Ridiculous remarks that Japanese women put up with

Japan’s former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori caused controversy with his remarks about women earlier this year. He was serving as the head of the Tokyo Olympics committee when he made comments about how “talkative” and “competitive” he thinks women are, joking that meetings take too much time with female members. Though he initially resisted calls for his resignation, Mori eventually stepped down due to increasing pressure.

Japanese politicians’ infamous sexist blunders

While Mori is known for controversial comments in the past, this is not the first time a prominent Japanese public figure has gotten into trouble over remarks about women. The most well-known examples covered in both Japanese and overseas media range from ignorant to outright abusive. During the Coronavirus pandemic, the mayor of Osaka was criticized for claiming that women take longer to shop than men. Another infamous example in 2014 involved male politicians heckling female lawmaker Ayako Shimamura while she was giving a speech.

Why do these kinds of remarks seem so frequent? Japan’s conservative culture regarding gender roles is one factor. Related to that is the fact that older men occupy many positions of power in public and private spheres. In politics, only 46 members out of 465 in Japan’s House of Representatives are women, with only 56 out of 248 in the House of Councilors. Many of these male politicians are from the older generation as well. Many male politicians in the National Diet are over 50 years old, with 272 in the House of Representatives and 147 in the House of Councilors.

Age and gender are not the only factors resulting in these sexist comments. Some female lawmakers, such as Mio Sugita, have also made harsh remarks stating that women can lie about violence and sexual assaults. Male dominance in positions of power in Japan is still key to understanding the issue. There is often real malice behind these remarks about women, though sometimes they are due to older traditional mindsets. The lack of women leads to a lack of varied perspectives and understanding about women’s issues among those in power.

Women encounter sexist remarks in job search

Japanese women also have to deal with these comments while job hunting and in the workplace. A joint survey from Livedoor and Rakuten Minshoku in 2019 revealed awful comments from job interviewers. Sexist comments towards female applicants outnumbered any other kind of remark. Some examples include “Your smile is wonderful, but your motivation for applying needs to be stronger” and “What do you want to do as a woman in the future?”

We should not tolerate sexcism any more

There is awareness of the inappropriateness of these remarks, and growing pushback as Mori’s resignation indicates. One Japanese website titled “NO to all sexist public speeches” has held an annual poll on the worst comments made by Japanese politicians for the past few years. Another article “Politicians’ careless remarks timeline: gender edition” goes even further, chronicling sexist remarks made for approximately the past 20 years, showing a clear pattern. Furthermore, local labor bureaus such as Osaka’s also have pages regarding inappropriate job interview questions.

The issue will not be solved overnight despite more female representation, and even efforts to involve women more can fall flat. Mori’s remarks were ironically made during a discussion about increasing the number of female committee members. However, having more women in positions of power would drive greater understanding and chance for Japan.