JAPAN: Father Was Quite Happy

One of the mixed blessings the U.S. conferred on conquered Japan was the abrupt introduction of equal rights for women. Japanese women now have the right to vote, the right to sue for divorce (some 10,000 exercise it annually), and Japanese wives—except in the most backward rural areas—no longer must dutifully walk ten paces behind their husbands.

For the women, the changes have been exhilarating and bewildering, but Japanese men often think things have gone too far; last week many of them were pondering the plaint of a 42-year-old white-collar worker with an equal-rights problem of his own. Said he in a letter to Tokyo’s Yomiuri Shimbun:

“I have never addressed my wife disrespectfully, as other husbands may still be doing. I have never used rude interjections, but only the most polite of honorifics. I have been beaten by her, but she has never been beaten by me.

“Cleaning the garden, growing vegetables and heating the bath—they are all my jobs. I hand my pay envelope to my wife without opening it. She drinks and smokes, but I do neither. I feel that I am a symbol of the principle of the equality of the sexes.

“But am I happy now? On the contrary. My father was different from me and was a near tyrant. He never attended to domestic affairs, but simply yelled at his wife when he wanted something. When he was displeased, he frequently beat his wife. Still, she did not appear to be unhappy. Father was quite happy, of course.”