Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
support or not. Hamayotsu, the woman told me, was one individual who had
consistently been speaking up for gender equality. Certainly, increasing the
number of female political representatives seemed important for Komeito, as
it often proudly proclaimed its record of almost 900 female local assembly
members.
Komeito, under the initiative of the Women
s Bureau, has for a long time
been supporting and promoting legislation for equal opportunity, and more
adamantly in recent years, as suggested by Sawa, some had begun to advocate
the idea of compulsory childcare leave for fathers. Although fathers legally
are allowed two weeks
'
paternity leave, less than 5% take this leave. Changing
attitudes from the general situation of almost no involvement of fathers to
one in which they take a year off
'
to care for their children is likely going to be
di
s initiative (in 2004) to hold meetings for fathers to talk
about the importance of reading stories to their children at
cult. Komeito
'
rst seemed sur-
prising, but knowing how well Komeito local politicians are connected to
what is going on in the communities across the country this is perhaps a quite
accurate re
ection of the attitude towards the role of the father.
What did this all mean for the generation of soon-to-be parents among the
informants in this study? My female interlocutors wanted equal treatment,
respect, a working environment free of harassment, and the opportunity to be
judged on merit rather than anatomy, but they also wanted the opportunity to
care for their children. Many of the young women were eager to establish a
stronger role for men as husbands and fathers. However, the typical middle-
class gender division of labour was also apparent among Soka Gakkai mem-
bers, as well as among employment practices in Soka Gakkai. The majority
of married Soka Gakkai female members with children do not stay in full-
time employment, and few female staff
members who are married with chil-
dren work for Soka Gakkai. This may be slightly changing in 2011. Speaking
in June 2011 to a male employee in his early forties who works at the central
Soka Gakkai o
ce in Tokyo, he told me with amazement and excitement
how a pregnant employee continued to work in his o
ce. He also said that
the current Youth Division members are not so easily going to follow their
parents
generation as they have their own opinions about things. While such
changes may be taking place slowly, largely, the Soka Gakkai membership
and those employed by the organisation (some 3,000 people in total) have
tended to re
'
ect the middle-class employment patterns described here.
Hiromi, introduced in the previous chapters, was both a devoted Soka
Gakkai member and an active supporter of Komeito. She was also currently
head of one of the dormitories for foreign students at Soka University, as well
as being one of the more senior and very active people in the United Nations
Research Club (UNRC). I could always
find her present at the twice-weekly
UNRC study meetings. One afternoon in December 2003, over co
ee in one
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