Women, social change and realising political ideals - Religion and Politics in Contemporary Japan - page 146

things, but one thing he said was Women tend to stick together, be among

themselves (katamaru) [and exclude men]

'

. This, he said, was no good. It
would be better if they let men into their world. But women have to initiate
it. Men can

'

it. do that. Women have to invite them to join them. Women
judge men too, and think they can

'

' t do this and that, and think women do

it better. So they never let them.

I must have looked doubtful because she continued:

AIKO : But really it is like that. For example, in my own company, the work
that only women do they think men can t do. They gather among them-

selves. Well men gather among themselves too, and women gather among
themselves. From there, the situation starts to become strange (hen). And
then some activities become o

'

-limits for men, and some for women.
Therefore when women work they are looked upon as entering men ' s

domains s domains it will never

become a century of women, and it will always remain a man

… But if they don ' t enter each other '

…
so we should try not to group together in this way. But it is up to women to
change the situation; men can

' is society

' t initiate that. If we want things to change we

should do it.
ANNE METTE : So do you think that would in '

s awareness and
desire to become more part of their family and help with childrearing, etc.?
MASAMI : Yeah, but also within the company

uence men

where women gather, they
tend to speak ill of their superiors. And for myself, I don

-

' t really want to

enter this women ' s domain, I want to say to them, ' why don ' t you change

t really want to enter this female group and
join them in speaking ill of others.
AIKO : Well isn

the situation instead? ' I don '

' it that just because it is a man ' is society we live in, that it is men

who make the decisions, so it becomes di …

[talking about the merit of children attending nursery] You have to let
children play with other children

cult for women to speak out.

… but it is widely believed that children ' s

character is formed in the first three years of their life, so the person they

are with until they are three is very important [meaning to be with the
mother is most important] …

I want to ask a question here about any importance attached to the role of
fathers, but Aiko continues:

AIKO : But recently, young Japanese males have changed, I think. Now we see
more often a young father with his children. For some spending time with
their children has become more important than work. Also, everybody
has their children

s picture on their mobile phones showing it to people
around them. Because the time spent with children tends to decrease when
you are busy with work, some young men have become determined to
change the company [culture]. 6

'