CUTS IN JAPANS WELFARE BUDGET IMPACTS ON GENDER EQUALITY

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Cuts in Japans budget for social welfare have turned back the clock on gender equality as an even greater burden is being imposed on women: caring for the family in a rapidly aging society.

Japans total population is expected to peak at around 127 million in 2006.
Article 24 of the Japanese Constitution:

1) Marriage shall be based only on the mutual consent of both sexes and it shall be maintained through mutual cooperation with the equal rights of husband and wife as a basis.

2) With regard to choice of spouse, property rights, inheritance, choice of domicile, divorce and other matters pertaining to marriage and the family, laws shall be enacted from the standpoint of individual dignity and the essential equality of the sexes.

Source:
<http://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Japan/English/english-Constitution.html>
To mitigate the challenges of a rapidly aging population, the government has been trying to make a gender-equal society where women and men can share work/house chores by encouraging women to participate in the labor force.

However, conservatives want to maintain traditional gender roles and the current status quo by trying to revise Article 24 of Japans constitution which stipulates the promotion of gender equality in the household.

In June last year, a panel comprised of members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) constituted to revise the Constitution proposed adding language to Article 24 of the constitution to emphasize the values of family and community.

Written in 1946 after World War II, Japans Constitution helped reshape life for womenwhen it ensured that marriage would be solely based on the agreement of husband and wife, who had equal rights. Previously, women were not guaranteed civil or legal rights. They were not allowed to vote or own property. Although husbands could file for divorce, wives could not.

Mamiko Ueno, an author and professor of constitutional law at Chuo University in Tokyo, sees the revision as an attempt to foist state responsibilities onto the family, which, by and large, means onto women.

Population Statistics for Japan


Total population (million) Ages 0-14 (%) Ages 15-64 (%) 65 and over (%)
2000 126.93 14.6 68.1 17.4
2005 127.71
 13.9 66.2 19.9
2015 126.27 12.8 61.2 26.0
2020 124.11
 12.2 60.0 27.8
2025 121.14 11.6 59.7 28.7
2030 117.58
 11.3
 59.2 29.6
2040 109.34 11.0 55.8 33.2
2050 100.59 10.8 53.6 35.7

Note: Statistics as of January 2002. Figures after 2000 are projections.
Source: National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, Japan's Estimated Population

Source: The Social Security System Today from Japan Fact Sheet at <http://web-japan.org/factsheet/social/new.html>

Because there is a problem with low birth rate in Japan, the LDP thinks that by creating a system where women stay at home, they will have more children, Ueno said. They will become second-class citizens and men will head households. If a man doesn't want his wife to work, she will be forced to stay at home and take care of the family. It also means the care for the elderly in Japan's aging society, which is sure to become increasingly difficult, will fall to the daughter or daughter-in-law.

Gender-equal education and sex education are likewise being slammed. As early as 2002, some members of Japanese local governments have started attacking gender equality education as forcing girls and boys to change their clothes together in the same classroom because they have to be treated equally, or that it forces them to sleep together in the same room at summer camp.

Takenobu notes these comments are not valid since girls and boys had to share the same classroom for changing their clothes long before the introduction of gender-equal education. She said it is not gender-equal education that is forcing them to do the same now, despite proposals for segregated changing rooms. Rather, the government has not been allocating sufficient budgets for school facilities and that Japans authoritative education system has not been teaching children gender sensitivity because it argues that type of behaviour is not child-like.

Local governments also interpreted sex education materials as pornography because the critics received no sex education and consequently have very distorted images of sexuality. Therefore, critics of sex education both represent reality falsely and also spread negative images and antagonism of gender-equal education and sex education on society.

Thus, the biggest problem in the backlash is that it reflects an unrealistic response to societal changes such as the declining birthrate, and women are silenced under harsh attacks from conservatives, Takenobu said.

To create a society where men and women can freely utilize and enjoy their abilities, policies must be implemented to provide some form of social welfare that will reduce the burden of unpaid work at home, Takenobu concluded. She also proposes that gender-equal education must be leveraged to construct a gender-equal society that can shift from the mold of men-as-breadwinners and women-as-housekeepers to an equal partnership society. Finally, she reiterates that sex education is needed to nurture independent people, able to make decisions about their own bodies.

Sources:

Takenobu, Mieko. The Dark Relationship between the Suppression of the Social Welfare System and the Backlash Against Gender Equality in Japan, published in the No. 16, Winter 2006 issue of /Womens Asia 21 Voices from Japan./

Makino, Catherine. In Japan, Women's Constitutional Rights in Peril, published in Womensenews on May 5, 2005 at  <http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2277/context/archive>

Japan Fact Sheet. The Social Security System Today from at <http://web-japan.org/factsheet/social/new.html>