Womanhood in Japan (April 2023)

“Womanhood in Japan” is a new column that rounds up Japanese news related to women’s daily experiences of sexism here and considers what we can do to increase the pace of change.

Preferential treatment of men in Japan

Unsurprising results from a Cabinet Office survey that found that 78.8% of Japanese people believe men are treated better in society. Only 14.7% of respondents said men and women are treated equally. The area that received the highest equality rating was schooling, at 68.1%.

The climbing ratios of areas in which men are considered to be favored gives an insight into what is holding gender equality back: in legal systems 52.3% said men are treated better, in family life 59.8%, in the workplace 64.1%, in customs and social conventions 81.8%, and in politics 87.9%.

Looking instead at how Japanese believe society should be, rather than how it currently is, when asked about women working, 59.5% of respondents selected the option that it is good for women to continue working even after having children. That’s a turnaround from just 23.4% saying the same thing in 1992.

The data shows a glaring gap that requires filling, so we need to select and support politicians and other leaders that have the courage to move Japan away from its old, inequitable ways and toward the Japan that its citizens want today.

Ikea achieves gender equality in Japan

Even in Japan, where the ratio of women in managerial positions is only about 12%, furniture chain Ikea has achieved and maintained equal ratios of male and female managers. Business Insider interviewed Ikea Japan CEO Petra Färe and the parent Ingka Group’s Chief Sustainability Officer, Karen Pflug, to learn that equal pay has been one factor in achieving that, and another has been instituting a quota system for female appointments as a form of affirmative action.

Japan is still debating whether to introduce quotas in political representation, focusing on demerits such as the idea of it equating to discrimination against men. Some companies argue that quotas would increase costs, like when they have to find someone to fill in for a manager if she has to go give birth.

What those dissenters can learn from Ikea is that its approach aims to boost all employees, not just some. The article tells us that all employees take managerial training, not just those selected for it by a superior whose judgement may not be impartial. That makes it easier to find a stand-in if a manager were to take maternity or paternity leave. Similarly, employees raise their own hands for a promotion when one becomes available, rather than the typical Japanese approach of waiting to be anointed. The company doesn’t remove men from the selection process, but adds women by requiring an equal number of male and female candidates for a vacant position. It then selects the person based on performance.

If you’re working in an office where the gender balance is out of whack, now you’ve got some proposals to help change that.

Disempowerment a factor in the abandonment of babies

Another sad spate of news this month about newborn babies being abandoned and dying. A 19-year-old technical trainee from Vietnam has been arrested after admitting to abandoning a baby boy in an empty lot in Hiroshima Prefecture. She says she feared she would be forced to return to Vietnam if her pregnancy was discovered.

A 29-year-old Japanese woman was arrested in Aichi Prefecture after a baby was found buried in her parents’ yard. She has said the child was hers.

Why is this happening in a developed country such as Japan with an accessible public healthcare system? The first example looks like a clear case of disempowerment of the mother. The technical internship program that brought her to Japan has been criticized for allowing companies here to import cheap labor from Asia and create situations ripe for human rights abuses.

The second case, of a somewhat older woman who was living separately from her parents, may also be a case of disempowerment.

In an article written last year after a similar spate of baby abandonments, Joshi SPA! spoke to the chairperson of the NPO Ninshin SOS Shinjuku, which assists women in their teens and 20s facing unwanted pregnancies. Hatsumi Sato explained that these young women generally do not intend to kill their babies, which in some cases fall out when the mother is on the toilet because the child is small due to the mother’s poor nutrition and living environment.

It takes 2 or 3 months for many such mothers to realize they are pregnant and when a pregnancy is confirmed it is typically far more advanced than they expected, she says. Japanese law prohibits abortion under any circumstances from 22 weeks. It also requires husbands to sign off in agreement, and although it is not required for unmarried mothers, many hospitals request the father’s signature to avoid potential trouble with the father. This can delay an abortion.

A common dynamic in these cases, Sato says, is that the women are often brought up in a physically or verbally violent home in a controlling relationship and don’t know what a healthy relationship looks like, so tend to choose partners who also maintain relationships via control. The women are unable to act to solve their problems and become more and more isolated. If a baby cries when it is born, the mother may panic and accidentally kill the child by covering its mouth to stop it making noise.

The advice Sato gives to change this includes introducing comprehensive sex education that includes instruction about human rights from early childhood throughout compulsory education. For individual action, she advises teaching children that everyone has the right to say ‘no,’ to be respected, and to seek help. To create a society in which people look after each other, she says, if you see a child and/or a parent that you are concerned about, ask if you can help.

The disappearance of a toilet for women?

Hotel and entertainment complex Tokyu Kabukicho Tower opened in Shinjuku on 14 April and has received lots of criticism on social media for what is likely Japan’s first genderless toilet block. Signs for the toilet block on the second floor say it is for men, for women, for anyone, but social media posts have described incidents such as a drunk man standing outside the cubicle a woman was in while trying to convince her to date him, and men taking up all the seating just outside the toilet entrance and even loitering inside. Management has described the toilet as being in line with the principle of the UN’s SDGs of not leaving anyone behind, but online women are saying they won’t use it due to safety concerns. Many social media posts describe the situation as women having been left without a toilet.

It’s not actually the toilet that is the problem here – the problem is men harassing women. As Hatsumi Sato says above, Japan needs to introduce comprehensive sex education that includes instruction about human rights. It will be interesting to see how reactions to these genderless toilets fare in the long run, and whether they increase awareness here of the needs of people from sexual minorities.