Japan's ruling party invites women to 'look not talk' at key meetings

[brooklynite]

Source: BBC

Days after Japan's Olympics chief was forced to resign over sexist comments, the ruling party has decided to invite women to attend key meetings - as long as they do not speak.

The Liberal Democratic Party proposed allowing five female lawmakers to observe its all-male board meetings.

They cannot talk during the meeting - only submit opinions afterwards.

The Tokyo Olympics organising committee chief had sparked a firestorm by saying women talked too much in meetings.

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56095215

[Garion_55]

1. isnt it 2021 over there yet?

instead of 1921?

[onetexan]

2. the ruling party's name is "Liberal Democratic party". what's liberal & democratic about shutting up

women?

[Celerity]

4. The US is one of the few places where 'liberal' generally doesn't mean centre right in terms of

politics (think classical liberalism). I just cringe when US people on the left self-define as liberal, and get really pissed when Rethugs use the term as a smear for the Dems in the US.

Democratic is neutral overall, as you can have democratic outcomes that swing wildly between right and left (think of all the hard socialist or even communist nations that had/have Democratic in their names or their main party's name).

Also the political party (ideologically based) colours are reversed (LW/Dem in the US is Blue, RW/Rethug is Red) from so many nations as well (really arbitrary and foolish, IMHO, history for that).

[rpannier]

7. The liberal refers to economic policies

Australia's conservative party is the Liberal Party

[soryang]

10. The LDP party is a right wing party run by oligarchs

Especially so with Abe faction currently dominating it.

[IronLionZion]

13. More info about their party

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_Democratic_Party_(Japan)

They definitely sound like what Americans would consider right wing conservative and nationalist

[melm00se]

18. This is the reason that I teach

my students to avoid political labels, especially internationally, as those labels don't apply universally across history or space.

[Ellipsis]

3. A friend would take meetings in Japan... he would always get a woman for interpreter...

...because they talk like she wasn't in the room. It gave him an advantage

[marble falls]

5. Well, their yammering about "issues", "policy", "solutions" just takes the fun out of the ...

... meetings of the Nippon He-man Women's Hater Club.



They're lucky even four of them were even invited.

[niyad]

6. And The WAR ON WOMEN continues apace. Would you consider cross-posting this in Women's

Rights and Issues? Thanks in advance.

[Squinch]

8. On the bright side, at least they're open about their hatred of women.

Here, it's harder to see it coming at you. But it does come at you.

[tanyev]

9. This always surprises me about Japan.

I think of them as so modern, with women having educational parity and similar career opportunities. But then there are stories like this and the need for women-only train and subway cars because of constant anonymous groping. It’s an odd dichotomy.

[Evolve Dammit]

11. very odd indeed. Old "traditions" die hard. Basic respect and equal rights are painfully slow.

[colorado_ufo]

12. I would bet that if a woman were wealthy enough

she would suddenly be thought of as "a brilliant exception" and be invited to a meeting (for limited speaking, of course).

[barbtries]

14. wow.

just, wow

patriarchy is paranoid and stupid.


women are people!!

[spike jones]

15. Instead of speaking, the women could use a lot of hand and finger signs. n/t

[madwivoter]

16. I've traveled to Japan several times for work

The trip that stands out the most was the one where I was sent there for 15 days to do some training on a technical system. I told my boss that I clearly wouldn't need that long and that it would take me 4 or 5 days. He agreed, but insisted that if they thought it would take that long that I should just plan on being there for 15 days. Fast forward, I finished training in a few days, they were 'amazed at my technical ability'.

My boss said I should just stick it out and try to learn more if possible and attend some meetings with some other teams. All in all it wasn't a bad trip (kind of boring to be in Japan for 2 weeks by yourself though). I did some exploring and took the train to Yokohama and Mt. Fuji, which was amazing.

Another strange (to me) thing was on my first day of training I was invited to have lunch with the [male] engineers who I was training with, the next day I assumed I would lunch with them again (since we were working together) and they promptly introduced me to the female administrative assistants and said that I would enjoy having lunch with them 'from now on'.

I've been working closely with people from Japan for around 20 years and I haven't really seen much if any change to how women are treated. I don't take personal offense, because it's clearly cultural, but it can be insulting and frustrating in the moment.

[Irish_Dem]

17. Could this be part of the reason the marriage and birth rates are so low in Japan?

Women are just fed up???

[iluvtennis]

19. One word, seriously?

[usajumpedtheshark]

20. This lowers my opinion of Japan. I'll put them in the same box as the Catholic Church.

[Warpy]

21. Oh, yeah, let us know how well that works out for you, Buster.

Being silent and decorative is not why women run for office.