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reinforces the general gender-division tendencies. While none of the young
male informants said that they were opposed to their future wife working, in
reality, like Hiro, even if they are able to overcome their own patriarchal
expectations, they will
cult to overcome the employment practice of
long working hours combined with expectations about after-work Soka
Gakkai activities.
While Hiro did marry his girlfriend and when we met again in 2009 they
had just had a baby, his wife was on a three-year leave granted her from the
civil service, and Hiro told me in 2011 that he returned home most nights in
time to bathe the child. His wife was returning to work within the year and
the child would be going to kindergarten. While some changes may be
occurring, it is not surprising that many of the young women who had career
goals and feminist awareness were unconvinced that any great changes were
taking place. There were also young women such as Ami (introduced in
when they were small because her own mother, an executive leader in Soka
Gakkai, had been away a lot. She explained that both her parents had made
e
find it di
time with her and her sister to make up for their
frequent absence, but that she had missed her mother as a child. Contrary to
Hiromi, Ami did not have this
orts to spend
'
quality
'
work dilemma, but
took her future role as mother, which meant giving up, at least temporarily,
paid employment, for granted. I attended a few meetings in Hachioji espe-
cially designed for mothers with young children (to which I was invited
because I had a young child). At these meetings I never met a working
mother or a mother with children in a nursery. They all had the impression
that it was almost impossible to get children into a nursery and de
'
should I or shouldn
'
tI
'
nitely
impossible to hold down a full-time job at the same time as having young
children. Many expressed their admiration for me and explained how having
young children while working was not possible in Japan. As the current
skewed balance of work and family continue, this is not too severe an
impression, but it is especially the case in Tokyo where working usually also
includes long hours of commuting.
However, while the caring role women perform is highly praised by Ikeda,
almost seen as the epitome of human
, and he often talks about
women playing a more active role in society, I never came across any
emphasis on the importance of the role of the father. The idea often heard in
Soka Gakkai that an individual should develop into an all-round person with
a diversity of experiences and tolerance for di
'
development
'
erent opinions seemed some-
how not to extend to alternative gender-role experiences. When married men
stay in the YMD, known for having late-night meetings, particularly if you
have a leadership position, until their late thirties there is an organisational
lack of awareness of the need for fathers to spend time taking care of their
young children, let alone time with their wives. Without any practical change
in the status of fathers, starting with recognition from the highly in
uential
Ikeda, respect for women seems somewhat framed within the parameters of
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