Featured

sexism

Mother of Sanrio character My Melody gets flak online for dispensing horrible love/life advice

Excuse me, what did you say?!

Read More

Nike commercial about gender inequality in Japan receives backlash online【Video】

 New clip points out facts about football, baseball, and sumo in Japan…but not all Japanese are behind it. 

Read More

Japanese woman surprised to learn foreigners don’t openly tell women they have big breasts

Encounter with foreigners leads woman to realise she’s from “a sexually underdeveloped country”.

Read More

Naomi Watanabe responds to “Olympig” remark from Tokyo Olympics ceremony chief

Derogatory comment gets a boss response.

Read More

Tokyo Olympics ceremony chief quits after suggesting Naomi Watanabe dress as an “Olympig”

Another day, another scandal for the Tokyo Olympics.

Read More

Tokyo Olympics organizing committee president resigns over sexist remarks

Yoshiro Mori apologizes, insists “I have supported all women.”

Read More

Look carefully and you’ll see Japan’s Benny Hill sandwiched in between these women. 

Read More

Japanese woman fed up with being expected to serve male coworkers tea shatters corporate culture

Frustrated professional busts up her office’s outdated “tea squad” tradition with a perfectly salted comeback.

Read More

Japanese ryokan custom ignites debate after visitors label it sexist

If you’ve stayed at a traditional Japanese inn with your partner, chances are you’ve experienced this custom before.

Read More

Japanese train company slammed for ad branding women “undignified” for applying makeup on board

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.

Read More

The heir to the famous ‘Jiro Dreams of Sushi’ restaurant says that women can’t be sushi chefs because they menstruate

While researching a story on the scarcity of female sushi chefs in Japan and the US, I came across a startling, buried and forgotten quote from the heir apparent to one of the best-known and most prestigious sushi restaurants in the world.

In a 2011 interview with The Wall Street Journal’s Scene Asia blog, Yoshikazu Ono, son of Jiro Ono, the star of 2011’s “Jiro Dreams of Sushi” documentary, Yoshikazu was asked why there are no female chefs or apprentices at his father’s $300 per person sushi restaurant, Sukiyabashi Jiro. His response:

Read More

Is One Piece sexist? Twitter user posts scathing essay about Japan’s favorite manga

One Piece is the top-selling manga of all time, with over 350 million volumes sold in Japan alone. For fans of the series, it’s a no-brainer why the comic is so popular. The author/artist Eiichiro Oda is a master storyteller, turning what could have been a run-of-the-mill shonen manga into something special. One Piece often tackles deeper themes including racism, abuse of power, justice, moral ambiguity, and of course, big dudes with sweet powers slamming into each other.

What’s even more surprising are the readership demographics. Nine out of ten people who buy One Piece are adults, and over half of the manga’s readers are women. This might make it seem like it appeals to everyone, but apparently that is not the case. Japanese Twitter user @ykhre recently tweeted a controversial essay, making her case for why One Piece, despite its broad appeal, is sexist.

Read More

Why aren’t there more female entrepreneurs in Japan? Pull up a chair… 【Women in Japan Series】

According to the Global Entrepreneur Development Index (GEDI) that measures favorable conditions for women entrepreneurs, the US and Australia are ranked first and second respectively, while Japan places fifteenth, just behind Peru. Yet Japan fulfills many of the requirements to create a successful female entrepreneurial environment such as education, skills and access to capital.

In addition, women in Japan can overcome obstacles such as low salaries, long work hours and scant child-rearing options by owning their own businesses and calling the shots. So, what’s holding Japanese women back? It turns out that a large part of it may be Japanese women themselves.

Read More

Artist Takashi Murakami immortalises heckled Tokyo assembleywoman in dot-art portraits

Sexism and discrimination have been rather hot topics here in Japan following an unpleasant incident at a Tokyo political assembly on June 18, during which female politician Ayaka Shiomura was taunted and mocked by assembleymen while giving a speech about pregnant women and working mothers.

In response, world-famous Japanese artist Takashi Murakami has taken the unusual step of creating and hanging a series of portraits of the politician in his Tokyo cafe.

Read More

Nearly half of all the people who play video games are women, but you wouldn’t know it by the video game industry’s biggest conference.

Only five women presented on stage at the major press events at E3, the video game industry’s huge conference, which took place in LA this week.

Sadly, that number won’t be surprising to anyone familiar with sexism in the tech industry, and the particularly appalling way women are treated in the video game industry.

But here’s the really shocking part. E3 actually featured more severed heads on stage than women: eight heads.

Read More

Yoichi Masuzoe, the politician who once publicly stated that women “are not normal” during their period and “couldn’t possibly” be relied upon to run the country because of it, has been elected as governor of Tokyo, it has been announced.

Read More