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Thursday, October 01, 2009

Comments

Shop taobao

Education is a progressive discovery of our own ignorance.

Bobo

"Get the women out of the homes", Lenin said.

The Envoy

bshock speaks the truth. Governments and society always looks for the easiest thing to blame.

Peter

non-uk I don't know what country you are from, I guess Japan. I love Japan by the way, my wife is Japanese and I have been many times. Japan is a fine country but not a perfect place. I merely mentioned that the UK is very good when it comes to gender equality and that happens to be totally correct. I don't think that there is gender equality in Japan although things maybe changing slowly. My wife tells me that a number of her friends are wanting to get divorced from thier Japanese husbands because they do nothing at home and expect women to do the chores at home. Almost every Englishman can cook, do the washing/ironing etc.

non-uk

Ricardo, you said it, "Mainly because there is a different system here..."

Exactly. UK and Japan have different culture norms and values. If you walk down a street in Tokyo and ask any person which country has better gender equality? Of course, they're all going to say Japan and vice versa.

BTW, it is customary for japanese men to work and give paychecks to their wife even if both partners work or the wife makes 10 times more than her husband.

I'd like to see the same statistics based on gender equality conducted by the japanese. I'm curious if the japanese think japan should rank higher than UK, and would the British agree to it..

Ricardo

*sigh*
non-uk, I think you're taking this way to personally.

First, what does breed have to do with anything here? I grew up in London; with its diverse cultures and backgrounds. I couldn't care less about pure breeds.
Whoever, if your pointing out an additional reason for the population decline then I might agree. Japan is known for being a xenophobic nation, which might hurt a potential source.

Second, yes you are right, few men in the UK work their ass off and then give their wife and family allowances. Mainly because there is a different system here, both partners work. This increase the income as a whole which allows the family to afford day care either as a kindergarten or a nanny(if your rich enough). I guess that's just one example of equality.

Please understand we are not trying to say the UK is a better country, there are aspects of both countries that are good and bad. Maybe if we weren't afraid to admit out own shortcomings then we might be able to do something about it.

Tired chan

I'm a feminist and believe that women have a right to as much education as men do. But when she has a college education, a woman doesn't want to waste it just cleaning and cooking for a big family. And in Japan, she knows her husband will be working too much to help her. So I guess she would choose to have just one child or none at all.

When I read about the super-high cost of raising children in Asia, I think the extra education is to blame. Is so much education really necessary? And to think that so many Japanese parents would like their kids to then go to an American college... I think the parents are "overeducating" the kids. I mean, I guess you can never have too much education, but you CAN have too much school.

non-uk

Hey Ricardo,

Japan ranks low but have you ever thought Japan has been a closed society for hundreds of centuries because of their geographic location? And 99% of japanese today are pure bred, as opposed to how many British are purebred? Majority of japanese men work and give all their money to their wife and get daily allowance. How many British men actually do that? Can you tell me?

Dont look at the statistics and believe for what it is. It never tells the whole story.

Ricardo

@non-uk
Wow, calm down. Yes, James overestimated UK's rank in gender equality, but it's still pretty good, specially compared to Japan's.

If you want statistics and references then here you go;
http://www.socialwatch.org/node/9272
http://www.socialwatch.org/node/9269

I'm surprised Japan can rank so low despite being a very developed country.

RMilner

It is a complex issue with a lot of contributing factors.

It should be noted that nearly all advanced countries have a low birthrate. In the ones which don't (USA, France) it is recent immigrants who contribute a lot of births.

The Economist reviewed this issue a long time ago and pointed out that in a modern industrial society, having a lot of children is extremely expensive to the parents.

In Japan's case, housing and schooling costs are very high. Many Japanese men do not earn enough to support a family. Japanese women often give up their jobs after marriage and children.

The unsociable working hours and long commute times of many Japanese also contribute to tiredness and lack of opportunities to enjoy family life.

Learn Japanese

Hi Mari, great blog! Kim from http://www.JapanesePod101.com just sent an email, please let me know when you get a chance to read.
Thanks again.

non-uk

Hey Peter, you said, "the UK has it's problems but we rank number 1 in the world for gender equality"

May I ask you where you get this statistic from? From UK magazine done by British? What hypocrisy!!

I bet you think UK has the best food and the best teas in the world too, huh?

May I remind you that Land Rover is the least reliable car in the world, but I bet the British think otherwise, huh?

bshock

To me, it seems a bit silly that anyone would suggest anime and manga cause loneliness.

Can anyone really imagine guys avoiding contact with girls because they preferred to stay home watching anime or reading manga? No matter how wonderful imaginary characters might be, a human male will prefer being with a real human female... if that's not too difficult.

Much more likely is that anime and manga simply take advantage of existing loneliness and shyness.

Peter

I agree that there are so many hoops to jump through for Japanese wannabe couples, for me as an Englishman it seems quite daunting for couples in Japan. I would love Japan to have equality between men and women. Things are changing in Japan but quite slowly. I live in the UK and my wife is Japanese, the UK has it's problems but we rank number 1 in the world for gender equality which is good in my opinion.

Taki

Haven't read the article yet but I agree I don't think manga/anime is contributing to less marriages.
I don't think Japan is economically strong anymore however.
Being half-Japanese the one thing that embarrasses me the most is that you must have female seperated rail cars. Nothing says as much about a stumbling society than that.

Mark

Mari,
I've read one opinion that the low birth rate
is caused in part because Japanese women feel pressure to quit their jobs when they get married or have a child and so they delay marriage and having children.
Do you feel there's any truth in that?

Julien

Mmmm, I think the main problem is that it costs too much to raise children. Just look at the cost of education! I think that's why so many couples in Japan postpone birth...

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