Interesting article - props to Yoshiro Mori for being such a cantankerous old sod: "It is truly strange to say that we have to use tax money to take care of women who don't even give birth once, who grow old living their lives selfishly." I wonder if he'd also be willing to consider offering tax breaks to philanderers and bigamists. Just an idea...

As for TDES - you just made that up, didn't you?

"In the '90s, the trend [in fashion magazines] was 'New York career women,'" says CanCam's editor-in-chief Yutaka Onishi. "The concept was cool, sharp. Independence was a trend. Ten years later you look around and realize that it was just an illusion ... Women in their 20s perhaps see people in their 30s and decide that they don't want to end up like them. You give everything to your company, your career, but you're still getting laid off." Says newscaster Tanimoto, who is also single: "I thought our exciting careers would show younger women that there is a path to success. But I think they actually feel sorry for us."

The recession is not so much of a mystery after all

not easy. even the Momuses of the world prefer their women to be non-ambitious and dependent, so better content yourself with pouring tea. skillfully.

David

Japanese people don't need gaijin telling them what is wrong. They know what is wrong. They just don't know how to fix it. Writing a patronizing article about how outdated Japanese companies are is so obvious, it completely misses the point.

What I'd like to know is this: if you couldn't hire OLs based on their BJ giving abilities, wouldn't that destroy Japanese corporate infrastructure entirely?

sk: hard to suss out the degree of sarcasm, but if japan knows what's wrong, then hosoki kazuko has lost the plot. as has shimada shinsuke.

hosoki kazuko has a regular platform for spouting anti-feminist ideology every week. At least twice every week, she berates the female audience for being too independent, and reminds them that women were meant to stay home; men meant to work 16 hours a day and fight in wars. she doesn't even tell fortunes much anymore, just moralizes in her own special way.
shimada shinsuke really just hates women, but he has a good time and gets a lot of laughs reminding them of their place (verbally or physically as the case demands, evidentally).

since those are pretty much the two most powerful faces in the biz, you gotta think they're some kind of barometer.

Fascinating opinion piece on the true meaning of the Sept. 11 election: http://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/geted.pl5?eo20050831ro.htm

But japanese women aren't fighting that much for their rights are they?
Many of the 17 years old girls actually answer they want to take care of a family when they're asked what they want to do when they grow up...
I wouldn't be able to know if it's ok or not, but to me it's scary.

Girls! Fight!

On the other hand, I can understand that a japanese man who has never seen a woman in his country complain about her rights, watching the Spice Girls talking about Girl's Power, call that kind of fight "morally-corrupt Western position".

A misogyn strip I drew few days ago. Not to be taken seriously of course.
http://www.poulejapon.com/strip/9e.png

hmm... And TV sure shrinked the birth rate and make it possible to exploit labor.

David, I have just had a listen to Kyoshu Nostalgia, and would love to E-mail u my thoughts, since I got it Peer2Peer style. What's yr adress?

Satoshi,

The comments that come out every now and then from female Todai graduates show pretty clearly that most Japanese companies don't believe that anything is wrong in the first place. For many large companies, not believing there is a problem *is* the problem. (Worldwide, not just Japan either.)

Working out how to fix it is indeed another problem - and not an easy one either. But employers have to have a desire to do it first.

Yep. That article was just as patronizing as I expected it to be. It lets sanctimounious English readers look down on those backwards orientals without a bit of irony.

Oh BTW there is a "problem" but I kinda doubt its the same one the West reports on. I would not even pretend to be able to write about gender roles and identity in the local context so I wont even try. One thing I can say clearly, Japan aint the only place where women are facing these choices.

BTW2, in some large Japanese companies, women who choose to follow the same working path as their male counterparts do just fine. It is rare but it happens.

Ten years later you look around and realize that it was just an illusion ... Women in their 20s perhaps see people in their 30s and decide that they don't want to end up like them.

I see. So if people give up after being heavily discriminated against, it's their own fault. So, hopefully if you can keep Japanese racism towards foreigners high, they'll just all go away.

Yep. That article was just as patronizing as I expected it to be.

There's a real question of whether Japan structurally and legally gives women the same recourse as men as other countries, and whether fixing these inequalities would not also solve demographic problems. While I very much dislike Islamic attitudes towards women, these at least seem to go hand in hand with the feudalistic economy, and at the end of the day, do not cause demographic problems. They keep the women in check AND breeding properly.

Meanwhile in Japan, economic conditions are requiring women to work, but the system's refusal to admit this cultural change has caused a massive demographic problem. Japanese men can call career women "ugly" all they want, but the bureaucrats should not use laws to enforce what is essentially outdated morality at the expense of the nation's future.

Chris B said: "That article was just as patronizing as I expected it to be. It lets sanctimounious English readers look down on those backwards orientals without a bit of irony."

I thought it was quite valuable for giving English readers access to a lot of voices, including minority opinions, that would normally only appear in Japanese. Did you really think the article was so off-base? Nobody's comparing Japan to the Taliban, but it is obviously far from egalitarian. It's fine if you don't feel comfortable commenting on gender roles and identity in Japan, but please don't presume to tell others that they can't either (in fairness, I know that this may not have been your intention).

Also, don't assume that foreigners who are critical of gender ideologies in Japan are not also critical of gender ideologies elsewhere, including their home countries. Readers of whatever background who choose to reject ideologies of male supremacy and heterosexism may be taking a stand on based moral principles they hold to be universal (as passe as that is), and not simply patronizing one particular local population or another. And though some would maintain that all claims of universality are patronizing, I don't think that is your position.