JAPAN: Househusbands Giving Birth To More Gender Equality

By Suvendrini Kakuchi
TOKYO, Aug 31 (IPS) Since their first child was born 16 years ago,
Hiroyuki Ozaki has taken care of
the household, relinquishing his traditional role as the main breadwinner
while
his wife held on to her career in the travel industry.

"When we switched duties in the family, I represented a complete
reverse of
gender roles in Japanese society," explained Ozaki, a 59-year-old
photographer. "Our relatives and friends thought we were weird and
never
forgave me for becoming the homemaker."

In the not-so-distant future, however, Ozaki might be considered a
model
citizen.

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has joined the hitherto slow
gender equality drive in Japan with its ‘Ikumen’ programme, a
campaign to
encourage men to take leave from work to raise their young children.

Hironobu Narisawa, a district mayor of the central Bunkyo ward in
Tokyo,
made headlines in April for declaring that he would be the first
government
leader – whether male and female – to go on parental leave, a
move he hoped
will help "change attitudes". Only 1.7 percent of Japanese men
take paternity
leave, compared to 78 percent of men in Sweden.

Coined from ‘iku’, the Japanese word for child-raising, and
the English word
‘men’, officials also hope the ‘Ikumen’ project
will remedy Japan’s flagging
birth rate, which currently stands at 1.2 births per woman.

"The project has two goals – one is to raise awareness in
men that child
rearing is not only for women," said ministry official Mayuko Nakai.
"The
other is to create a family where men and women can work and also have a
family, which is difficult now because men have to work long hours in the
office."

Some 550 Japanese fathers have signed the ‘Ikumen’
declaration, a
statement that publicly declares their commitment to child rearing, since
the
launch of the campaign website in June 2010.

Japan’s revised child-care and family-care leave law, which came
into effect
on Jul. 30, permits fathers to take paternity leave at any time within a
year of
the birth of their child. Fathers with infants under three years old will
also be
allowed shorter six-hour working days to encourage more time spent at home
with their spouses and children.

In part due to its workaholic culture, Japan saw some 253,000 cases of
divorce in 2009, a whopping 60 percent increase from the 157,000 recorded
in 1990. The government’s campaign to allow men more opportunity to
spend
at home, some observers believe, will result in happier marriages due to
increased interaction within the family.

"My work started four years ago when I decided to stay at home
with my
kids," said Tetsuya Ando, director of Fathering Japan, a
not-for-profit
organisation helping men to develop closer ties with their wives by
sharing
housework.

"I realised then there were a lot of men who wanted to make the
same
choice as myself because they felt they were losing out on family
life,"
explained Ando, who notes that younger fathers are more receptive to
taking
on household duties.

"Men, mostly in their early thirties, share the perception that
they do not
want to end up like their fathers who have spent their whole married life
at
their companies and when they retire, suddenly realised they are lonely at
home," said Ando.

Programmes like the government’s ‘Ikumen’ project are
seen as a step
toward chipping away at gender discrimination in Japan’s patriarchal
society,
where men dominate powerful public positions and women are respected for
their devotion to their husbands and family.

Indeed, some Japanese are also exploring more varied lifestyle and
professional options themselves these days. For instance, cooking schools
and social dance studios are reporting male middle-aged retirees that have
become an important clientele base in traditionally female-dominated
activities.

"My male students, mostly in the sixties, have graduated from
learning basic
cooking skills to taking on complicated dishes," said Miho Nakayama,
who
runs a small cooking school in Tokyo. "And they are proud to be able
to cook
at home, a major change to the time when the kitchen belonged solely to
their wives."

But Prof Takayoshi Kitagawa, a sociologist at Nagoya University, urges
caution in concluding that traditional gender roles in Japan are on the
way
out.

"The new measures seem bold, but it is too early to say Japan is
moving
towards gender equality. In reality, I think the reforms stem from the
current
economic issues or men are forced to change to pacify their wives,"
said
Kitagawa.

While the Ikumen project is a definite attempt by the government to
bring
men into family care, Kitagawa explained, it could also be a stopgap
measure
due to the economic consequences of the country’s low birth rate.

Labour experts predict a looming labour shortage brought on by an
ageing
population will force companies to rely on female workers.

A survey by the labour ministry indicates that almost 70 percent of
Japanese
women quit their jobs or take on part-time work when they have a child.
Both
men and women reported long working hours as the top reason for marrying
later, and having fewer children.

Genuine and sustainable gender equality, Kitagawa believes, cannot be
borne solely from economic necessity, but from men and women’s
realisation
that equality brings personal fulfilment and allows individuals to be
their best.

"Gender equality in a traditional society has to be nurtured by
both genders
and this takes time. Economic concerns will not bring about the
solutions,"
said Kitagawa.