feminism
Sexy schoolgirl or stylized kimono-clad character? Which is better for advertising agricultural products?
Otaku, artists, feminists, and a Tokyo assemblyman weigh in on the controversial crotch-revealing image.
Hair care brand shines a light on outdated practice that forces women to sport the “job-hunting hairstyle” in order to gain employment.
The status of women in Japan is changing and the Japanese language is being modified along with it. Let’s see how women are viewed these days by surveying some of the modern Japanese words used to describe them.
The new ad campaign addresses a variety of behaviours that should be avoided while travelling on trains, but so far, this is the only act that they’re calling indecent.
Believe it or not, the practice of women shaving their armpit hair in the United States is only about a century old. Before, apparently, around 1915, society didn’t really expect women to shave their underarm hair at all. This had a lot to do with the fact that razor companies weren’t shaming women into doing it yet, but also because, according to sources, back in 1915, even the mere mention of female underarm was enough to give men of the time an extreme case of the vapors.
Perhaps even more surprising, though, is the fact that the shaving of armpit hair among women didn’t catch on in China until the 1990s – a mere two decades ago! And despite, or perhaps because of, the practice’s relative newness, Chinese women are taking to the Internet in droves to proudly post photos of their armpit hair as a show of gender empowerment in the 2015 Armpit Hair Competition!
Although the protester that managed to infiltrate the European Central Bank’s monthly press conference recently got plenty of media attention with her clever deployment of a so-called “Glitter Bomb” – that is, she scattered the notoriously-difficult-to-remove, fabulous substance everywhere – her protest method of choice came a few months too late.
Everyone knows, of course, that the disruptive substance du jour now is the dial-a-bag of dongs. Glitter is just so yesterday. But, our intrepid protester is still getting her due time in the spotlight in Japan because of her resemblance to a certain anime character.
It’s no secret that Japan continually lands at the bottom in global gender gap reports. In 2012, the World Economic Forum ranked Japan 101 in regard to women’s participation in the economy and politics. In 2013, Japan placed 105 (out of 135 countries), putting it behind Burkina Faso in gender equality.
Based on these findings, you may think it doesn’t seem like Japan is a very good country for women, but you’d be wrong. While there are huge shortcomings in gender gaps in the workplace, economy and politics, in other sectors of Japanese society some would would argue that Japanese women have “too much” power.
Let’s take a look at five areas where women are most powerful in Japan.