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Women in Japan: Menstruation Leave

Question from a reader: I remember learning about menstruation leave – as I recall you could take one day a month off with pay to accommodate – in Japan and thinking how great/dangerous that was. Does it still exist? I think it’s dangerous as it sort of says “poor weak woman, not as capable as a man” and great because sometimes it’s just so energy draining that it would be nice to stay home on the couch with a heating pad. What is/was the attitude of men in Japan about this?

Women in Japan: Conversation remembered

Ayuko was the receptionist at the tiny family-owned English school where I was working until June 2008. It was just the two of us there most of the time, she manning the office and I teaching the lessons. During breaks or no-shows we talked about everything under the sun.
I couldn’t help doing a bit of western-tradition feminist indoctrination from time to time, which I now somewhat regret. The more time I spend in this country, the more I see that whenever Japan gets around to having a major feminist revolution it’s going to have to happen Japanese-style. In a culture that values collectivism rather than individualism, people take a different and softer approach to identifying and solving problems. ...

Ayuko was the receptionist at the tiny family-owned English school where I was working until June 2008. It was just the two of us there most of the time, she manning the office and I teaching the ...

Women in Japan: The Tea-Serving Thing

The archetypal image of gender oppression in the modern Japanese workplace looks something like this:
Several representatives of a partner company have arrived at headquarters for a meeting. In the conference room, guests and hosts are exchanging business cards and settling their middle-aged male rear ends into spacious chairs.
As small talk quiets and the meeting begins, the door of the conference room edges open. In come two women bearing trays of teacups. Tiptoeing around the table with tiny demure steps, they deferentially offer a teacup to each man, saying “douzo” and “shitsureishimasu” (“here you are,” “please pardon me”) in low, breathy voices. The women then retreat from the room as the men launch into their meeting.
This is everyday ...

The archetypal image of gender oppression in the modern Japanese workplace looks something like this:
Several representatives of a partner company have arrived at headquarters for a meeting. In the conference room, guests and hosts are exchanging ...

New blog on womanhood in Japan

Thanks to commenters for expressing interest!
The blog is called The Josei Thing: on being a woman in the Land of the Rising Sun.
Right now I just have a brief introductory post up, but I’ve requested comments on topics readers would like to see addressed, so if you have one please pay a visit. I suppose I’ll do some Shameless Self-Promotion as soon as I have a bit more content up.

Thanks to commenters for expressing interest!
The blog is called The Josei Thing: on being a woman in the Land of the Rising Sun.
Right now I just have a brief introductory post up, but ...

Sexism in the English language (from the eyes of a non-native speaker)

Greetings to all, first post here.
I live in Japan and work in the international relations office of Yokosuka, a city hosting an American naval base.
Recently, a conversation with my Japanese boss drew out an observation I couldn’t resist posting here. Boss, who has excellent English skills and loves showing them off, was discoursing to a captive mealtime audience on gendered nouns in English…ships and cities, for example, are “she”…
Me, inserting with grin: “English is a sexist language, so ships and cities are about it. Most everything else is assumed to be male.”
Boss, almost tripping on his enthusiastic agreement: “Yes! Absolutely! When I was first studying English [note: about 35 years ago], I saw that the basic ...

Greetings to all, first post here.
I live in Japan and work in the international relations office of Yokosuka, a city hosting an American naval base.
Recently, a conversation with my Japanese boss drew out an observation ...