The discrepancy is even more significant when you look at Japanese women and men outside of the workforce: almost twice as many retired women as retired men were happy and more than twice as many housewives as househusbands were happy.
Also, in spite of the U.S being 45th in the gender gap index, more women in Japan responded that they were happy than women in the U.S. To understand why, it’s helpful to look at a social dynamic at work in Japan.
Women have enjoyed more societal respect than mothers in many countries. For one thing, Japanese women are in charge of their children’s education, making final decisions about schools and frequently working together with their children on homework as a kind of tutor. Even though women are lower on the Confucian social hierarchy, scholars and scholarship are at the top, and thus, with their central role in the child’s learning, a well-educated wife seemed more widely valued in Japan than in the U.S.
And, speaking of kids, a recent survey of school children between the ages of nine and 14 in the greater Tokyo area, by Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living, showed that 68.1 percent respected their mothers, whereas only 62 percent respected their fathers. They saw their mothers successfully wearing many hats: wife, mother, tutor, family treasurer, and, these days, additional breadwinner.
Japanese housewives have long held the purse strings in Japanese households, controlling virtually all the finances and giving their husbands a spending allowance as they saw fit. The men, however, were still the breadwinners and heads of household.
A survey by Shinsei Bank showed that women, as controllers of the finances, have been slowly decreasing the pocket money they dole out to their husbands. Since women are the family bankers and bookkeepers, however, there’s nothing men can do about it but try to negotiate.
Wives are also perceived as being savvy financial managers and are generally in charge of high-stakes decisions, such as where to live, what furniture to buy, and how to invest the family money. In fact, a decade ago, the New York Times reported on their worldwide clout in an article titled: Japanese Homemakers Flex their Financial Muscles. “Japan’s homemakers got into the act by trading foreign currencies online, becoming a force in global foreign exchange markets, known collectively as the Mrs. Watanabes.”
So much for any stereotype of Japanese women as unhappy and weak…
Also see: Japanese Women Warriors
