Tag Archives: gender

Ishinomaki—Then and Now

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by Robert Moorehead

Filmed in Ishinomaki in November, 2011, this documentary includes interviews with survivors of the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disasters of March 11. This moving documentary is the recipient of Best Documentary and the Grand Prix prize at Super Shorts Film Festival, 2012.

The video is also available in the following languages:
Portuguese: vimeo.com/41279189
Italian: vimeo.com/40420477

The filmmakers have also released “The Women of Fukushima,” a documentary film that examines the experiences of eight women whose lives have been changed by the disaster at the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant. This disaster has compelled these women to become activists in the social movement against nuclear power in Japan.

My Japanese students often tell me that there are no social movements in Japan, and that Japanese people don’t participate in such events. Not only does this view negate the existence of 60 years of protest in what is now Okinawa prefecture, but it also views the people who participate in such movements as somehow different from everyone else in Japan.

The “Women of Fukushima” challenges this view, by giving viewers a feeling of connection with these women. Hopefully this connection will compel more Japanese to speak up and demand a safer future for them and their children.

“The Women of Fukushima” is available for online rental and purchase (for only $8) at women-of-fukushima.com.

Western Culture Invention versus Japanese Society

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by Ayaka Nakamura

Since Japan was defeated in World War II, Japanese society had been strongly influenced by the Western culture. Wearing Western clothes, following its fashion trend, putting on fake eyelashes, wearing high heels, and looking for love marriages, Japanese have imitated Western lifestyles. However, people could not simply get rid of their own cultures and identities, so that they have been struggling in a process of acceptation of a new lifestyle. Different social groups show different reactions to get involved in the Western culture invention.

Although globalization has enabled Japanese people to have access to greater information of what Western cool people wear, eat, and buy, their different financial levels caused various reactions to the Western lifestyle. For example, the rich could buy the exact same products that they saw in Western TV dramas, but the poor could not. Young Japanese women buy western trendy clothes and dye their hair in lighter colors following an influenced perception of beauty, but some of them cannot afford many new clothes and/or monthly hair care. It seems, in this westernized consumerist society, people who cannot follow the dominant lifestyle are marginalized and labeled as “different,” which often contains negative images.

However, the relatively poor also try to get involved in the Western lifestyle stream. Those who cannot afford expensive Western goods create new affordable products to still adopt the Western lifestyle. In Japan, many cheap fashion brands have been established, such as Honey’s, INGNI, earth music&ecology, moussy and so on. They retail around 5000 yen items that most of all Japanese can afford. Borrowing the essence of the high end fashion, a new fashion was produced for the relatively poor to follow new values.

Moreover, as to Western images of independent women and love marriages, few Japanese women can enjoy the Western career women life because the most of women are still valued within gender ideologies. Although Sex and the City got very popular, in reality around forty year old women who have not married yet are called makeinu (負け犬), losers, which goes back to an old-fashioned idea that women’s happiness is marriage. Yet, other groups of people have started opposing this, and cerebrated those independent unmarried women as ohitorisama (おひとり様), which simply means one person but without any miserable nuance. Japanese social structure had conflicts with the Western value of career women, but creating new norms the whole society are involved in the process of adaptation. Independent “makeinu” women gained new identities as ohitorisama.

All over, it is difficult to determine what is bad and what is good of Western cultures. Globalization brought many changes in Japanese society, and certain groups of people have struggled with them. However, the whole process of acceptation of new values rolled up all groups of people and produced various solutions to join in the Western lifestyle. Adding new Western cultures on existing Japanese cultures, society and people are getting culturally globalized.

Gender Norms and Sexual Minorities in Japan

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by Akie Kuwano

Globalization has changed our lives in many ways. We now consume products imported from countries outside of Japan, while products “made in Japan” receive attention worldwide. Clearly, products are not the only thing that are exported and imported; we also trade values and norms at the same time. Gender norms are one thing that is deeply influenced by these exchanges of culture. In last few decades, gender norms in Japan have changed dramatically. More women are working outside, and still not many but more men are helping raising their kids compared to 1980s. However, when it comes to the debate of sexual minority, Japan is still conservative about their traditional sexuality of gender binary.

The recently elected and now the biggest political party in congress, “自民党” (jimin-toh) answered to a questionnaire made by a Japanese LGBT supporting group asking whether it is necessary to protect human rights of LGBT persons. Their answer was “it is important to set a law to protect transgendered persons, but not for homosexual and bisexual persons”. This idea seems somewhat radical, when thinking about the global trend of promoting rights of sexual minorities altogether, as the term LGBT is used in UN resolutions. However, the idea is widely prevailed in Japanese society at large.

One of the reasons why the Japanese people are more accepting about transgendered person than non-heterosexual is attributed to a character in famous TV drama “Kinpachi-sensei”. In the drama, the famous Japanese actress Aya Ueto performed the role of a transgendered female student suffering bullying in high school. This was shocking to Japanese viewers in two ways. In one way it was sensational that the drama openly talked about sexuality, which was usually regarded taboo in Japan at the time. In the other way it surprised Japanese people because the drama depicted the girl as having a gender disorder, and this created sympathy for the “poor girl.” From this drama, Japanese people became aware of the existence of transgendered persons, and at the same time became very sympathetic toward them.

After the hit of “Kinpachi-sensei,” transgendered people became active on TV shows in Japan, mostly in the fields of comedy. One of the famous figures of them all is Ai Haruna, who won Miss International Queen in 2009. Some TV shows featured and interviewed her suffering before she had sex reassignment surgery. This also gathered attention from Japanese people, and again created sympathy and understanding toward transgendered persons.

On the other hand, the Japanese are critical about homo- and bisexual persons. The former governor of Tokyo prefecture, Shintaro Ishihara, spoke to the media that homosexuals have something wrong with their genes and that they are defective in some way. Even some of the well-educated students studying around me openly say that homosexuals are disgusting that they don’t want those people around them. Japanese people have completely different feeling toward transgender people and toward homosexual people.

Now, we can see how countries are selective about accepting ideas from other cultures. Japanese gender norms have been changing, and we already became more open to transgendered persons while getting the information about values of other cultures where sexual minorities are respected. However, we still exclude homo- and bisexual persons. It is the same as the instance of Indian men, who welcome the imported image of men reinforcing his values, while complaining about the values liberating Indian women, although both of the values are from the same origin. From these instances, it is clear that the benefit of globalization is limited to some individuals. The influence from outside world is unstoppable, however, we can still be selective about which to take in and which to exclude.

REFERENCES

『「同性愛者への施策は必要ない」自民　アンケートに回答』2012年12月5日retrieved from http://www.sponichi.co.jp/society/news/2012/12/05/kiji/K20121205004710960.html

“UN issues first report on human rights of gay and lesbian people” Viewed on December 22nd, 2012. Retrieved from http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=40743

ゲイに優しい政党、嫌われる政党　Viewed on December 22nd, 2012. Retrieved from http://www.tokyo-sports.co.jp/nonsec/63855/

Avoiding marriage in Japan

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by Kaori Isobe

About a half of century ago, arranged marriages were very common in Japan. Before World War 2, most people got married through arranged marriages. However, after WW2, Western culture came into Japanese society and made the society change. Nowadays, it is very common that people often got married with someone who they really love. Arranged marriage in Japan is almost gone.

However, in recent years, there are a lot of sites about dating, and many people try to find new wife/husband. Also a town provides opportunities to set up machi-kon. Machi-Kon is what the town or city set up and give opportunities to single participants to get know each other. This is like Japanese arranged marriage, called omiai. Omiai is known as arranged marriage, the traditional system of formal introductions through family connections or third parties with a view to arranged marriage (The Japan times, Feb.21, 2010).  What is the difference from original omiai is that participants can meet many single people in one event. But machi-kon still has the principle of omiai, such as participants can meet someone like their favorite type of persons. Omiai sounds old-fashioned. However, as society changes, omiai system has been changing.

If the number of marriage opportunities increases, the number of marriages also increases. The number of marriage increases, the birth rate also increases. Then, the number of children increases, the number of employer will increases, then these processes and influence would make Japanese economy grow.

However, there is reality issue facing us, and making us avoid getting married. About 50% of thirties men who work as regular employees have a girlfriend or wife. However, on the other hand, in thirties men who work as contract employees, only about 20 % of them have a girlfriend or wife. This shows that work condition is very important for marriage. Some women do not get married because their boyfriends’ salary is very low. It’s very hard for men to get married if they are contract employees or something like it. First of all, the government should haves to change this Japanese employment structure, so that employees can live in a society which respects each employment. The government is working on welfare facilities but also basic, really needed condition such as employment condition.

In a conclusion, marriage is very important for life. Many scientists say that if the number of children will be decreasing much faster, Japanese economy will fall. To increase the number of marriages, first of all, the government has to fix this society such as over working, contractual and regular work system and so on. From omiai to the government, every single issue is related each other. Omiai would be one actor that will help Japanese society change to a good way.

References

NHK解説委員室 http://www.nhk.or.jp/kaisetsu-blog/400/124874.html

The Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/9206205/Arranged-marriages-make-comeback-in-Japan.html

The Japan Times http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20100221x2.html

For an equal society in India

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by Natsumi Ichioka

After reading the article “Arnold Schwarzenegger, ally mcbeal and arranged marriages: globalization on the ground in India,” I wonder why women in India are not equal with men. In India, after independence from England, a new constitution was established in 1947. This constitution succeeded in mentioning that all Indians are equal legally. In Japan, it is said that women and men are equal, but there are some obstacles to saying that all situations are equal. I know the gender problems are so complicated and unsolvable problems. Like Japanese situation, there are also problems in India for a truly equal society. I think India has to change three things for the equal society.

First, India has to divide politics from religion. It is not a simple problem to think like this, but I think the problems which India has are all related to the religion, especially Hindu caste. Caste has caused many problems and prejudice for Indian women in the society. India is developing these days, they try to take in many developed ideas from foreign countries. I think there is a limit to coexistence between the traditional Indian culture and the developed culture, because developed cultures have a trend for the equal gender, for example, the equal employment, equal education system and so on. If India continue to change modernization, it is necessary to separate the thinking from religion.

Secondly, Indians have to solve the problem of employment for women. India is developing and women are going to work in the society. In developing society, the workforce for women is needed. Though the welfare programs are established, for example, securing time for childcare, prohibiting illegal layoffs for women and so on, these systems are not always secured. Government research states that the wages of women are lower than the wages of men. In addition, the rates of women’s layoffs are more than four times compared to men’s rates, in the same research. In this way, there is still discrimination against women laborers. These welfare systems are secured truly for the equal employment. Though they are established legally, it is nonsense that they are not adopted for all women.

Finally, the system of the marriage is too burdensome for women. From the traditional culture in India, the bride needs to give financial aid for the groom. This system is too burdensome for the bride’s family. Because of this system, girls are not welcomed. Sometime, girl babies are killed because of this prejudice. On the other hand, boys are welcomed and treated preciously. These prejudices are caused by the thinking of the religion. If these prejudices are continued, India will run into difficulties. If these prejudices are solved, the thinking of the equal between the men and the women are made. Then, Indian society is going to change for the equal society. There is no discrimination against women.

I think India need to change dramatically in these three points, the thinking of separation of politics and religion, the employment for women, and the system of the marriage. The problems which India has are so complicated. They cannot be solved easily. But for the equal society, especially for Indian women, they need to change dramatically. The women’s rights are secured in many field, India will be more powerful country in the future.

Reference

Kyoto Univ. UNICEF Club (1997, November), Retrieved December 16, 2012, from http://www.jca.apc.org/unicefclub/research/index.html

The appeal of skin lighteners in South Africa: a racial and gender issue

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by Joana Ito

In 1991, most skin lighteners were banned from the South Africa’s market, as a result of the Black movements’ criticism against the structural racism, allied to the arguments of health concerns. However, as a report of UNEP showed in 2008, the racial and medical arguments were not sufficient to erase the appeal of the skin lighteners: 35% of the women in South Africa were still regular users of skin lightener products.

The racial/color discrimination element regarding the use of skin lighteners can be clearly identified, as the lighter skin is valued more, while the darker skin is considered less desirable. For that reason, consumers of skin lighteners in South Africa are in many occasions described as “sellouts”, who act against the interests of black as a whole, by denying their own “blackness”; and often accused of committing “racial betrayal”. It is relevant to note however that, as the consumption of skin lighteners is concentrated in the female population, the discussion around the use of these products cannot be limited to the issue of political awareness of race, nor in terms of racial pride and shame.

The behavioral change regarding the use of skin lighteners faces many obstacles, as the appeal of these products is based on multiple factors. According to Thomas (2009), the use of skin lighteners is mostly related to utilitarian motivations (such as for better social position, job and marriage opportunities) and to abstract perceptions of beauty, influenced by both traditional pre-colonial values, and the values rooted in the historical past of colonization, segregation and apartheid. Consequently, when the question of the use of skin lighteners is presented in narrow terms of white-black discrimination, it may exclude the consideration of constraints and limitations that many of those women could face, if they were not to confirm to the socially constructed ideals of beauty. According to Glenn (2008), while men are more likely to be considered valuable when they have wealth, education and other forms of human capital, women are considered valuable when they are physically attractive, even if they lack other capital. For that reason, the relative cost to “not betray the race” and not use skin lighteners, in this case, can be considered higher for black women, as their life opportunities may be more affected by the beauty standards of their society.

To modify the individual perceptions of self-esteem and pride regarding their own race is a first step to tackle the remaining racial discrimination challenges in South Africa. Nevertheless, when the parameters of physical attractiveness and beauty defined by the society can strongly influence the life opportunities of the women, the problem is not only about race, but also about gender. If the aesthetic parameter (determined by a male dominated society) were less relevant to determine the social position and value of these women, wouldn’t they feel less compelled to use skin lighteners and have more incentive to become more “loyal” towards their own race?

References:

Glenn, E. N. (2008). Yearning for lightness: Transnational circuits in the marketing and consumption of skin lighteners. Gender & Society, 22(3), 281-302.

Thomas, L. (2009). Skin Lighteners in South Africa: Transnational Commodities and Technologies of the Self.” In Evelyn Nakano Glenn, ed., Shades of Difference: Why Skin Color Matters. Palo Alto: Stanford University of Press, 188-209.

UNEP (2008). Mercury in products and wastes. Geneva, United Nations Environment Programme, Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, Chemicals Branch.

To be familiar country with women

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by Sungryoung Yoon

Women’s social progress has been wider since the government decided the Equal Employment opportunity law in 1980. Until then, I guess there was a stereotyped against women that work in society as same as the men. After the Equal Employment opportunity law, the society is getting familiar with the women because some laws were introduced like the law for child-care leave. I can say 1980’s was a big factor of starting the new society for the women. From the reference that I write below page, the number of the household that is made by only men’s employee has been clearly decreased since 1980. I can guess there was effect of the Equal employment opportunity law as I stated upward. The number of the household that is made by only men’s employee decreased around half number from 1980 to 2006 but the number of the household that is made by both men and women’s employee has been increasing since 1980’s. We can see the situation from the reference that the number of the household that is made by both men and women’s employee is more than he household that is made by only men’s employee.

The number of women’s social progress has been increased and the system of society is getting g familiar with women than before. However can we say is the Japanese society really familiar with the women? After the globalization, depression, women would go out of house to work in the society but if they do, who care their children? I think that child care is the biggest problem in women’s social progress because lack of the child care makes declining birth rate and actually the declining birth rate is deeply getting decreased today. Today preschool is one of the big factors for the women’s social progress. A lot of family/ household need preschool to leave their children to work in the society however lack of the preschool is getting serious. Today, the reference says that number of the children who have to wait for entrance to preschool is around twenty thousand every year. If parents cannot leave their children to the preschool, how do they care their children doing work?

One solution to care children is expansion of the preschool but it is not easy because of the lack of nurse also. I think that our society have to start to do new project for women and their children. Second solution I guess is focus on the elders who retires from their work. As I stated below, Japanese society has a problem of the declining birth rate, and we are having increasing elders. I guess there are so many elder people who want to work after their retirement of their work. If we can do this project, it would be good for the women who want to work and the elders who want to work more. However I guess that this project still has problem. Actually preschool needs a license to take care of the children but if we focus on the elders, how should we care them? We cannot let elders do full-dress style of preschool. Also we have to find the elders who have enough strength to take care of children. We still have a lot of problems to care the children and that connects to the women’s social progress. To be more familiar country with everyone, I think we have to try to find the solution.

References

“男女雇用機会均等法”http://law.e-gov.go.jp/htmldata/S47/S47HO113.html  (accessed 2nd on December )

“平成20年度版　厚生労働白書”

http://wwwhakusyo.mhlw.go.jp/wpdocs/hpax200801/b0055.html (accessed 2nd on December)

“平成21年　人口動態統計月報年計（概数）の概況　厚生労働省”

http://www.mhlw.go.jp/toukei/saikin/hw/jinkou/geppo/nengai09/kekka2.html (accessed 2nd on December)

“「保育園不足」を見て見ぬふりの文科省” http://facta.co.jp/article/201003008.html (accessed 2nd on December)

Approaching gender equality

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by Mihoko Sumitani

When I studied gender issues in the class, I was thinking about the situation of gender in Japan. Generally speaking, it is said that developed countries tend to approach gender equality better than developing countries. Of course, Japan is one of developed countries. Then, is Japan really approaching gender equality as well as other developed countries?

There is an interesting ranking in The World Economic Forum’s annual Global Gender Gap Report. This report ranks countries according to the magnitude of their gender gap in four keys which are economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment and health and survival. In the report published this year 2012, japan ranked 101st out of 135 countries in terms of the progress it has made towards achieving equality in these four areas. I was quite surprised to see this ranking because there are many developing countries ahead.

However, when we see Japanese society, we will witness the fact that how many men are in administrative positions in both public sectors and private sectors in comparison with the population of women. Indeed, there are some difficulties for women to keep working after they marry and have a baby. The main two reasons are that many companies are not flexible about maternity leave and that there is a gender discrimination of women staying at home and doing housework as well as taking care of their children. Furthermore, Japanese parents still have a strong tendency to make their sons getting higher education than their daughters.

I think we have to change this situation now as we are facing a declining birthrate problem. Reducing the gender gap will have a good effect on companies’ bottom lines and helps to address serious demographic challenges. Actually Japan already put the big step to close Japan’s economic gender gap. New Task Force was launched in cooperation with the Japanese government, business and civil society to close Japan’s gender gap by 10% by 2015 as the initiative of a World Economic World. I hope this attempt will work well and we all people can have diverse choices of their lives and have an equal chance to display their abilities no matter what gender they are.

Reference

http://www.weforum.org/news/world-economic-forum-launches-japan-gender-parity-task-force

Global Gender Gap Report 2012

Cleaning and care product companies need to step up to the plate for commercials featuring men

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by Sherry Stanczyk

The year is 2012, and it’s fair to believe that there has been social progress in regards to the equality of women since the past. Women have made strides in participating in the working world that was once dominated by men. In In this day and age it is not uncommon for the wife of the family to bring in just as much money as her husband, or in some cases even more. But behind all this progress, the fact remains that little has changed in regards to the gendered nature of ‘unpaid’ labour, such as childcare and house cleaning. Even though it is normal to now consider women family breadwinners, this gender inclusion does not extend to inside the home, where housekeeping and childcare are still primarily considered the jobs of women. The idea that women are still the primary home caretakers creates inequality; firstly as Erhenreich and Hochschild have illustrated in their article “Global Woman”, in the majority of middle and upper class Western households where the wife is unable to do the housework, instead of a division of labour between husband and wife, the house and child care duties are passed onto other women, typically paid maids from poorer countries. This creates situations where these migrant women, hidden away in households, are vulnerable and lack worker’s rights. Gendered housework also feeds into and sustains the existence of the glass ceiling; women are still not paid as highly as men because society still believes a women’s priorities are family, thus higher salaries, promotions, and job positions are usually given out to men. The gender divide of housework also creates an unfair situation for women who end up having to sacrifice either their career or family ambitions.

However, although not the majority, many men do participate in household and child care tasks. But the fact remains that society in many ways stigmatizes men who participate in cleaning and caretaking roles, as well as discourages men from taking part in the house and family. And nothing is upholding these norms more than the advertisements for cleaning and other household products. Advertising- as much as one would like to believe they are able to filter out- remains a powerful and strongly influential factor in dictating how we as a society believe and view what is both normal and desirable. And advertising for cleaning and household products almost never show men in their ads. These ads create the illusion and normalize the idea that cleaning and childcare are only and should only be done by women, while ‘real’ men take no part in housework. When ads for household products do feature men in their ads they typically showcase them as the housework-clueless and useless husband who need his wife to come to the rescue, or as the emasculated house-husband. (And although there is nothing wrong with a man who wants to play the traditional homemaker role while his wife wears the pants, showing it advertising still feeds into the idea that housework is ‘feminine’ and a woman’s job.)

There has been some change in advertiser’s thinking. For example, this year when Huggies created a series of diapers tv advertisements which featured incompetent fathers ignoring their baby’s dirty diapers in favor of ‘guy things’, such as a sports game on television, many real life fathers protested on Facebook, resulting in an official apology from Huggies and a new set of ads showing far more competent fathers. However, more companies need to step up to plate, and bring in some freshness and creativity to their advertising. I think we need to see more cleaning ads featuring normal, everyday fathers and men using their products. Although having more house care ads feature men isn’t going to magically fix the problem of gendered housework, it would be a step in the right direction. If we’ve come so far in social progress and ideas regarding gender roles, why are we still afraid to show that men can participate in household tasks too?

Gender Norms

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by Mayu Shibata

Many societies have adopted the notion of gender norms in history.　Most of them are such idea as ‘Men working outside the home and women staying at home and holding house.’ Although it is gradually weakening after women’s rights movement, it is still strongly rooting our society in various fields and it’s more likely for developing countries to hold this idea.

The word sex means biological differences between men and women while ‘gender’ refers to just about everything else. It’s related to a custom or tradition. For example, who usually take care of children? Who usually provides the majority of household income? Who usually changes his or her name on marriage? What kinds of toys do boys play with and what about girls? And then, who decided it? If it’s a custom or tradition, what makes them act so is people’s stereotype such as ‘boys should like soccer more than cooking.’ This idea makes us who we are and how we act in a way. If you are a boy, you know how people expect you to act like through talking with mom and dad, for example. You would be likely to be provided with car toys than Barbie dolls. Then you grow up as a ‘boy’ with a sense of a boy. Like this stereotypes and categorizing is everywhere around us and we are tied to them and act as expected.

I, as a woman, don’t think women should be free of house holding and child care even though I won’t be good at it because women have rights to go outside houses and participate in society regardless of marriage but I think biologically women are better at child care in many cases. Of course it’s about one’s personality and we can’t decide which is better but according to physical differences women will do better on average. But I think they at least have a choice. As I mentioned, it’s depend on one’s personality and not one’s sex. On the other hand men who prefer house holding should be welcome and they don’t always have to be the role of working outside. Both sexes have choices. And what suffer them are the stereotypes and categorizing. People see a person who does something different as ‘deviant’ and not all of them are brave enough to take the choice. So I think the most important thing on gender norms is to change the trend. People suffer between own desire and society’s way when they are in troubles. However, they don’t recognize that they are tied to society’s stereotypes until they are in troubles. What is required here is that all people should recognize the unfair restriction and understand that we all have choices of how we live.