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Opinion

The war on women

By Jennifer Matsui


女性に挑まれた戦い

共働き、夫婦別姓などの自由・平等を満喫する女性は、 ともすれば「少子化の元凶」などと攻撃の的にされがちだ。 そんな中、紀子さまに親王が誕生し・・・。

The "war on women" rages on largely unnoticed and mostly unchallenged. And Japan is no exception. There is a widespread belief here that women are the reason for much of society's miseries and failures. Arguing that women's equality has eroded the foundation of marriage and family, and is responsible for Japan's declining birthrate, lawmakers are undermining Article 24 of the Constitution.Article 24 states: "Marriage shall be based only on the mutual consent of both sexes and it shall be maintained through mutual cooperation with the equal rights of husband and wife as a basis. With regard to choice of spouse, property rights, inheritance, choice of domicile, divorce and other matters pertaining to marriage and the family, laws shall be enacted from the standpoint of individual dignity and the essential equality of the sexes."

The media in Japan, not unlike their U.S. counterparts, also continues the myth of women's "selfishness" as the reason for a general decline in moral standards. In the United States, Paris Hilton makes headlines every day with her profligate spending and sexual conquests, while in Japan the weekly magazines "report" regularly on the spending power of "promiscuous" single women.

A constitutional revision panel, made up of ruling party hawks, concluded that "individualism" had been distorted into "egoism" in postwar Japan, leading to the collapse of family and community values and the decline in birthrate. Masahiro Morioka, a former ruling party member in the House of Representatives, said in the report, "It is shameful that Japanese people no longer think much of family, community and the nation. ... The Constitution must ensure that protecting family is the foundation of securing the nation."

According to activist Hisako Motoyama: "The government is borrowing the notion of 'family values' — which attack women — from the United States. It's the same thing, but the only difference is that we don't use religious language, we use nationalistic language."

The use of "patriotic" jargon to shame women into giving up their independence is nothing new. Hitler's minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, addressed the "problem" of Germany's declining birthrate by saying:

"The modern age ... has not left women and their role in public life untouched. ... Some good, noble and commendable things have happened. But also things that are contemptible and humiliating. These ... transformations have largely taken from women their proper tasks. Their eyes were set in directions that were not appropriate for them. The result was a distorted public view of German womanhood that had nothing to do with former ideals."

The recent birth of a future male emperor by a docile and obedient princess volunteering her body for the State is an apt metaphor for the future of Japanese women under a revised Constitution. Goebbels couldn't have found a better example of a heroine to usher in a new fascist world order.

(457 words)


Discussion: In what ways can these attitudes be changed?



Shukan ST: Sept. 29, 2006

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