The rank of the gender equality in Japanese society is 114th of all the countries. It’s getting worse.
Tokyo Medical University, one of the most famous medical universities, counted the entrance exams scores of female applicants around 10 % less to decrease the female doctors. Can you believe it?
When I was young, about a half century ago, not many girls studied in the universities. They thought girls didn’t need to study, women should just get married, have and raise children, do domestic chores, and help husbands. It was women’s roll, and a happy life for women; many people believed so. I worked at junior high schools, but there weren’t many female teachers when I started working; they thought women couldn’t deal with teen-age boys. I was often asked, “Why do you work?” I had studied education at the university to be a teacher! If I had been a male, did they ask the same question? I kept working, thinking things would change when the number of working women increased.
A lot have changed , but not enough in this country.
But such a situation is hard also for male, don’t you think? They always have to be strong, capable, right, and responsible for families, companies, and communities. So much pressure to bear! Why don’t you give half of your burden to female?
Some weeks ago, one of the LDP members of the diet wrote “ We should not use the money of the nation for LGBT because they are not productive.” I felt shudder to read it. She (The person is a woman, can you believe?) calls having babies and raising children a matter of ‘product’. She is saying having children is not the personal matter, but national affairs, and they try to support people only when it’s useful for the nation. According to her idea, the value of people is judged if they are useful or useless, productive or unproductive, and the nation doesn’t want the latter.
People criticized her comment, of course. But she did not correct it or apologize, but wrote again,” Many LDP Diet members encouraged me saying,’ You wrote the right thing.’ ‘ You are not wrong, Don’t worry.’ I’m grateful and I’m happy to be one of them.”
It was two weeks later that the LDP said her comment was not suitable, as the criticism got louder, and many people had a gathering to protest in front of the Diet building. It shows the LDP members have the same idea as hers.