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possibilities for promotion might make women apprehensive about bargaining
with patriarchy too much (Kandiyoti 1994). Rather than being stuck in a
tedious job with no prospects, as a woman they have a
'
choice
'
if their hus-
band can support them
financially. While these Soka Gakkai women may not
choose or be able to stay in full-time employment, they do have the freedom
to do what many of them enjoy the best
doing Buddhist activities. Because
they are members of Soka Gakkai, being able to spend time studying Bud-
dhism and engaging in religious and political activities may after all prove far
more attractive and intellectually stimulating than potentially serving tea for
male colleagues in an o
-
ce, however seemingly status-superior from a socio-
logical point of view. An employee of Soka Gakkai from the UK who has
lived in Japan for over a decade, and someone I knew to be personally advo-
cating a feminist agenda, told me that without structural changes being made
to the employment situation in Japan to facilitate a better work
-
life balance,
she thought that:
Most Soka Gakkai women who are wives and mothers with no job
probably
lling, and in fact their activities are more or
less a full-time job if they have a leadership role. I doubt they would be
wishing they could work in an o
find that very ful
ce, perhaps because they would assume
that they could not have a really satisfying job due to lack of promotion.
In this way, women, particularly those in a leadership role, take on responsi-
bility for their district or chapter on a more or less full-time basis. Sasagawa
s
(2004) study of highly educated housewives who give up good jobs to become
homemakers echoes sentiments of women in Soka Gakkai, who may not
necessarily be even giving up good jobs, thus making the alternative perhaps
even more attractive. Sasagawa shows how women gain considerable satis-
faction from participating in and setting up facilities for themselves and their
children in the local community, which many claim they would rather do than
commute to a distant o
'
ce. Lynne Nakano (2000), who carried out a study
of volunteering in Japan, also found that some women prefer a local lifestyle
that gives them more satisfaction and a superior status to the one they could
achieve in a part-time job. This situation does not only point to women
s
oppression within the labour market, but also highlights the few possibilities
that men have to escape the drudgery of long working hours in a potentially
tedious job.
The skewed work
'
cult for a working
person to have childcare responsibilities, let alone spend time on Buddhist
activities, activities that are socially and intellectually ful
-
life balance in Japan makes it di
lling for those
engaged in them. However, with women virtually running the districts in their
own areas, the nature of long working hours may make some men feel side-
lined in the organisation (just as in the family). The same employee quoted
above explains that her observation is that,
It is important for men to be left
with their own distinct roles and functions as otherwise the Women
'
'
s Division
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