One of the social aspects that captures my attention is the position of women in Japanese society. There is no denying that Japan makes Asian proud. What with its reputation as a technological giant. The automobile company, Honda, always comes to our mind whenever we think of cars, right?
Despite it all, ironically, I feel that the concept of egalitarianism, which holds that all people should be treated as equals and have the same political, economic, social and civil rights, is still something alien in Japan. The position of women is still not equal to that of men. To me, this a far cry from the image of a highly developed country such as Japan.
Why do I say so? Well, being a Japanese drama enthusiast, I found that those dramas have always portrayed women as weak and submissive to men. Men are always the ones who makes important decisions, and women stay silent, and listen. In the drama "魔女の条件", the mother of the main character, Michi, always listens to her own husband whether she agrees, or not. Whenever she wants to voice her opinions which are not in sync with her husband's, she will be shouted a loud "shut up!" The only thing she can do after that, is staying silent, although she feels very sad.
Apart from that, through the book "An Integrated Approach to Intermediate Japanese" by Akira Mura and Naomi Hanaoka McGloin, my belief on the inferior position of Japanese women is strengthened. To quote the culture notes of chapter 14, 日本の女性，
Although Japan is changing from a man's society to one that is kinder to women, the tranformation is quite slow. Women are entering all phases of Japanese life, but still many position are closed to them. Female workers, because they are not given important jobs, have more freetime than their male counterparts.
it is crystal clear that the position of women in Japan is inferior to that of men as they are not being given the equal opportunity to succed.
In addition, Women in Japan states that "Gender inequality, however, continues in family life, the workplace, and popular values. The notion expressed in the proverbial phase "good wife, wise mother continues to influence beliefs about gender roles." Hence, this has clearly explained that gender inequlity is still prevalent in Japan today.
Besides, from the website Human Rights Solidarity, the article "JAPAN: Japanese Discrimination against Women", I realized that "In Japan, a rape victim must show evidence of having resisted the attack." and "Japan is the largest sex industry market for Asian women, with over 150,000 non-Japanese women in prostitution." To me, this is saddening because women are always being viewed as sex object in Japan, despite its reputation as Asia's economic superpower.
In short, I believe that in Japan, women still face discrimination, and there is huge discrepancy between the position of women and that of men. And, do you all agree with me? Your opinions are welcome.
6 comments:
I agree wif u, this kind of situation is more obvious in Japan.. Through d movie series dat i've watched such as "神啊，请再给我多一点。。", Masaki's mom used2 take off their husband's shoe wen they reached d house (i wonder y they cant do it themselves..) There r many scenes dat Masaki's dad shouted at d wife n kip blamin her wen sth goes wrong, i reali think its unfair.. *がんばってくださいね、女性万歳*
ya. i agree with you too. my dad told me b4 that having Japanese women as wife, they will stay faithfull and obey to their husbands. they do not disobey what their husbands say. from here, i can see that the position of women in japanese society is really low. hope that this fact will change in the future.
ya, i totally agree with you. Japanese women are still being discriminate by men. I think in Japan, men are given more power to do decision. Their decisions are easily to be accepted compared to women. I have done research based on this topic. I discovered that in the working place, women are assigned jobs that required to make less important decisions such as receptionist, secretary, serving tea, and etc. Most of the important positions are held by men. Besides that, i believe everyone has realised that sex discrmination is a quite serious issue in Japan. Sex discrimination, sexual harassment are problems faced by women in a lot of companies in Japan. Sex magazines, books and movies are easily to get in Japan. Just as what you said, women are always being viewed as sex object in Japan. It's really sad to hear that. I hope that everyone will take this issue seriously because everyone should has the right to choose their own life to live. I hope that this situation will become better in future.
Actually i do agree the concept inequality of women and men happen in Japan and others contries too. I just hope this can be reduce as the time goes on because human already educated and can think,do decisions to do things wisely. But not still practise the olden ways to discriminate women. Everyone is the same and has the equal rights to live!
Haha.I notice that all the comments in this post are left by ladies. Here i come to add another comment. I too agree that discrimination against women still exist today in Japan. Mayb not in big cities like Tokyo but in smaller towns where women still have to obey strict rules. However, there is a japanese drama casted by 藤原纪香 called "Naomi". She plays the role of a teacher who disobeys all the school rules but likes to help her student. Kind of like female "GTO"
For me, I think that it is depends on person to person. Some guys are very大男人主义but some may not. For those guys who were very 大男人主义, all decision in the family may decide by themselves. Nowadays, modern life had taken over the traditional one. There are also women which take over family’s decision in Japan. What women say also be respect. If women nowadays still facing discrimination, then the girl who gets opportunity to study abroad will be very small. But as we saw the Japanese student who interviewed by us in class, girls was exceed those guys. So I don’t think that women in Japan were facing discrimination.
Post a Comment