The following is from the serial column of Masayuki Takayama, who brings the weekly Shincho released today to a successful conclusion.
This article also proves that he is the one and only journalist in the postwar world.
It is a must-read not only for the Japanese people but also for people around the world.
A Country Where Women Are Great
In the early 1990s, I traveled to Hanoi.
The U.S. was still imposing economic sanctions in revenge for losing the Vietnam War, so the city and its people looked very poor.
Even so, the morning market at the foot of the bridge over the Red River was always bustling with energy.
While I was sipping a hot bowl of pho and watching the bustle, two couples on bicycles collided in front of me and flipped over violently.
The wives on the back of the bicycles also fell, and the food and clothes they had just bought were scattered all over the area.
The wives got up, picked up the scattered items, and sorted them, saying, "Is this yours?
The husbands stood up, but they didn't say a word and started punching each other.
Their skinny arms flexed, and both of their fists struck the other in the face.
When they got tired of punching, they kicked each other with their feet.
Then they hit each other again, more seriously.
Eventually, the two wives finished sorting and called out to their husbands, who were still beating each other.
They probably said, "Let's go. I think it said, "Let's go, don't hold back.
The husbands immediately stopped fighting and set up their overturned bicycles.
They waited for their wives to get on the back of the bike and then pedaled off to the left or right, pedaling on their skinny legs.
As we passed each other, the wives smiled at each other.
As I watched, I was surprised by the turn of events.
What is that immediate fight?
In Japan, husbands would first apologize.
The other party would say, "No, it's my pleasure.
That is the norm.
Some of them might choke, but there would be no sudden fisticuffs between them.
Then, with a word from the wife, they immediately stop. Is that the form of a Vietnamese man?
I once asked Nguyen Thi, a former Viet Cong female fighter and president of Saigon Satake, a rice milling company, about this.
Vietnamese men are excellent. But the women are better, and that is their misfortune, she said.
She is indeed brilliant and has a bone to pick.
The movie "Full Metal Jacket" is about the U.S. military being at the mercy of a lone female sniper.
It's a true story.
There is a women's gymnastics gym in Saigon.
The floor is concrete.
The girls practiced floor exercises and averages on mats with their intestines sticking out.
They were breaking bones all the time.
When I asked them why they were so reckless, they laughed and said that it was because it wanted the East's support so they could go along with the East's favorite gymnastics events, even though they always came in last.
The girls are patriots who don't mind breaking bones.
Thanks to their efforts, they drove out the U.S. troops, defeated Pol Pot, and beat Deng Xiaoping's China.
When the fighting was over, the women put down their guns and went back to work in the rice fields and factories.
In addition to the rice milling company, Ms. Nguyen started 75 other companies. The executives are all women.
The men were reluctant to ask, "What do we have to do?
The women said, "If you're not busy, why don't you go into politics?"
So the men created the Communist State of Vietnam.
I once visited the People's Committee in Lang Son.
It was occupied by men squatting from the eaves of the government building to the hall on the first floor and the passage leading to the office.
There were no desks or jobs, but they all held respectable titles and "worked" like this all day long.
The men never hide their gratitude to the women who help them save face.
There is a "Women's Museum" in Hanoi that honors women.
It was here that I learned that the legend of the "Joshi Gun," in which brave sisters defeat the enemy army, originated in Vietnam.
So, if a wife is knocked down on the street, the husband will not hesitate to punish the other man.
I guess that is the spirit of Vietnamese men.
The World Economic Forum has released a ranking of the status of women.
Thanks to women, we won the war and overcame poverty.
I thought Vietnamese women would naturally be ranked first, but they were rated 87th out of 156 countries, lower than half.
It is a clear indication of the distortion in the emphasis on "politics" that women are not interested in.
The same is true for Japanese women, who are ranked 120th.
We'd rather see Japan at the bottom of the list than have more women like the fraudulent Kiyomi Tsujimoto.
