Submitted by Michael on Sun, 2009-05-24 21:40

Article here. Excerpt:

'Most societies all over the globe miss answering the most crucial question for men: What is our purpose in life?

Women do not have to face this question as they are the giver of life — with the exception of the growing number of women not willing to face motherhood and, sadly, including women not able to give birth. These women as well as men face the critical question of the purpose of their existence.

...my generation as well as the younger one has occupied themselves with acts of substitution — busying ourselves with consumption, making ourselves "comfortable" — for now leaving the question about our spirit and purpose out of sight. But we feel the burning doubt lingering in our mind. Is being an obligated worker and good consumer all there is to life?
We should teach the new generations of men what it really means to be a man: It is not being an aggressor or war hero and it never was supposed to be. A real man is about being confident, independent, mentally settled — someone able to give freely from a position of inner strength. The "good fight" men fight is about creating a better self and a better society.'

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I lived in Japan for 6 months almost 15 years ago. Let me tell you, if any nation's men needed men's rights/liberation, it's Japan's. The rate at which Japanese men drop dead due to overwork is astonishing. Their entire lives revolve around two things: work and "home", which they pay a great deal to maintain but see very little of. Japanese women have the Constitutional right to file for and receive a divorce at ANY time merely by filling out a slip of paper down at the local courthouse. They had a feminist working on the post-war committee to create a new Constitution that General MacArthur convened to thank for that, as well as the general himself who thought it would be a good idea to keep the Japanese men from becoming too belligerent. He figured if Japanese women could both vote (a very good thing) but also eject their husbands at any time without doing much paperwork or having to make a case for it (snagging the goods and heading off with the kids, or just the goods, as the case may be), they would be less likely to try to re-arm any time soon. Has this been a deterrent to a re-rise in Japanese militancy? I doubt it. One thing is for sure: Japanese men work very hard to keep the missus happy because they are sure to get the shaft in the divorce "settlement". I doubt this fact has much to do either way with the lack of a re-rise of any militant Imperial cult.

No wonder the younger Japanese people are not having kids anywhere near like they used to. I doubt this is so much due to the decisions of Japanese women as it is those of Japanese men, but you'd get the opposite impression based on reading the popular press on the topic. But the fact that Japan is home to half the population size of the US on 20% of the space of California, too, doesn't hurt to keep the reproduction rate down either.

If I were a young Japanese fellow, the very last thing I would do is get married unless I knew her for quite a long time (15 years at least) and was very convinced of her feelings and level of commitment to any marriage we entered into.

In short, I probably would never tie the knot if I were a younger Japanese fellow, at least not until I hit 30 or 35. Or 40. And probably had gone to school with her, too. Or met her right after school. Wow, the odds would have been pretty slim, huh? =)

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Submitted by mcc99 on Sun, 2009-05-24 23:05

manonthestreet

"He figured if Japanese women could both vote (a very good thing)"

Why is it a good thing? Stop being nice to women. They are the enemy and that's all that needs to be said.

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Submitted by trotter on Mon, 2009-05-25 16:29