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The Voice of Experience
| Article
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18582 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
4 / 1991 |
1,587 Words |
| Author
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Mitsuko Shimomura
The following comments are given by one Japanese woman who
has "made it to the top," Mitsuko Shimomura, editor in chief
of the Asahi Journal. Her statement gives a first-hand account
of the trends explained in the preceding article. |
In the West there is an image of Japanese families in which men rise early, commute long distances to work in Tokyo, and stay out till the wee hours drinking sake in karaoke bars with their colleagues. The women in this stereotype remain in their cramped homes, staying up late, nurturing the math skills of their children. For the past twenty years, that image has been correct. Now, however, we are definitely changing. Japan is in the midst of an enormous transition resulting from the entrance of women into the work force, a rising generation of kids dissatisfied with the corporate culture, and a new consumer consciousness.
Already, 40 percent of the Japanese work force is women; and 70 percent of those women are mothers, one-third of whom work part time in sales or other services.
In Japan, everyone belongs to the middle class: This used to mean that men provided for the household and women didn't have to work. Even in the recent past, a working woman reflected badly on the family, because it meant the man wasn't fulfilling his duty.
With the development of a consumer society, however, the definition of middle class is expanding. Being middle class requires more money to go out to eat, to go away on weekends, to buy clothes; it means being able to afford a better math tutor for the kids, or that organized trip to New York or Paris. So, to keep up with the consumer status of being middle class and to earn extra income, women are beginning to work.
As importantly, by the time the children are twelve or thirteen and go off with their friends, the mother ends up in total isolation. The children are gone, and the husband is never home. For a woman, that means forty years of emptiness!
So, more and more, women are joining the exploding network of "culture centers" to hear lectures about international affairs, study languages, or read Japanese classics like The Tale of Genji. Other women have joined one of the five hundred burgeoning women's networks that are transforming the political face of Japan with their grass-roots activism on consumer and environmental issues. And many women seek part-time work.
The idea of part-time work for women is very important now in Japan. The prevalence of part-time work for women is not, as is often suggested, the result of discrimination; the average Japanese woman doesn't want to be like a Japanese man. Woman have no
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