A Short Essay on Japanese Women and Their Career Aspirations, or Apparent Lack Thereof

Posted on 2008/06/22 18:08:30 (June 2008).

[Monday 16th June]
Chie's friend Ai-san had stayed at our flat the previous evening, and her flight was not until the early evening today. As she was at a bit of a loose end I invited her to my office for lunch, with which she appeared to be suitably impressed. I took a long lunch break - almost two hours - and Ai-san and I had a long girly chat about her job, love life, and plans for the future. It turns out she still doesn't really know what she wants to do in the future, a theme I have found common amongst a number of Chie's friends. In fact this is also true of Chie herself - she's very much the sort of person who just takes the first job that comes along, and only really does it because it pays the bills.

In some ways Japan is a bit behind the West in terms of social attitudes - the notion of a woman having a career is still a relatively new phenomenon. It is strange though, a lot of Japanese women I've spoken to (which of course may not be an entirely representative sample I should add) seem to feel like they ought to take advantage of this newly gained freedom to have a career, but then are lacking in any real ambition in terms of what they actually want to do with it. Perhaps it's a reflection that there is still an imbalance in the job market, and there just aren't that many inspiring opportunities for Japanese women out there. Still, I have developed a bit of a paternal instinct for Chie's friends over the years, and it is a bit sad to think of all these bright young women having such a lack of ambition. I would love one day to meet a Japanese woman who is doing a job she really loves, and is convinced that it is exactly the right thing for her - but then thinking about it I don't know many men like that either - Japanese or otherwise.

Not much else to report. Pretty standard evening. We had Japanese curry for dinner, Ai-san had kindly brought a whole bundle of Japanese essentials with her. Very nice.

We discussed this issue many times over I guess, but the role of women in Japan is still not up to scratch with the level that we have here. I think it's because the role of the family is still pretty strong and in the end is the women who are seen as the ones that should take care of things and run the family "manage". I remember meeting up with Tomo-chan (my girlfriend when I was living in Japan), she got a job for a company that printed trading card games, and clearly it was a job to pay the bills waiting for other things to happen (such as marriage, kids and so on). But on the other side this difference from western societies is also a strength, as the society is more connected and more stable when roles are clearer.

Posted by Lox at 2008/06/24 02:32:28.

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