Heywood Mogroot wrote:
> worthj1970@yahoo.com (John W.) wrote in message news:<73fde4f0.0408050859.1a70698e@posting.google.com>...
> 
>>imouttahere@mac.com (Heywood Mogroot) wrote in message news:<dd5de929.0408042110.6418720c@posting.google.com>...
>>
>>>worthj1970@yahoo.com (John W.) wrote in message news:<73fde4f0.0408041120.734ee7ec@posting.google.com>...
>>
> 
>>But what the author misses is that women don't even have the choice to be
>>equal with men, and even though laws say otherwise and 'technically'
>>they have the same options, the reality is very different,
>>particularly outside of Tokyo.
> 
> 
> yeah, that's how the employment situation now isn't half as bad as it
> could be in Japan...
> 
> I almost see the chauvinist side here. Men & women are plumbed
> differently, and I do think mothers make better homemakers than
> fathers, and due to the childbearing downtime it is inarguably more
> efficient to hire a man instead of a woman for a career-track
> position.
> 
I've known a lot of Japanese men who have used arguments along the line 
that women make better homemakers, and to an extent I agree. The only 
problem is that for most of these men it's a very transparent cop out 
excuse, because they ignore the other side of that coin, and that is 
that men have a responsibility to provide a good, male role model for 
their children and should support their wives. I've worked seemingly 
endless 60 and 70 hour weeks where I saw my son and wife awake only on 
weekends. And my own father slaved endlessly to provide for us. But he 
always made time, and when I had to work those hours I would take a sick 
day every so often and go on a trip to the zoo or something. I think 
it's downright irresponsible to live that life for years and years on 
end. I've never understood why Japanese men believe they *have* to live 
that life, because very few actually enjoy it, except for the part where 
they don't have to take directly take care of their families. They might 
say it's a shame, say it's terrible, say they want to spend more time at 
home, but at the time their saying this their typically drunk and 
telling a hostess or some other businessman who feels the same way. OR 
they're telling it to a young coworker in an attempt to explain that it 
is their duty to kill theirself for their company. (and I know I'm 
generalizing based on a relatively small sample; but this IS fjlij.)

John W.