Tired of being cute (left). Is this what Japan will look like in the future? (feminist demo, right)
What do YOU think?
The new Miss Universe was crowned in Las Vegas yesterday, and while in the Americas this was a huge event, in Japan it went unnoticed. There are even voices and organizations in Japan that call for a general abolishment of the Miss Japan contest. Their argument is that women should be judged by their brains, not by their looks.
True, that's a strong point, but American Hollywood culture and beauty obsessed Latin America would not be what they are without beauty pageants. Girls train from pre-school age to become beauty queens and once they take home the crown they move up in society to the highest celebrity ranks.
Having lived in Japan for about ten years, I feel this country is increasingly becoming like a Northern European nation. The recent feminist movement demanding a ban on swimsuit competitions is just a tiny indicator. What already exists is a health and welfare system that rivals those of Scandinavia in progressiveness. Unemployed citizens receive monthly paychecks that allow them a more or less comfortable lifestyle. Anybody living in Japan is entitled to public health insurance at a reasonable cost. People over 65 enjoy decent lifestyles due to relatively high retirement pay, low healthcare fees and free public transportation. Parents receive a child support allowance of 13.000 yen per month per child - this was enacted by disgraced PM Hatoyama.
Signaling a shift in the structure of society at large, Japanese women are becoming increasingly independent from men. The current generation of female twentysomethings is active and highly productive in the workplace, a sharp contrast to the generation of their mothers who were dependent stay-home moms. The term "housewife" is so unpopular with young Japanese women these days that it seems to have vanished from their vocabulary completely.
This tendency of active, hard-working women striving to be equal is very similar to what happened in Northern Europe decades ago and what has now manifested as one of the most advanced civilizations on the planet. In Scandinavia, beauty pageants are viewed as exploitation of women and feminist groups regularly protest against them.
On another note, now that Japanese women are becoming increasingly self sufficient they just need to take it one step further and get real equality by gaining access to executive positions in the workplace because the percentage of decision-making women is still very, very low. Japan is changing, and this is a very exciting time to be here. Let me know what YOU think OK!
私は英語とスペイン語の先生です。
Today is the last day downtown department store ALTA is open. Built in 2002, it originally catered to fashionable twentysomethings but the concept was eventually changed and it became a shopping haven for late-teen-girly fashion. Not a smart move: The number of teens has been decreasing slowly but steadily and hence the mini-mall went out of business.
ALTA was opened shortly after I started living in Sapporo, and in the beginning I was a regular shopper and window-shopper for it hosted some very cool stores. Among them a boutique with sophisticated party dresses on the first floor, the coolest shoe store in town that ordered my size from Tokyo in case they didn't stock it here, and "Shoop" which is a Japanese brand designed for black women even though there are very few black women in Japan, let alone Sapporo!
So the concept was really cool and in a way it was modeled after the famous 109 store in Shibuya, with dance music playing and cute store clerk girls. It seems Sapporo was not ready for this kind of funky stuff and, sadly, it closed down.
私は英語とスペイン語の先生です。
