Japanese men, for example, are regarded as assistants and not equal partners when it comes to child rearing or housework. Government research shows women typically contribute four hours of housework a

Very selfish behavior.

Need to ban overtime before you can expect equal housework.

men pitch in 46 minutes

46 minutes more than I put in.

Somehow, I doubt all other things are equal in that statement.

Especially for Japan - most mothers dont work, whereas most fathers do.

A reasonable division of labour is a 50/50 split of housework when both the husband and wife are at home. When the wife is at home (ie during business hours) then she should keep doing housework tasks whilst the husband keeps droning on for his employer. That will result in skewed housework stats like the above but is not unfair to women in that situation.

If however, we are talking about a working couple then the above stat is a problem and clearly unfair.

Agree with some07791

As a woman I wouldn't expect my husband to do housework if that was my "job" and he was working full-time outside the home. Now we are both working full-time so we do the housework when we can...pretty evenly I think but definitely not 4 hours a day! Maybe 30 minutes a day :X

All the comments here are focussing on the housework. No comments about the imbalance when raising children?.How about the fact that men are considered "baby-sitters", or even call themselves babysitters? Or is that just another chore?

This feels like way more than i would have expected.

If it's the typical Japanese family in which the woman is not employed, I see little problem with the housework issue. If the husband works the typical Japanese working hours of approximately 10 hours or more a day, then him doing 46 minutes of housework a day is 46 minutes too much in my opinion. Child raising? I'd like to see men not expected to put in so many hours at work so they can spend more time with their kids. Child rearing is certainly a 50/50 responsibilty in my books.

My wife is lucky I guess. I grew up in a household with a thing called chores and I now do the vast majority of the housework in our home. It comes naturally to me and I don't even think about it.

In our house, it's more like 50/50 since we both work.

I think this matter isn't as black-and-white as it's made out to be. As other posters above have mentioned, if division of labour is fair - both partners working full-time, then of course division of chores should be done equally. That is only fair.

But I know an awful lot of blokes who work full-time while their wife quit working the minute the ring went on her finger. That to me looks like an understanding has been reached - one provides, one nurtures. If the bloke is out at work until ten o'clock each night to bring home the bacon, while the wife has opted to not work, it's not unreasonable for him to expect a bacon sarnie ready for him when he gets home.

And I also know a lot of blokes who have kept up their side of the bargain, working every hour God sends to provide a comfortable standard of living for his family, who then come home to find the house a sty and his dinner's in the convenience store because his fruitful vine has been too busy with coffee mornings and hula lessons and ikebana to honour her side of the bargain.

If the woman isn't working - and an awful lot of Japanese women seem to think this is their birthright - then they do the housework. It's only right. It's not on to paint the man as a lazy, unhelpful troglodyte if he's out at his work all day and takes objection to having to do the housework as well because Daddy's little princess thinks the world owes her a life of leisure

I know an awful lot of blokes who work full-time while their wife quit working the minute the ring went on her finger. That to me looks like an understanding has been reached - one provides, one nurtures. If the bloke is out at work until ten o'clock each night to bring home the bacon, while the wife has opted to not work, it's not unreasonable for him to expect a bacon sarnie ready for him when he gets home.

That was the agreement with my wife and I when she quit her job. I told her I was fine with it, but that her job was now the house, and she needed to maintain it, and make my lunches etc. Which is why I literally do almost nothing at home now. I take out the garbage when I leave in the morning, and I put my laundry in the hamper. I also put my dishes in the sink. That's about it.