[Agedprepdoock]

When I first came to Japan I was a ambitious male pushing and explaining women's rights to my students.

I was always upset that my female students never picked on this issue and become ... anything ... moved or slightly flustered.

Today, 10 years later, I know much more and realize that these female students already knew the truth.

Men are allowed to act as such because the women let them.

Sure, women don't lead lives as career excutives in Japan and spend time pouring tea for the men. They even put up with the lazy husbands who lay on the floor while watching TV. They even let their husbands indulge in a tilly tally with a cuty from the office, as long as the husband denies that the lipstick mark on his collar is not the cutey's but blames it on the crowded rush hour train obasan! Women will also pour their husband's beer!

At what price does this come at? sounds like a male heaven ?

lol and behold - the human male species has been swindeled.

My situation might be extreme but I'm married to Japanese lady.

Women in Japan have it made! NO balding due to stress.
With the advent of automated salary deposits to the bank account men have lost their last stonghold of power. Japanese men (including me) live on allowance that barely covers a beer after work. Wives have full financial control of the household. Wives take care of the children's up-bringing. They are the ones who let their husbands behave like children.
Sure, they have low status in the work enviornment but this pays off since work is normally an area to find a well salaried husband who will be able to cover the woman's living expenses. Sure, child rearing can be a 24 hour job in the begingin but once schooling starts the women are left to lounge around the house, go shopping, have affairs, enjoy life to return slightly before the husband and return home to make dinner. Men aren't allowed to complain about the $1,000 Louis Viotton bags but a new set of golf clubs require negotiations with the wife (err computer for me). Women will divorce their husbands after the retirement check comes. Men are supposed to listen and accept their wives complaining in a manly fashion (even if it contiues hours and hours).

Having been married 4 years I have come to understand why more women in Japan don't want to push for the ERA that their American counter parts want. Japanese women don't need rights that would actually limit their powers. (ie, the American President is so strong because his position is the only one that doesn't have oodles and oodles of laws controlling what a President can and can not do).

Ever wonder why you hear all these stories of Japanese men working until all hours of the night in Japan ... why the working day is actually hours and hours of over-time ... I see colleauges working till 9pm where I work. why? Possibly because work = freedom for men in Japan.

I want equal rights!!!

Back to resonableness. Like I mentioned above, when I first came to Japan I pushed and talked alot about equality but ... not knowing the social situation and acting like an American ... lead some of the people around me to look at me strangely. Understanding the situation and then preceding is very important.

Although, I was being sarcastic in parts above ....

I still think that round the world there are many women being taken advantaged of and something should be done to correct those problems.

so ... yes Debs I agree with you.

hmmm ... I wonder in reality who is more equal ??? but then ... it proably depends on how and where this is viewed from ...