What do you think of gender roles?

#Japan #Culture

According to a recent survey about gender roles in Japan, 40 percent of Japanese people, both men and women in their 20s to 40s, seem to support the traditional view of gender roles: husbands should work full time while their wives stay at home. You might be surprised with this result, but this outdated view still persists everywhere in Japan. However, the working environment in Japan is about to change.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has set targets to increase the number of women in the workplace, and he is considering a bill for working women. Also, most of the leading companies and central government ministries are employing and promoting women positively. The number of women being hired has not yet reached the same number as men, but the situation is beginning to change steadily. When the public and private sectors help to improve the working situation for men and women by increasing of the number of nursery schools or giving flexible and supportive working conditions, the view of the gender roles will change in the future.

I feel that companies need to provide better conditions to not only women but also men, and they also need to improve the working conditions for single/married women that don’t have a child. If only women who have children get better working conditions, the working conditions as a whole will never be improved and the Japanese mindset will never change.