Perhaps because of suffering from the recession and deflation of economy, Japanese people seem to lose their confidence on anything and worry about their future all the times.
In this situation, TV programs that big up Japanese culture for self-congratulation are popular among people. Japanese people who usually care about what others think of seem to feel good to know the positive feedback from foreigners about Japanese culture through a TV program in order maybe to recover their confidence artificially by common ethnic sense of value.
Recently, I’ve had a lot of chances to watch TV programs and magazines that praise Japanese women.
- Japanese women are really wonderful.
- Japanese women are made much of boys from all over the world.
However, I think a woman who is really nice in Japan should be nice in the world too and a woman who is not really good in Japan should be taken no notice of by anyone in the world. Women who are popular among boys have no border, I think. Whenever they are from, attractive person is the one whom people have no choice but to admit the fact of “attractive”.
Such Japanese women who are made much of boys have big shortcoming. Certainly, I know there is a lot of women who look so beautiful and elegant. But Japanese women’s dependent on men is extraordinarily bigger than any other advanced countries.
For example, stay-at-home wives plant a thought in neighbors’ minds that who’s position is much higher judging from what rank and how big and how popular companies their husbands work for. Some of them make a boast of how much they were supported financially by their husbands before getting married.
Statistically, there are lot of Japanese women who count on their future husbands’ revenue to be perfectly supported financially. So their motive and criteria for marriage is always man’s social status and savings and constant enough salary not to fall into poverty. These conditions are much stronger than any other reasons they get married with man. In the world, more or less, there are women who hold admiration for a lifestyle with a rich person. However, in case of Japanese women, I feel the ratio of people who think it natural is pretty much higher.
In other words, supporting husband quite devotedly is a right lifestyle that Japanese women keep in their deep mind. Consciousness of opening up a new path of life for themselves with independent mind is very low. Since they were born, they have recognized their social role as a woman in the society subconsciously by learning adult’s behavior and Japanese custom and tradition.
The reason why there are few women to hand up to test their ability proactively in a society although a lot of policies that stimulate the social progress of women are created in Japan is because they are brainwashed to have stereotype of “Japanese women should be like this“ that deprive women of thinking things by themselves and believing walking their own lives.
In western culture, women have insisted strongly on their equivalent labor right and appropriateness of women’s going into politics since a very long time ago before women’s social progress was booming and Equal Employment Opportunity Laws was enacted in the world.
Even though they were in male society which was decidedly disadvantageous for female to take active part in business, they fought to win a social position and made people admit male and female are the same human having the same ability.
When you think about the period of time in 1950s when Margaret Hilda Thatcher who experienced the prime minister of England as a first woman stood as a candidate for the first time, you can understand how difficult she was elected by people in away game that males were overwhelmingly strong position to politics posts. Notwithstanding, not giving up to persuade society to give the equivalent status and right to women has made the stream of atmosphere that pushes women’s social progress into not only business and politics but also every single fields.
So western women built their society for themselves from scratch. So western women’s social progress has accelerated not because they sensed this mood sharply but because they created this mood and environment to get social post easily.
This difference between western woman and Japanese woman is pretty big.
Japan is rare advanced country that is directed by oligopoly parties’ dictatorship except for communist block countries. Japan is commercially successful but there are a lot of contradictions in democracy thoughts. As well as resistance against regime change, there is a fact that the number of people who accept the present circumstances is much more than the number of people who appeal the need for “women’s right”.
“Independence” is at least a minimum conduct of adults who need to make living for themselves. But for Japanese women who have been kept in cotton wool all their lives by their parents and educated to become good dedicated wives to support their future husbands, it is pretty harsh way to stand up to walk their lives with their strong will. There are a lot of things that people are realized by facing a very difficult situation. I mean Japanese society has a big contradiction that it protects women too much socially even though it demands the government to promote social progress of women.
The Japanese economy is in winter season. As with the western countries, the gap between the rich and the poor will get wider and wider and a society becomes even more polarized than ever. Of course, jobless people will increase at an accelerated pace. In this situation, a sense of value of having a job and making a living by yourself to contribute to the Japanese economy will take on way more importance in a society and such people are respected.
Therefore, a woman in middle-class family can’t be taken care by her parents without independence till getting married with her future husband. So “independence” comes to be an essential condition that a women manage to create on her own from now. Awaking women’s economic self-sufficiency, the Japanese economy will follow the results automatically and people’s thought against women will change gradually. A male will also change his position as the mainstay of a family to take care of to just a man to respect a woman as a equal life partner in Japan.