Gender Inequality in Japan

But truly speaking, Japan is like bad book that has a good cover. Looking at the income gap Japan seems to have a smaller gap between the rich and the poor. Thus most of the people in Japan are basically a middle class which is different from most of the countries that has a broad income gap between the poor and the rich. There is normally teamwork in the workplace to the extent that if one wants to work alone, then that individual is seen as an outcast to the society. Equality exists in many companies to the extent that the country does not need a labour union to defend them since every company is preaching equality (Imamura, 1996). This negative mentality of girls has led the gender gap in employment in many companies in the country.

However, when the girls are given equal opportunity than the boy, they have the potential to shine in entrepreneurship and decision making. Besides discrimination in schools, there is an unequal distribution of economic resources in schools where girls attend. In Japan, girls are disadvantaged with increasing inequality in the distribution of essential resources to enable the fostering of their educational growth. The inequality in resources allocation weakens the ability of women to participate in the economy, society and even to advance in their personal development. Superior boys even underrate girls in school with the mentality that girls are meant to be in the house, not the school. The societal setup concerning gender role is also another factor that affects schooling regarding gender issues.

In Japan, girls are accorded more duties than boys. Girls have to fetch water, collect firewood, and take care of their younger siblings as well as assisting their mothers in cooking and cleaning utensils and houses. Such bulky and involving chores leave girls with little time to concentrate on their studies that may lead to low performances. Most of the men have the perception that their job is to work and get a salary while the women should just be at home to keep the house and most of the women have grown up with the idea that their first job is at home and don’t have to compete with the men in the job market. The only thing that the Japanese girl can ever think of is their wedding because that is what they have been taught that girls should not have an education but rather just be married of to have children and take care of them together with her husband as she waits for her husband to come home from work.

Though as for many women in Japan, getting married is more hurtful than being employed in a company most of them look for jobs in various companies. Many companies in Japan encourage a woman who has got married to quite the job, or immediately they realize the woman has her first child. For the women who decide to endure the hardship in school to the highest level of education, they need to be very careful since they will still face sexual harassment from their supervisors, employers’ or their fellow employees since men view the women as not worth it to work in the companies. This normally happens especially when a woman has gone to such for a job in companies. Some employers give the conditions that for them to be employed, then they must have sexual intercourse with them, and they go far as raping the women in office.

In some cases, many women got raped in the company, and they prefer to keep quiet because of the embarrassment and torture they have to go through. They prefer rather keep quiet and not report the culprits since apart from public embarrassment they are afraid of losing the job they have at hand. The non-physical harassment, on the other hand, can be inappropriate staring or leering. Although more women are being recruited by most of the companies in Japan, there some men who have got themselves indulge in perverted sexuality behaviors. Additionally, jealousy at the workplace is also another reason why Japanese women are being harassed at the workplace. A male employee does not want to see their female colleagues getting promotion or incentives from their employer.

Through jealousy, the men will harass women through perverted behaviors to make the women feel more inferior. Therefore if the women work so hard in Japan, it is not easy for them to be promoted to the higher rank. Therefore men mostly take advantage of the women with low status in the society (Huen, 2007). Although the research shows that young women in Japan have a university degree, women are less likely to be employed in most of the companies. If in case a woman is employed they earn less salary than their male counterparts. Employers prefer to give men more salary because women are not considered the worth of working for the company and the service they offer is not appreciated.