Japanese Women Can Be Sexist - The Discriminated Can Become The Discriminator 女版「森元総理」

Japanese follows English. 英語の後に日本語が続きます。

Gender discrimination has been a hot issue in Japan "thanks to" a former prime minister Yoshiro Mori's sexist remark*.

* Mori said on February 3 at a Japan Olympic Committee Council meeting, “Women have a strong sense of rivalry. If one (female) member raises her hand to speak, all the others feel the need to speak too. Everyone ends up saying something.”

Many Japanese criticized Mori, and a s a result, he stepped down as the president of Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee and has been replaced by the then Olympics Minister Seiko Hashimoto, a female ex-Olympic athlete who competed in seven Summer and Winter Olympics as a cyclist and a skater. Are you happy with this ending, i.e., a man, who is generally sexist, has been replaced by a woman, who cannot be sexist? If you feel that way, you're naive!!

Women can be sexist. It's like the abused becoming the abuser unless the abused get over the trauma. In other words, almost all high ranking women, who must have been discriminated at sometime in their career because they are female, are highly likely to do what they have been done to other women. 

Look at Makiko Yamada, a cabinet public relations secretary, who is reported to have said in June 2020 that she was a woman who would never turn down an invitation to go drinking. Japanese people tend to make decisions that matter not at meetings but while drinking, but this excludes most women, who generally need to go home as soon as possible to fix dinner and/or pick up kids, from important decision making. Ms. Yamada has promoted such exclusive and non-diverse culture rather than saying or doing something to make workplace inclusive and diverse. She's no different from Mori.

  

I also know three women in their 40s who said to a friend of mine graduating from the University of Tokyo, one of the most prestigious universities in Japan, that it was mottainai, i.e., a waste, of talent for her to be single and not to have children. It's her choice whether to get married and be a parent. These three women said that mothers should stay at home.  

I don't know if Hashimoto is a "female version of Mori," but given Mori being her mentor for more than 20 years, I'm pretty sure she is. Japan should not be under the illusion that being a woman proves her innocence. Being a woman proves nothing but her sex.  

By the way, the term "mottainai" is usually used positively in the context of promoting "reduce, reuse and recycle," but everything has an exception. To see another negative usage of "mottainai" (in addition to such use by the three women), read this post!😁 

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森元総理のおかげ（？）で性差別問題に焦点が当たったのはよいことですが、橋本聖子さんが後任になったことでもう解決済みと思っていませんか。「女性は性差別なんてしない」なんて思っていませんか。それ、違うと思います。というか、性差別された女性、例えば今高い地位にいる女性の方々の中に、自分が受けた差別を他の女性にする方がいらっしゃるのではないでしょうか。虐待を受けた子供が親になったら（克服した人を除き）今度は虐待する側になるように｡｡｡

例えば「飲み会を断らない女」山田真貴子広報官。飲み会を断らないってことは、飲み会で重要なことが決まるから？なのでしょうか。そしたらご飯作ったり、お迎えに行かなくちゃいけないお母さん、そして勿論お父さんはどうなるのってことですよね。

それと私の友人に東大を卒業した女性がいるのですが、独身の時、年配の女性3人に「結婚して子供を産まないなんてもったいない」と言われたそうです。結婚するもしないも、産むも産まないも彼女の勝手でしょうが。その女性たちは「お母さんは家にいるべき」と言っていたそうです。

「女性は性差別をしない、みんな被害者」だという風潮には違和感を覚えます。女性だからってだけで性差別をしないということにはなりません。

話は逸れますが、上に書いた「東大卒の女性が子供を産まないのは『もったいない』」以外の「もったいない」のけったいな用法についてご興味ある方はこちらの記事も是非ご覧ください😁

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