Women, social change and realising political ideals - Religion and Politics in Contemporary Japan - page 149

IGETA : There are members who also continue to work. But also members
who want to become professional housewives (sengy - shufu). And there are
members who think that being a housewife is happiness. 8 But I wonder if it
is simply a question of whether or not one participates in society through
work. For example, what the YWD admire about the WD is that although
they may be professional housewives they live with a purpose. They do their
work as housewives and do lots of Soka Gakkai activities, meet with their
friends and introduce them to Buddhism. But everything is done with the
aim of creating a society of peace. So they live with this purpose of creating
a peaceful society. Also for me, among my friends from university [she
graduated from Soka University] there were many who studied very hard.
If you look at them now, around half of them are housewives [Igeta is
about 30]. I don t think that is necessarily bad. Ultimately, whether one

decides to work or to become a housewife, in Soka Gakkai I think the most
important thing is for what purpose you live. You have the freedom to
choose yourself. The YWD have to make this choice themselves. In the
YWD now there are also a lot of members who cannot participate in Soka
Gakkai meetings very often because they are so busy with work; when they
reach their thirties they are working just as hard as the YMD members in
their jobs.
ANNE METTE : Do these women tend to get married?
IGETA : Well some do and some don

'

'

t. In society as a whole the age for mar-
riage for women has increased. There are a number of women in society in
general that don

t get married, or get married late, and choose their own
individual lifestyle. It is the same in Soka Gakkai.
SUGIYAMA : There are some companies that employ women to simply do
photocopies, or serve tea, etc. There may be some who think this is okay,
and some who don

'

t. But this way of thinking still exists in Japan. I think
the country as a whole should strive towards creating meaningful and equal
opportunities for both men and women. The work opportunities for women
should be improved upon. And in terms of raising children, it should also
be the right of men to be able to raise their children. With regards to the
issue of men respecting women, essentially, there are a number of brave
(y - ki ga aru) men, but there are still some men who don

'

' t want to listen to

women s opinions. But we know that the organisation, just like companies,

can only really develop when women

'

is opinions are included [this is some-
thing continuously talked about by Ikeda].
IGETA : Sensei with his declaration that the twenty-

'

rst century should be the
century of women is encouraging women to speak out. Women have to
work on this aspect; wherever we are, we have to improve and develop
ourselves to learn to speak out. We are now able to participate in a number
of meetings [at the executive level of Soka Gakkai], and Sensei keeps saying
please listen to the opinion of women. But even if we participate in such
meetings, we may not have the courage to speak out.