Women at Japan's top university call out gender imbalance

Japan is a little bit misogynistic but so what?

Of course the opportunity should be equal, regardless of gender, race, religion, etc.

But be honest, how many women want to be and are capable of being a firefighter? Should the fire departments also be "urged" to be staffed by 50% women?

Academia doesn't require the physical stamina of jobs like firefighting (as an example), but it's an individual choice.

Let's no ignore the shrinking and graying population with the birthrate well below the replacement rate of 2.

It's unfair and appalling that such a mindset still exists in the 21st century but unfortunately for women in Japan, the chokehold of misogyny and patriarchy is still disappointingly strong, and I doubt it'll ever change.

As long as the hours put in, productivity produced, profits etc are the same, and overall contribution is the same the. Everyone who be paid the same. Now if things are equal with profits and commitment and time, well that’s the difference. See this same argument with women’s sports but sadly women’s sports don’t earn the money that men’s sports do so there is a price gap which is based on business mind set.

Women at Japan's top university call out gender imbalance

Good for them.

This story reminds me of the Tokyo Medical University scandal from a few years back, in which the test results of female applicants were reduced by as much as 20%.

Being a student of Japan’s top university, Ms Ezure is already privileged. Stop whining and try to excel in the field of your major.

In my experience, women are smarter than men. And it seems more obvious now in countries where there is more equal opportunity and girls regularly out-perform boys. Men seem to be desperately holding on to their former privileges in some spheres and countries by sophistry and denigrating women, even with remarks such as highlighted in this article, but given an equal playing field in education it would be men crying out for special assistance after a while. Men really need to be pulling their socks up instead of spending ridiculous energy on keeping women down. We need all the talent we can muster to get us through the hard times which, let's face it, have been mostly created by inept men.

Most master's degrees are a waste of time anyway

Being a student of Japan’s top university, Ms Ezure is already privileged. Stop whining and try to excel in the field of your major.

That is not what privilege means, if you have to make double the effort to reach the same place only because you are a member of a group (no difference in capacity) then even if the person is at that position there is no privilege involved.

Aren't admissions overwhelmingly based on entrance exam scores?

as the article correctly points out, men tend to like the sciences more than women. So it goes without saying there will be more men there. Any time a woman is there it will be out of the ordinary. No problem with pointing that out.

and few people, men included, really need a masters degree.

@virusrex…

That is not what privilege means, if you have to make double the effort to reach the same place only because you are a member of a group (no difference in capacity) then even if the person is at that position there is no privilege involved.

Absolutely correct! Yours is the most sensible, factual and best comment I’ve seen in a while here on Japan Today comments section!

The scandal of the female medical students.

"The ministry has found that at least three universities rigged their tests for female examinees. An official at one of the universities explained to The Asahi Shimbun that the school uniformly deducted points from the scores of women, saying the goal was to limit the number of female students to about 30 percent."

https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15192292#:~:text=The%20ministry%20has%20found%20that,students%20to%20about%2030%20percent.

@Moonraker

In countries where there is more equal opportunity people self sort so in the Nordic countries, the majority of nurses are still woman.

In North America, the education system, particularly at the elementary level is made up predominantly of woman and the system now has a strong anti-boy bias. It is problematic as the percent of post-secondary graduates that identify as male is only 40%. There is a generation of young men who were pushed down by the female dominated education system who will forever be excluded from high paying jobs.

Japan needs to improve and has an opportunity to create a system that truly offers equality to all students.

A spokesman for Tokyo university commented "This accusation is unfair. A significant majority of our cleaning staff are women".

The scandal of the female medical students.

"The ministry has found that at least three universities rigged their tests for female examinees. An official at one of the universities explained to The Asahi Shimbun that the school uniformly deducted points from the scores of women, saying the goal was to limit the number of female students to about 30 percent."

I remember telling a (female) friend of mine about this. She's from Sweden. You can fairly well imagine her reaction.

Japan ranks lowest in 2022 data from the OECD group of developed countries for the number of women students enrolled in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics bachelor's programmes

What a waste.

Getting as many of your best and brightest into STEM is important. You may not achieve a 50-50 split but there is clearly a problem here. Other countries clearly do better.

I work at a women's university. About 70% of the teaching staff and 90% of upper-level administration - vice-presidents, deans, department chairs - are male. On the other hand, most of the office work is done by women...

as the article correctly points out, men tend to like the sciences more than women. So it goes without saying there will be more men there. Any time a woman is there it will be out of the ordinary. No problem with pointing that out.

Yes, you can't force someone to study what they're not interested in. Success should be based on achievement, not DEI quotas.

Japan and South Korea are terrible in this respect because of the long history of patriarchy reinforced by confucianism. But most of Asia still drags behind the West. About the only good thing one can say is that they are better than the Taliban.

Yawn, like men here are any better. It’s the mentality of settling that’s an issue.

There is a generation of young men who were pushed down by the female dominated education system

My heart bleeds. Such weakness. Men bellyaching after years of privilege is laughable. Yet there are still boys who prevail in spite of your allegations. How come? I had mostly female teachers in elementary school and I am glad I did because the males were mostly inept and in some cases violent. So what if nurses are still women in Nordic countries? It just shows their adaptability.

Most master's degrees are a waste of time anyway

and few people, men included, really need a masters degree.

That is for those who do them to decide; not you. Some may like learning. Not everything is done for instrumental or economic reasons, thank god.

Do they count "trans-women" in these statistics?

Reminds me of hammering the STAP research for keeping iPS over water. There are surely many similar cases throughout all faculties.

Women in Japan should go to graduate school and be leaders in the business world. It's amazing when we see high achievers who are women - single women with great feathers on their cap! We need more single women, not mothers, not homemakers.

I attended, and graduated from, the university being discussed, and am a man. My department had a roughly equal gender balance, but there were plenty of other departments, such as law and engineering, where men outnumbered women 90-10.

The entrance examinations do not allow for gender discrimination as the graders only see the examinees' numbers, not names, but at the postgrad level there are in-person interviews to get through, so Id be interested to see if more women than men are being denied at that stage.

One thing I often felt as a foreigner, which I think also resonates with women, was that outside the university you would occasionally meet people who begrudge you your place there, insinuating if not outright saying that a Todai degree doesn't give you any advantages or let you into any of society's inner circles, so why are you taking a place from a Japanese person? I was there for the education and research, not as a springboard to a corporate boardroom or political position, but there were a few students -- and these are pretty much always male -- who attend these top-class unviersities not for the education, but for the connections and the status. Female friends of mine have heard the same thing, only with "Japanese man" being what their position would supposedly be better spent on.

(What these pragmatic bigots are not generally aware of is that nobody is stealing a seat from anybody else these days: the number of seats per department was set decades ago in an era with a lot more young people, and since the 1990s plenty of postgrad seats have gone unfilled for lack of qualified applicants. So no foreigner or woman is taking anything from anyone.)

One proposal that was being floated back in the day was that the affiliated nursing school, which is as overwhelmingly female as engineering and law are male, be fully integrated with Todai and give them the same degrees. The campuses on Hongo are right next to each other and really there's no reason not to do this.

I'd also be interested in the ratios at the postgrad level, where the "stepping stone to power and influence" crowd is gone and everybody is there for the research only.

That's very poor from Ezure's parents if they favour their son and not her.

My viewpoint as a father is that if my daughters don't get an education or professional qualifications, they'll be dumped into 1200 yen an hour part time work if they ever have kids, the fate that meets most female office workers who do not have professional qualifications (like accounting, real estate, shakai hoken bookkeeping, etc. that let people switch jobs) It is becoming increasing important for women to financially contribute to the family. Very few men can afford a spouse who does not earn.

Just a level playfield, in all opportunities life has to offer, schooling, employment, political representation. health provision.

Regardless of gender, disability, education, racial orientation, religious beliefs, importantly, I believe prevalent in Japan society cultural relativism, all from cradle to grave.

No tokenism, no quotas. al based purely on merit, achievement.

Start from this minimum point, a basic human right!

She was surrounded by men: just one in 10 researchers at the prestigious University of Tokyo are women, and one in five students.

A male dominated college/university?

Who would want to go there?

Way too many dudes.

Great comments from ThonTaddeo about the gap between what perceive as Todai and what Todai actually is.

The point about "immigrants taking stuff away from locals" is also well made. The presence of international students with different perspectives and backgrounds is likely to conversely strengthen the institution and improve the education of the Japanese students there more than the presence of more Japanese people would.

When gender equality is sincerely appreciated,

Class, privilege, elitism, entitlement, favouritism will be more of life/societies struggles irritations we all have or will face.

It that not the challenges that ultimately make communities stronger?

@Moonraker

Your heart should bleed for the elementary school boys who are not part of any "patriarchy."

Equality, if you have any sense on what that means, does not mean punishing innocent boys because of what a 90 year old might have thought.

Why do people rail against nature? Men and women have on average have different interests. Of course there are exceptions, but trends are clear in aggregate. Any individual is free to pursue what suits them. This shouldn't be hard.

@proxy

I just don't believe your characterisation of a deliberately anti-male school system. But it's funny how men finally show an interest in alleged biases when they can characterise themselves as victims. It's funny how when they are clearly shown to be wanting on so many scales they blame the system rather than themselves yet have no interest in blaming the system (they created) when it is others who are losing out. I am a male and I can see how utterly deficient so many of us are when our privileges are removed and how much we really howl about it. Man up! Deal with it. Be smart. Be magnanimous.

OssanAmericaToday  09:01 am JST

Japan and South Korea are terrible in this respect because of the long history of patriarchy reinforced by confucianism. But most of Asia still drags behind the West. About the only good thing one can say is that they are better than the Taliban.

Women only account for 20% at Tokyo U while women account for 42% at Seoul Nat't U. That's more than double. You have no reason to talk about Korea. The good thing is Japan is better than the Taliban in this respect and others when it comes to women.

My department had a roughly equal gender balance, but there were plenty of other departments, such as law and engineering, where men outnumbered women 90-10.

I'm a graduate of a different university, but also one of the former Imperial universities. At our university engineering and some of the hard sciences had massive gender imbalances in both students and faculty. In the faculty of law and other social sciences though the student body was closer to equal (though the faculty members there were mostly male, probably 80-20 split or so).

Equality of opportunity: good

Forced equality of outcome: not good

Every year, elemnetary school students are polled to find out what jobs they are interested in. Every year, the girls overwhelmingly opt for patissier, kindergarten teacher, hairdresser and so on. Very few, even in those formative years, show much interest in getting one of the jobs that actually make the world go round. On the other hand, men are conditioned to believe that they have a responsibility to financially take care of their family and they are rejected by society if they do not. There is massive pressure for men to succeed in their vocation, and I'm sorry but women don't have that.

Its not politically correct to say so, but I'm sick to death of woe-is-me attitudes and blaming everyone else. If you want to suceed, you don't rely on society or the system or the institution to reach out and help you, you do it YOURSELF.

Incidentally, if you're at Todai, you're already reaping the benefits of either hard work and dilligence in spite of the odds, or you are in a position of priviledge and have absolutely no right to complain at all.

In the UK now it's close to 60% females in universities overall, but you'd never know it. All you hear about is that there are slightly fewer women in one or two STEM subjects and how biased it all is against women.

There isn't any discrimination against women in UK universities - the reason that there are more male physicists than female ones is the same reason there are more female Taylor Swift fans than there are male ones - it's just fashions and trends. Physics is just not a cool subject among women in the same way that Taylor Swift is not a cool artist among men.

The comments made toward those women at Tokyo University are clearly wrong; it shouldn't happen and they are right to call it out, but I doubt that that is the reason why there are so few women at Tokyo Uni.

This story reminds me of the Tokyo Medical University scandal from a few years back, in which the test results of female applicants were reduced by as much as 20%.

Why did they make the decision to do that? Just because they were sexist and biased against women? There was a reason for it - the graduates from the university then become doctors there, the hospital would spend several years, time and money, training them up after graduation only for the females to go and get married and retire to raise children. It still isn't right of course, but what can they do? Maybe look into ways to change to make it easier for women to balance working and raising children etc., but doing that is hard and it still probably wouldn't have a huge effect. They'd have to change attitudes in the whole of Japanese society. I think that was a pragmatic decision, not an idealistic one.

Again, this misses the point.

Having your best and brightest in STEM benefits the country.

Gender studies, literature, economics and all that are all well and good but an environment which puts your best brains off from entering the sciences and engineering is not a good environment.

Other countries do better.

Do better.

Have you tried applying for an academic position in a STEM subject in this country? Every position advertised gets 100 applicants or more - most of them very, very strong applicants too. There are plenty of fantastic brains in science and engineering, but the fact is there are not enough jobs! Many just end up teaching or pursuing different career pathways in the end.

It still isn't right of course, but what can they do? Maybe look into ways to change to make it easier for women to balance working and raising children etc., but doing that is hard and it still probably wouldn't have a huge effect. They'd have to change attitudes in the whole of Japanese society. I think that was a pragmatic decision, not an idealistic one.

So in other words you are defending a decision that was clearly wrong - I don't know of any reasonable standard by which rigging an exam to make successful candidates fail is not wrong - because doing the right thing would be "hard"?

I'm not buying that argument at all.

Also it doesn't matter what their subjective motive was, the outcome is what is important. The fact is that this sort of crap doesn't just create unfair obstacles to women, it also imposes a cost on society as a whole - how many bright and competent female doctors (and other professionals) do we lose because the education system diverts them all into becoming office ladies instead, all the while raising less competent men to take their place in the lucrative professions? I'd wager that the opportunity cost there is way higher than the cost of simply adjusting workplace norms to allow women to balance work and family commitments.

Have you tried applying for an academic position in a STEM subject in this country? Every position advertised gets 100 applicants or more

The vast majority of people with STEM degrees (or other degrees for that matter) do not work in academia.....

There is natural gender imbalance everywhere. It is the result of equal opportunity. If she demands equal outcome, she is against free choice.

Jordan Peterson has had some interesting conversations on the topic.

@Moonraker

The presence of international students with different perspectives and backgrounds is likely to conversely strengthen the institution and improve the education of the Japanese students there more than the presence of more Japanese people would.

I felt the same way while there, and feel the same way when adjuncting classes at a Japanese university. The presence of differing perspectives is a priceless part of education. Quite a few times while I was in school a professor would remark that the thought process behind an answer given by me or one of the other international students was something no previous student had given before, and while the effect is surely greater when coming from different countries and cultures, it applies to gender too.

This is the exact opposite of the corporate world, where every employee is expected to have the same baseline level of "cultural fluency" and to approach problems in the same way, anticipating superiors' responses, and the like. As a non-Japanese person, any alternative perspective I might offer has no value, and if you're not Japanese there is a glass ceiling that might be thicker than the one hanging over women's heads, so while I may dislike the "a Todai education doesn't do anything for your kind, so you shouldn't have gone there" viewpoint that is also being applied to women whether foreign or Japanese. Needless to say, having a job that will never progress beyond a certain low level (as so many local women also do), as the years pass it becomes more and more embarrassing for people around me to know that I went there, because for a Japanese man, it's a ticket to a much higher station in life.

I enjoyed every minute I spent at that school, and wish it weren't over. It was 180-degrees different from the corporate world. It's a whole different side of Japan; a much more pleasant and open-minded side. Everyone with the academic ability to become part of such an environment should do it, and I salute the women who thrive there even while their parents can't see what they're getting from it.

So in other words you are defending a decision that was clearly wrong

Not defending it - explaining what the motivation behind it was. I don't think it was the right decision. I think that it would have been better for them to try to make their workplace more accommodating to people who want to raise families. But as I mentioned - that would probably be hard to do, changing the entire work culture at the place and then there is still no guarantee that it would work given the ingrained attitudes in Japanese society.

The vast majority of people with STEM degrees (or other degrees for that matter) do not work in academia.....

True, but the brightest ones often do. Very few graduates from private universities go on to become academics, but from the top public universities (higher level), quite a lot of them do. Also, please let me know where all these vacant STEM positions are outside of academia so I can apply for one - most of them take in students immediately after graduation and if you miss that it is pretty much game over.

Nihon Tora

In the UK now it's close to 60% females in universities overall, but you'd never know it. All you hear about is that there are slightly fewer women in one or two STEM subjects and how biased it all is against women.

Exactly. By the same token, I have not heard demands for gender balance among coal miners, sanitation engineers or oil rig workers. Somehow, for dirty and dangerous work, imbalance is fine.

Exactly. By the same token, I have not heard demands for gender balance among coal miners, sanitation engineers or oil rig workers. Somehow, for dirty and dangerous work, imbalance is fine

Missing the point.

With all due respect to anyone who does an honest day’s work, we are taking about losing out on possible high-flyers in STEM who are quite rare.

An environment which doesn’t encourage these possible high-high flyers is a very stupid one.

Maybe it wouldn’t be a perfect balance but other countries do better than Japan on this score.

Must do better. Benefits the country.

Have you tried applying for an academic position in a STEM subject in this country? Every position advertised gets 100 applicants or more

The vast majority of people with STEM degrees (or other degrees for that matter) do not work in academia.....

Beat me to it.

There are female engineers and civil, and construction workers. There are female fighter pilots.

A government investigation prompted by the revelations found three other institutions had kept women out in similar ways.

St Marianna, Juntendo ,Kitasato and others who managed to not have their names released.

I was told flat out at my interview for the education programme at York University in Toronto that they weren't currently accepting applications from white males. That was a province wide policy at the time. That's far worse than being told "I prefer cute guys"

Missing the point.

With all due respect to anyone who does an honest day’s work, we are taking about losing out on possible high-flyers in STEM who are quite rare.

An environment which doesn’t encourage these possible high-high flyers is a very stupid one.

Maybe it wouldn’t be a perfect balance but other countries do better than Japan on this score.

Must do better. Benefits the country.

Have you tried applying for an academic position in a STEM subject in this country? Every position advertised gets 100 applicants or more

The vast majority of people with STEM degrees (or other degrees for that matter) do not work in academia.....

Beat me to it.

OK, so you want to talk about high-flyers in STEM, outside of academia - creative types forming the next big STEM start-ups and so on, the Zuckerbergs and the Musks. Well, there isn't much of that in Japan, unfortunately - there is no Silicon Valley here. But I don't think that is an issue of a lack of women in STEM - the culture in Japan is risk-averse - there are not many who want to become entrepreneurs and build the next big thing from scratch. The brightest here either go into top academic positions or go to work for the biggest tech companies like Sony and so on. By all means, encourage more women into STEM, but it isn't going to fix this particular problem.

OK, so you want to talk about high-flyers in STEM, outside of academia - creative types forming the next big STEM start-ups and so on, the Zuckerbergs and the Musks

Doesn’t have to be at the stratospheric level.

Don’t necessarily need to be start-ups either.

wallace

There are female engineers and civil, and construction workers. There are female fighter pilots.

Yes, and there are male kindergarten teachers. Which is all fine. As long as you do not demand equal representation by quotas.

Jimizo

An environment which doesn’t encourage these possible high-high flyers is a very stupid one.

Jordan Peterson has been pointing out that societies that are extremely strong on gender equality, like e.g. Sweden, actually get the opposite result. The gender gap in various profession is actually increasing there. You want to take this argment up with him?

Zaphod

There are female engineers and civil, and construction workers. There are female fighter pilots.

Yes, and there are male kindergarten teachers. Which is all fine. As long as you do not demand equal representation by quotas.

Where did I mention quotas?

@ThonThaddeo.

While I am grateful you have associated me with such a perceptive comment, I have to say, it wasn't me that made it. I appreciate your posts though.

@Moonraker; oops; you're correct. It was @Kohakuebisu that I wanted to quote. Not that your comments aren't also insightful, because they are as well.

There is no escape for these truly shameful statistics posted below.

Women are culturally second class citizens, I would even suggest it is a culturally accepted norm, institutionalized in political representation.

Has the Female Labour Force Participation Rate in Japan Reached Its Maximum?

https://www.jcer.or.jp/english/has-the-female-labour-force-participation-rate-in-japan-reached-its-maximum

It is a well-known fact that there is a wide gender gap in Japan. The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index, for instance, shows that Japan is the 125th among the 146 countries surveyed in terms of its closeness to parity, and has fallen by 9 places from last year.

Its breakdown shows that Japan is the 47th in the area of educational attainment and the 59th in the area of health and survival, but the 138th in the area of political empowerment and the 123th in the area of economic participation and opportunity. Japan is significantly behind other countries especially in the latter two areas.

Do they count "trans-women" in these statistics?

They are counted twice given their special status and importance.

I am all for individuals of both sexes, whether male or female, having the opportunity to pursue whatever career in life they wish. Yet I also recognize, as evidently do many others, that individuals exist within a society and that society as a whole places expectations variously on men and women. I find that having equality of opportunity enshrined into law is essential. I also find social pressure to conform to gender norms entirely acceptable.

Moonraker Today 07:57 am JST

In my experience, women are smarter than men.

In my experience, women want all the benefits of increased opportunities without decreasing their elevated status among the sexes. In this world of supposed ever increasing equality, why are men still shamed if they cry, but everyone rushes to console the crying woman? Why are men still expected to pay for dates and viewed negatively if they don’t? Why is it viewed as a positive if a man opens the car door for woman, but not if a woman opens the door for the man? Why will everyone frown on the man who stays home while his wife works, but have no problems with the woman who stays home while her husband works? You speak of men “holding on to their former privileges,” but perhaps you do not recognize the privileges that women currently have even while they seek for greater rights. Every man should be a gentleman, but a woman may or may not be a lady as the mood strikes them.

You say, “We need all the talent we can muster to get us through the hard times.” What society needs more than anything is functional families who can raise functional children to become functional members of society. The view that men and women are, apart from some superficial visible bits, the same is one that has worked to bring down society far more than “inept men.” Men and women are equal, true, but they are not the same—each has a vital role to play in society which deserves equal respect. But just as those above want the erosion of nation states and the destruction of our cultural differences to become an undifferentiated mass of humanity without history or legacy, so the same want to erode the family and see men and women, not in familial relations, but as interchangeable cogs in a machine—mere numbers on a ledger for record keeping. Sorry, I am not going to “man up” and fight for that. They may call me No. 6, but I know who I am.

True, but the brightest ones often do. Very few graduates from private universities go on to become academics, but from the top public universities (higher level), quite a lot of them do.

I don't think this is accurate. The salaries for top graduates in STEM programs tend to be much higher outside of academia than in, plus the path into academic positions is much longer (masters, doctorate, post-doc, then hope to snag some fixed term contract or tenure track position), costlier and less certain for them. Plus unlike people doing grad work in the humanities there are actual jobs for those people to apply for.

I don't know the numbers but I doubt more than a small proportion even of top graduates go into academia.

Also, please let me know where all these vacant STEM positions are outside of academia so I can apply for one - most of them take in students immediately after graduation and if you miss that it is pretty much game over.

Japan's lack of later career lateral hiring isn't unique to STEM and also isn't indicative of a lack of jobs, it just means that the pipeline for entry into those jobs starts at a very fixed spot in student's careers here.

kurisupisuToday  06:52 am JST

Japan is a little bit misogynistic but so what?

Everyone should just accept that and do nothing about it?

Culture makes the difference.

Japan is not falling because it does not take into account the capabilities of women.

Japan is attractive too because of how women accept their place in society. It is a better place to live compate to majority of OECD countries in my opinion.

I am pushing hard my smart Japanese girls to make long studies (engineering if I could foe them) but that remain ultimately their choice.

Just to remind that if sexist remarks are exisiting and shall be despised, if merit is rewarded not depending on sex then there is nothing to comment.

Yes the problem of Japan is the toxic work environment, especially for women to enjoy a family life and job but it is not satisfying at all too for men for the exact same root cause.

My previous snark aside (I'm British, we just do it naturally), my workplace has a pretty good gender balance of employees - we have at least a dozen PhD holders - pretty evenly split between men and women - and half of the company's partners are female.

In that sense, a woman who makes it to the higher echelons of a company in Japan is that much more impressive, having had to bypass the antediluvian thinking about gender equality here...

justasking Today 03:35 pm JST

Women are generally smarter than men.

Proof is that no matter how large the urinal is in men’s toilet, there will still be a lot of men who cannot aim.

The whole world is my urinal, so my aim is always on target.

@Nihon Tora

In the UK now it's close to 60% females in universities overall, but you'd never know it.

You would know it because of all the articles over the years stating how women have overtaken men (57% - 43%).

All you hear about is that there are slightly fewer women in one or two STEM subjects and how biased it all is against women.

Actually you don't hear this very much unless you are really looking out for them, but only about 35% of STEM students are female. Women are more likely to end up doing degrees with lower earnings potential. You can argue about why, but that's a fact.

My parents said to me, 'what's the point of a girl going to graduate school?

That right there indicates the depth of the problem

"I prefer cute, silly girls over smart ones"

Hahaha this one's not really sexist , just shows the speaker is really dumb

it’s a waste of a natural resource that society needs - an educated, curious new generation.

and no different than racial discrimination.

In the realm of social dynamics, there's a strategy often overlooked yet profoundly influential: the Female Competitive Strategy, or what Curt Doolittle terms GSRM—Gossiping, Shaming, Rallying, Ridiculing, and Moralizing. This approach circumvents direct argumentation, opting instead for undermining and reputation destruction. It's a tactic rooted in emotional manipulation rather than factual discourse.

Historically, men resolved conflicts through direct confrontation, often under the law of the duel. This was a straightforward method of addressing grievances. In contrast, the female strategy operates through social channels—whisper campaigns and character assassination—methods that were once curtailed by laws against "scolds" to maintain societal peace.

However, as political landscapes shifted with democratic, Marxist, and postmodern movements, these checks eroded. Women, seeking political power, dismantled these restrictions under the guise of free speech. Yet, this wasn't about free speech in its purest form—truthful and factual—but rather a means to wield influence through emotional and social pressure.

GSRM thrives on deception and avoidance of genuine debate. It employs tactics like plausible deniability, equating truth with social approval, and escalating to shaming and moralizing when challenged. This strategy is not just a female domain; it has permeated leftist and postmodern discourse, where argumentation is often replaced by slander, libel, and defamation.

The Western tradition of valuing truth over face—regardless of the cost—is what set it apart historically. Yet, this very strength is also its vulnerability. The adoption of GSRM tactics undermines this foundation, aligning more with non-argumentative strategies seen in other cultures and ideologies.

In essence, while men traditionally let arguments stand on their own merit, the feminine cognitive strategy leans heavily on GSRM to suppress dissent without engaging in substantive refutation. This shift from truth-based discourse to face-saving tactics poses a significant challenge to maintaining rational and objective dialogue in society.

I hope Takaichi gets another chance -- she would be a brilliant PM.

GSRM thrives on deception and avoidance of genuine debate. It employs tactics like plausible deniability, equating truth with social approval, and escalating to shaming and moralizing when challenged. 

Interesting post. Reminds me exactly of Trump. Perhaps he has seized upon the way of women as a tactic to further enhance the position of maleness.

And my experience here over the years in universities, has seen an incredibly low number of women in courses I have been familiar with - engineering (all types), computer/tech science, architecture, ag science.

Usually the young women I have encountered in these courses have been A-Grade students, interested in and dedicated. A lot of their male counterparts are underwhelming in their competency.

Don't know why some people feel that these fields somehow are still a man's domain.

Sticking with this pattern will surely put Japan at a considerable disadvantage barreling into an even more complex tech world.

Interestingly when my daughter said she was going into computer science and a Master's degree the opposition came from her Japanese mother (my ex) and grandmother.

I was 100% supportive as was her Japanese grandfather and uncle.

Her mother and grandmother said that she should be a school teacher.

Her university things were actually great, all her professors loved her and she had no problems with the male students all generally like her, an IT NERD.

Her problems came from the other non science female students in the arts, literature, education and social studies, the same women that looked down on the male nerds.

Mike_Oxlong Today 09:32 pm JST

[Lengthy and amazingly astute comment]

This is exactly to what I was alluding to in a recent comment made in response to a commentator's mention of mental and emotional abuse faced by women in addition to physical abuse here ( https://japantoday.com/category/world/one-in-eight-girls-and-women-raped-or-sexually-assaulted-before-age-18-unicef-says#comments ). The point I sought to make there is that while men often deal with conflicts in a physical manner, women resort to more subtle means. What this means in terms of abuse is that while men may be more apt to be physically abusive, women are more apt to be mentally or emotionally abusive. But then again,

When I first tried to open the refuge, the police, the charities, the social service agencies, the newspapers, all said it would stand empty. They said it wasn’t a significant problem, that it happened only rarely, and when it did it was already being handled effectively by the existing agencies.

Domestic violence against women was only a minor problem, and very few women were getting seriously hurt anyway. Of course, when we finally did open, and got a little support at last to make women aware of our existence, we were filled to overflowing and the phone was ringing off the hook.

It’s the same exact thing now with attempts to have domestic violence resources for men. The same attitude exists. However, it’s even more difficult now to open something for men, or raise awareness, than it was when I opened the first shelter for women.

There is now an established domestic violence industry which fears any acknowledgment of the well established scientific fact (through my own research and many many others) that women can be as violent as men with their intimate partners and are not always the victim or acting only in self-defense. This fear is based on a false premise, that acknowledging this fact or speaking publicly about it, or offering services, will take away funding and hurt the established resources for women.

—Erin Phizzy, An Open Letter to Women in the Domestic Violence Movement, March 12, 2010 ( https://menz.org.nz/2010/erin-pizzey-an-open-letter-to-women/ )

So if one is going to talk about abuse as a societal problem, one should acknowledge the differing ways in which both sexes engage in abuse. So long as society hyper-focuses on the problems of women to the exclusion of men, there will be no real headway towards improving social relations as disenfranchised men will just drop out of society as we indeed now see is the case presently. I think it justified to ask at this point whether the improvement of social relations between men and women is really even the goal. But as I said to another commentator in the same article, "you're going to have to learn sooner better than later the suffering of men will always take second place to women in this 'man's world.'"

Tim SullivanOct. 11  09:38 pm JST

I hope Takaichi gets another chance -- she would be a brilliant PM.

She's never had a career outside of politics and hasn't achieved much in it except for getting ahead by being a woman who's made herself useful to LDP bigots by parroting their mysogynistic views, showing that they can go on being bigots because there are women who agree with them. She looks more like an overpaid waste of skin to me.

@jeffy

You are spot on.

There are those that think women, in positions of power will lead the world to a paradise with fluffy clouds and golden light-they are wrong.

I was a student there 1998 to 2002, and it was pretty much a boys school. Same with staff.

Maybe you should get out more, jeffy. I hardly recognise your characterisation of male-female relations. Sounds like something you'd read on the internet in certain sections catering to conservatives and the incel-adjacents.

@Mike Oxlong

So, you advocate a return to the duel to resolve our problems? You seamlessly equate women's empowerment with those American bugaboos of Marxism and postmodernism (and increasingly democracy it seems). If ever there was a post-truth, post-objective dialogue stance it is the conservative one.

No doubt before they were asked to pipe down and serve tea to their male superiors... err... counterparts.

The gender make-up of Todai is imbalanced, especially in the sciences. What about in education? Humanities? Nursing? How does this play out all across Japan?

Many universities, especially at the undergrad level, have become majority women. At most elementary schools, the teaching staff is predominantly women. A majority of kindergartens have no male staff at all.

Should society enforce rigid equality in every sector? For human development, what happens at 4 or 5 years old is far more profound and influential than the few years of university later in life. If an imbalance at Todai is of paramount concern, why aren’t the imbalances elsewhere in society a problem?

She was surrounded by men: just one in 10 researchers at the prestigious University of Tokyo are women, and one in five students.

What a sausage fest! Lol