JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION
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- Assistant Language Teacher (ALT) in Kanto region
- RCS (RCSコーポレーション), Kanto
- Salary: ¥180,000 ~ ¥250,000 / Month includes performance bonus
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- Assistant Language Teacher - TOKYO - late-March start
- Interac, Tokyo
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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- Assistant Language Teacher - Kanagawa Prefecture - late-March start
- Interac, Kanagawa
- Salary: ¥230,000 ~ ¥255,000 / Month
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scotchegg
It's not the number of ships you have it's what you have and how you use them. The Falklands war showed how just one submarine could effectively paralyse an opponent. I can't imagine many Argentinian admirals even today would fancy their chances against British submarines.
And presumably everyone saying the Falklands should be given to the Argentinians are equally vocal about Taiwan being given back to China?
Posted in: British PM stokes war of words over Falklands
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scotchegg
Pompey?! A club that are virtually bankrupt, same crappy old stadium they've had for the last 100 years, and one of the worst hooliganism problems in the league?
I wonder why he, or anyone, would even consider going to those skate twats.
Posted in: Japan striker Lee to join Southampton
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scotchegg
Yep, France can piss off. I third that.
Posted in: Britain hits back at 'unacceptable' French comments
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scotchegg
There you go again, wilfully misrepresenting what other people have said and running away with your own wild speculations. You may want to take a baseball bat to this guy or hang him, and although I would agree that's a natural knee-jerk reaction it wouldn't solve a thing. Then you have an injured child, a dead father, and are still no closer to understanding what causes some people to do crazy things like this.
What you're suggesting is below even eye for an eye justice, the type of justice most advanced societies have rejected as primitive.
One thing I hope we can all agree on is that people who do this kind of thing are crazy. They're not in a state of mind where they can make reasonable decisions, so having a deterrent like the death penalty that they would need to reasonably see as a scary thing wouldn't make a blind bit of difference.
Posted in: Man held for dropping 1-yr-old son from 10th floor apartment
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scotchegg
When you said this:
Why only women? Why do you give men the choice still to disrespect your choices but say women should support them? Is it possible to criticize someone while admiring ad respecting them?
Kindly address your responses to what I say, not speculation about my mental state. That's how debate works.
Marie, I have to hold my hands up to ignorance about the differences in childcare availability in many areas of Tokyo. I absolutely agree that the infrastructure and legislative environment is woefully inadequate. Where I differ with Cleo and Nicky is that I think the norm should be for mothers and fathers to participate equally in childcare, an tr responsibility to pay for it. They seem to be saying the norm should be for one parent to raise the kids and one to work, and they're fighting for a woman's right to make that choice, and saying men have equal or greater choice than they do.
As for take your concerns about the paternity / maternity leave gap to the government - sure, that's the ideal and we need to foster a social environment where men feel less fear (social and career) about demanding equal work / life balance norms to women.
Getting that kind of environment is what I'm trying to do here.
Posted in: Shiseido exec fights for gender equality in Japan
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scotchegg
You seriously think it's not possible for you to be sexist against women because you are a woman?! Trying to limit people's ability to criticise others based on their gender is sexism. Hope that's clear enough.
Really? How do you explain the difference in the length of maternity leave and paternity leave? How do you explain the difference in numbers of sahm and sahd? Which do you think is more likely to find a spouse: a woman who tells her boyfriends she wants to be a sahm after childbirth or a man who tells his girlfriends he wants to be a sahd after childbirth? If men really have far more freedom of choice, why do we see so few sahf?
As for rising number of male contract workers / freeters - do you have any data to suggest that's because of choice? I've seen lots of articles saying it's because of companies not willing to take the economic risk of offering full-time positions.
Combining work and motherhood for most women is not an option? Why? You may not get the perfect career you dreamed of, and I'd certainly agree that more needs to be done to secure better career stability for women and men who want to take time out to care for children, but do you really think most men have their dream careers? Of course not, the majority make do and go to work to pay the bills.
Do you think it would be as acceptable for a man to say to society, "well, I can't get the exact job I want, so I'm not going to work, and my wife can get a job that isn't the exact one she wants either and support me while I enjoy the fulfillment of raising the kids full time"? I think not.
As for your picture of married life, characterising men as rich lotharios who expect their wives to be subservient maids at home while they're out enjoying orgies with their lovers...erm...do I really need to point out the sexism?
Not lumping, I work with many working mothers so it's a bit hard to understand why so many women here think combining work and parenting is not an option. One of them even has a sahf husband, and frankly that disappoints me as much as sahm.
Posted in: Shiseido exec fights for gender equality in Japan
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scotchegg
Not if the choice is incompatible with your own values. Suggesting your own values should be exempt from criticism, particularly from one gender, combines casual sexism with intellectual cowardice.
Posted in: Shiseido exec fights for gender equality in Japan
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scotchegg
Why shouldn't other women be allowed to disagree with your choices? Blatant sexism.
You poor dears with your 3 options. Thats 2 more than men get.
Posted in: Shiseido exec fights for gender equality in Japan
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scotchegg
Cleo, 'reactionary' doesn't mean what you think it means. It has nothing to do with expecting others to feel bad if their values are different, it means rejecting social or political change and favouring the status quo.
As for 'you want to impose your values', impose assumes the authority to change others' behaviour, which I clearly don't have and am not advocating. Did I not say legislation should only go so far as ensuring choice?
Good heavens, again, not even implied by what I said. In future could you do me the courtesy of asking what I mean if it's not already clear.
But sloppy language choices and (continual) mistaken inferences aside, changing the social environment to make it socially unacceptable for mothers or fathers to monopolise family or work life at the expense of the other is a value I think worth fighting for, in a similar way to the way feminists raised society's consciousness in the 20th century to make the generic 'he' unacceptable. It's not illegal to write generic 'he's now, but society's consciousness has been raised to see how exclusive it is, and it's almost fallen out of practice now. Homophobia is still not illegal as a belief, but in decent societies it's unacceptable.
I'd like an environment where society sees the benefits of equal involvement in work and family, legislates to facilitate it, and criticises those who choose to reject it. If you disagree with the core value I'm talking about then put forward a counter argument.
But don't try and say such a fundamental social issue which touches everyone, is none of other people's business. That's reactionary.
Posted in: Shiseido exec fights for gender equality in Japan
1
scotchegg
Cleo,
Really? So you didn't write
in a reply to me? If you didn't really write that then there's no need to apologise for taking mistaken inference one step too far and accusing me of sexism.
Can you really not see why you're open to accusations of reactionary thought when you say things like 'It's the way it is and the way it's going to be for some time to come'? If not I'll repeat the example I gave earlier; do you think women would have got the vote in the UK if Emilie Pankhurst had accepted that type of thinking? Should we really tell children that that's the way society is constructed so don't hope for anything different? Even if you actually don't subscribe to the gender assignments the psychology you display when you say that will only maintain the status quo.
I absolutely agree that realistically-enforcable legislation and supportive infrastructure should be provided to allow parents to decide themselves about the split of child-care and career. And that's as far as legislation should go, but I disagree that beyond that it's nobody's business about the choice they make. You've said yourself that parenting is way more rewarding than work, and although I really enjoy my job I agree. The vast majority of fathers I know agree and would love to spend more time with their children, but people saying 'that's not the way it is' sustains a social and business environment where it's just not possible. For that reason I think it shouldn't be socially acceptable to allow mothers to monopolise child-care, any more than it should be socially acceptable for fathers to prioritise their career and ignore their kids. I hope that more stay at home mums and workaholic fathers feel awkward about their choice because more balanced involvement by men and women in both family and work spheres can only be a benefit for society.
Posted in: Shiseido exec fights for gender equality in Japan
1
scotchegg
Cleo I haven't even implied, let alone said women should be denied education so kindly don't infer it. I'm just contensting your opinion that higher education makes parents better equipped to raise children than those that don't have it.
Also I haven't even implied, let alone said that men should be praised for staying at home while women work, so kindly don't infer it.
I strongly disagree that the kind of critical thinking, theory formulation and thought structuring are more valuable in raising small children than the kind of observational learning, pattern recognition, understanding of routines, following instructions etc. that working on manufacturing might give. (The sedimentary degree isn't personal, just the first thing I could think of as narrowly vocational. Don't ask...)
I'm fully aware that most women want to look after their own kids. Guess what! Loads of men do too but the working environment is too heavily tilted towards men at the moment so few women have the option to sustain careers to support husbands who want to raise the kids. Add to that the sort of reactionary "that's the way it is whether you like it or not" thinking you came out with earlier, and it's no surprise we have lots of dissatisfied fathers and mothers. I'm saying we should have equality of choice for both men and women to balance family and work responsibilities, and 'educating a man benefits the economy, and educating a woman benefits the family' only perpetuates these gender assignments.
I would absolutely criticize women who feel its their role solely to raise a family and the husbands role solely to work, in equal measure to the criticism I would give a man who thinks it's his role solely to work while his wife's role is solely child-raising. Both work and family can provide great fulfillment, and a psychology that makes it acceptable to bar women from fulfilling careers or fathers an equally active role in childcare (and vice versa, absolutely) should be criticized at every opportunity.
Posted in: Shiseido exec fights for gender equality in Japan
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scotchegg
Sorry Cleo, still can't find anything in your post to justify your point of view. How exactly does being an undergraduate student for 3 years teach you more self discipline than working in a machine tools factory for example? And then how exactly does a degree in sedimentary deposits in estuarine systems advantage someone over a parent with no degree when it comes to raising children?
Also I'm not sure what you mean by " Assuming that it's a genuine academic course, not one of those 'Your parents pay up front and a degree comes out the other end' -type of three-year holiday", but if it is more than simple academic snobbery then could you clarify what type of degree you consider valid?
As for "it's about choice, not about everyone being obliged to follow the same path.", I'm sure most sensible people would be with you there, but frankly I don't know how you can say on one hand that the status quo is that women raise the kids and will do for a long time wether you like it or not on one hand, and claim to be advocating choice on the other. We're not likely to see the changes either in social or legislative practice if we all think 'oh well, that's the way it is'.
Posted in: Shiseido exec fights for gender equality in Japan
-1
scotchegg
Cleo:
You really think 3 years of university instills more self-discipline than 3 years in the workplace?! I think not. Never met any students who skipped lectures because of a hangover? I absolutely agree that having a qualification means it's easier to get back on-ramp after the kids are school age, but that is a)not related to your original point that higher education makes better-equipped child raisers, and b) something that we can and should apply to both sexes.
And presumably you didn't quote your Mum because you disagreed with her. That kind of "it's the way it is" is again, frankly disappointing to hear. It's a good job people like Emilie Pankhurst didn't share that attitude of social inertia or women wouldn't even have the vote. Just because it's the way it is doesn't mean it's the way it should be, and it surely shouldn't be beyond humanity to make work and family life more fulfilling for both men and women. Whether you like it or not.
Posted in: Shiseido exec fights for gender equality in Japan
-1
scotchegg
Cleo could you kindly explain how 1) a degree in say, sedimentary deposits in estuarine systems, would advantage a parent in raising children over someone with only high-school qualificiations, and 2) how your statement "'Educate a boy, and you educate a worker; educate a girl, and you educate a family'" is NOT suggesing raising a family is a woman's job and fathers only have a marginal role?
Posted in: Shiseido exec fights for gender equality in Japan
2
scotchegg
@Cleo "Raising a family is NOT a waste of a woman's time or education; it's the single most important job she will ever do."
It's disappointing to still see educated women parroting the idea that a woman's life task is to raise a family. You devalue the work and aspirations of millions of hard-working women as well as relegate fathers to a marginal role in family life.
Politicians should be legislating to create an environment that allows both fathers and mothers to enjoy career and family life, and society should start to embrace women in key business and political positions as well as a more active role for fathers with the family. And to help with this we need to start rejecting the idea more strongly that men should go to the office and women should stay at home.
Posted in: Shiseido exec fights for gender equality in Japan
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scotchegg
@George Palmer: Terrible if true. Could you provide a link / some source?
Posted in: Woman jumps to her death at Shin-Koiwa Station; 5th suicide there since July
12
scotchegg
This may of course be related to strengthening of the anti-yakuza laws happening later this year. Many companies are introducing clauses into their contracts specificly banning any connections with organised crime, punishable by immediate termination. I wouldn't be surprised if Yoshimoto's legal department had a hand in this decision.
Personally I'm happy to see him go. Not only is he a bully, misogynist and hypocrite, his particular brand of humour (pointing out how fat / stupid / ugly other people on his show are) is distasteful and dull.
Posted in: Comedian Shimada quits show business over reported ties to yakuza
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scotchegg
And unfortunately many Japanese seem to be blissfully unaware of how lazy and dull their TV is. There's more quality in a week's programming on the 5 terrestrial channels in the UK than a year's worth of the 8 channels in Japan.
Posted in: TV fast becoming irrelevant medium
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scotchegg
I'd be really interested to know how many women who marry for money actually tell their husbands 'I have no feelings of love for you, but will do all the housework and parenting if you pay all my expenses for the rest of my life'. I have a feeling it's somewhere near none.
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scotchegg
Or you could have just asked And vice versa? and kept it at a simple request for information. :-)
Posted in: NEET spouse in the house not such a neat arrangement