{"id":6863,"date":"2021-03-05T01:00:37","date_gmt":"2021-03-05T01:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/?p=6863"},"modified":"2021-03-15T21:55:12","modified_gmt":"2021-03-15T21:55:12","slug":"japans-unchanging-gender-gap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/japans-unchanging-gender-gap\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s Unchanging Gender Gap"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>March is\u00a0<u>Women\u2019s History Month\u00a0<\/u>(<span lang=\"JA\">\u5973\u6027\u53f2\u6708\u9593\u00a0<\/span>joseishi gekkan).\u00a0 The equality issue was widely discussed when Yoshiro Mori, the former Chair of the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, made\u00a0<u>discriminatory\u00a0<\/u>(<span lang=\"JA\">\u5dee\u5225\u7684\u00a0<\/span>sabetsuteki) remarks about women (see my blog &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/how-not-to-apologize-mori-of-tokyo-olympics\/\">How Not to Apologize &#8211; Mori of Tokyo Olympics<\/a>.) Every newspaper and every TV news talked how\u00a0<u>outdated\u00a0<\/u>(<span lang=\"JA\">\u6642\u4ee3\u9045\u308c\u00a0<\/span>jidaiokure) our society was.\u00a0 Japan ranked 121<sup>st<\/sup>out of 153 countries (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.imf.org\/external\/pubs\/ft\/fandd\/2019\/03\/gender-equality-in-japan-yamaguchi.htm\">IMF 3\/2020<\/a>)\u00a0as far as the gender gap is concerned.<\/p>\n<p>So what should I start with?<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_6894\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft post-item__attachment\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6894\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-6894\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/03\/\u592b\u5a66\u5225\u59d3-350x197.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"197\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/03\/\u592b\u5a66\u5225\u59d3-350x197.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/03\/\u592b\u5a66\u5225\u59d3.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-6894\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo by <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@frankbusch?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText\">Frank Busch<\/a> on <a href=\"\/s\/photos\/conflict?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText\">Unsplash<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p>Japan is the only country that requires a married couple to have the same last name \u2013 either husband or wife\u2019s last name.\u00a0 This has been a problem for women who have established themselves professionally.\u00a0\u00a0 I know many in academia who use two last names combined.\u00a0 But legally, they cannot do so. Tamayo Marukawa, the Minister of State for Gender Equality as well as the Minister for the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, along with 50 other members of t<u>he Liberal Democratic Party\u00a0<\/u>(LDP\u00a0<span lang=\"JA\">\u81ea\u7531\u6c11\u4e3b\u515a \u00a0<\/span>jiyuminshutou), sent a letter asking members of the local assemblies not to support a policy change (Tokyo Shimbun 2\/27\/2021)\u00a0approving of a married couple having different family names.\u00a0 <u>Ironically\u00a0<\/u>(\u76ae\u8089\u306a\u3053\u3068\u306bhinikunakotoni), Marukawa is her <u>maiden name\u00a0<\/u>(\u65e7\u59d3kyusei).\u00a0 She has used her maiden name for 13 years although she changed her last name legally upon marriage.\u00a0 And why do these 50 <u>disapprove\u00a0<\/u>(\u4e0d\u8cdb\u6210\u3067\u3042\u308bfusanseidearu) of <u>a married couple using separate last names\u00a0<\/u>(called \u592b\u5a66\u5225\u59d3fufu bessei) enough to pressure their local assemblies members?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Reasons Cited by these 50 LDP Members<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Japan has <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Koseki\">\u6238\u7c4d<\/a> (koseki) a family registry, categorized by a family name.The group fears that a family-centered social unit may be jeopardized.<\/li>\n<li>The stability of a child\u2019s last name may be lost.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Controversy in the Media<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Some women choose not to get married to keep their last name.\u00a0A TV station interviewed one of those couples who decided not to get married and invited a former LPD member of <u>the House of Representatives\u00a0<\/u>(\u8846\u8b70\u9662\u8b70\u54e1shuigin giin), Shizuka Kamei for rebuttal.\u00a0Kamei told the male partner that he was not truly loved.<\/p>\n<p>One of the 50 LPD members is Mio Sugita, an outspoken denier of the existence of gender inequality in Japan, and an anti-LBGT supporter.\u00a0 During\u00a0<u>the Diet\u00a0<\/u>(\u56fd\u4f1akokkai) about a married couple having a different family name, she was believed to have yelled \u201cthen don&#8217;t get married!\u201d LPD refused to investigate and identify who yelled.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u6749\u7530\u8b70\u54e1\u30e4\u30b8\u554f\u984c\u3067\u8cea\u554f\u5fdc\u3058\u305a\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ug-vCQCAf2k?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Most recently, she was on the news again when she said \u201cWomen can tell a lie as many times as they want\u201d in the LPD meeting on sexual violence on September 25, 2020.\u00a0 She initially denied having made such comments, but after she was called by the LPD\u00a0<u>Policy Research Council Chairman\u00a0<\/u>(\u653f\u8abf\u4f1a\u9577seichou kaichou), she admitted, on her blog, that she had made the comments, apologizing that she had no intention to disparage women.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"\u201c\u30d5\u30e9\u30ef\u30fc\u30c7\u30e2\u201d\u300c\u5973\u6027\u306f\u5618\u3092\u3064\u304f\u300d\u6749\u7530\u8b70\u54e1\u306b\u6297\u8b70\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SeMme6pq_Fc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A group that supports women who have been sexually assaulted submitted 136,000 signatures to the LPD office asking Sugita to apologize, rescind her comments, and resign.\u00a0LPD refused to accept the signatures brought to the LPD office by the group because the group had no appointment to visit the office.<\/p>\n<p>It is easy to recognize <u>childish\u00a0<\/u>(\u5e7c\u7a1a\u306a youchina) explicit discriminatory comments like those made by Sugita. I believe it is necessary for Japanese to learn to recognize\u00a0<u>implicit bias\u00a0<\/u>(<span lang=\"JA\">\u7121\u610f\u8b58\u7684\u306a\u30d0\u30a4\u30a2\u30b9<\/span>muishikitekina baiasu) in order to change society from the root. \u00a0I wrote &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/a-restaurant-that-is-gentle-to-women\/\">A Restaurant that is Gentle to Women<\/a>&#8221; before. \u00a0It is an implicit bias to say that women do not eat big meals. But nobody has raised an issue as far as I know.\u00a0 When the media was heating up its pressure to push Mori to resign, they talked about gender equality.\u00a0 But they keep on broadcasting gourmet shows saying \u201cpopular among women because they offer salad.\u201d\u00a0 Hello?? Until we recognize implicit bias, the status of women in Japan will not be able to change.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"197\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/03\/\u592b\u5a66\u5225\u59d3-350x197.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/03\/\u592b\u5a66\u5225\u59d3-350x197.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/03\/\u592b\u5a66\u5225\u59d3.jpg 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>March is\u00a0Women\u2019s History Month\u00a0(\u5973\u6027\u53f2\u6708\u9593\u00a0joseishi gekkan).\u00a0 The equality issue was widely discussed when Yoshiro Mori, the former Chair of the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, made\u00a0discriminatory\u00a0(\u5dee\u5225\u7684\u00a0sabetsuteki) remarks about women (see my blog &#8220;How Not to Apologize &#8211; Mori of Tokyo Olympics.) Every newspaper and every TV news talked how\u00a0outdated\u00a0(\u6642\u4ee3\u9045\u308c\u00a0jidaiokure) our society was.\u00a0&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/japans-unchanging-gender-gap\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":173,"featured_media":6894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,505759],"tags":[548059,3204],"class_list":["post-6863","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-vocabulary","tag-family-name","tag-gender-equality"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/173"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6863"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6895,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6863\/revisions\/6895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/japanese\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}