'Homebody' Speech Riles Japanese Women

By Catherine Makino

WeNews correspondent

Thursday, October 28, 2010

A Japanese economy minister recently told an international gathering of businesswomen that “Japanese women find pleasure in working at home.” Outraged women’s groups have staged protests and are calling on him to resign.

TOKYO (WOMENSENEWS)--Mariko Mitsui, a former Tokyo assembly member and advocate for women's rights, isn't ready to accept the regrets of a government official for his comments at a women's business summit here.

"Many women are upset and disgusted with his scandalous statements," she said. "He strongly wishes women should be at home. I am extremely ashamed to be Japanese that such a man still remains a vice minister in the government."

More than 300 businesswomen and other participates from the 21 member countries of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum listened on Oct. 1 as Yoshikatsu Nakayama, the ruling Democratic Party's vice minister of economy, trade and industry, repeatedly said Japanese women enjoyed staying at home and holding the power behind the throne.

"Japanese women find pleasure in working at home and that has been part of Japanese culture," Nakayama told the meeting, which was co-hosted by Japan and the United States in the central city of Gifu. "They should be given more credit through (raising their husbands') salaries, but it has become impossible as the situation surrounding men has become severe."

His quotes were printed in several Japanese newspapers, including the Mainichi, Kochi, Kitanihon and Kyodo News Agency.

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The life that the Japanese government official wants is the old farm life, where mom and dad and children and grandparents were all in the same place, and divisions of labour were made by size and sex. Few people live this way, and what such men psychically deny, is that they are not the only people in a family whose lives have changed with education, technology, global awareness, and access to transportation. If he is serious about women staying at home, he needs to also be serious about men staying at home and being a farmer in his own backyard, so the family can be self-sufficient again, non-educated, local thinking and acting totally, and dedicated only to his family and possibly the family being dedicated to a local religion that helps make a small community work together. Otherwise, get over yourselves, men! I too, am worried about children, and especially the emotional health of young children, but to blame mothers for problems created by absent fathers is irresponsible in the extreme.