My name is Souta, and I am in the fifth grade of elementary school. I’m in the fifth grade of elementary school, and now that I’m 10 years old, I’ve started to think about my future, and it seems that there are a lot of things in this world that I don’t understand. The other day, my younger sister Rico asked me a question that I couldn’t answer properly.
Onii-chan! What’s so hard about mom working?
‘Difficult’…what does that mean?
Hmmm… doesn’t that mean it’s not easy?
I know that (laughs).
Is it difficult to work? Or is it difficult at home?
I wonder which one it is? I have no idea, so I’ll look into it!
Using a tablet handed out by the school, I looked it up and found that it has been said that “women’s activities are necessary” in Japan for about 10 years now. The reason why it has been so difficult for so long since then is…. At that time, I found a person named Sachiko Hanyu, a visiting researcher at Nikkei xwoman, who has been giving lectures on the theme of women’s success in various places. This person might know the reason why it was “difficult! Okay, let’s ask her!
Sachiko Habu
(Photo: ©Akiko Suzuki)
Most of my friends’ families have mothers who work, but are there more mothers working now?
Yup. Until about 2000, 20 years ago, there were about the same number of full-time housewives who devoted themselves to housework and childcare and mothers who worked together, but since then, more mothers have been working.
There are data that show that about 70% of the nation’s married couples are now dual-earners, meaning that both of them are working.
Are there that many?
I’m including part-time jobs as well as full-time jobs, so there are many different ways to work, but I would say that most mothers in families with children in elementary or junior high school today are working.
My mom said that working is “difficult,” but does that mean it’s “hard”?
Sure, there are some “tough” parts, but maybe not quite.
What do you think is the most common reason for full-time working mothers in Japan to quit their jobs?
Eh, isn’t that because you are busy with work and home after all?
That’s… the most common is “because my job is boring.”
And that is more than the reason for being busy with childcare and other activities.
Eh! Is that the reason?
When I saw the results of the survey, I was also astonished. Of course, balancing work and family life is time-consuming and very tiring. But if it is something worthwhile and something I want to do my best at, even if it is hard, I don’t think I will quit.
For example, I know it’s hard for Souta-kun to practice the bars, skipping rope, jumping jacks, etc., but when he practices and becomes able to do them, he will be happy to have achieved them, and don’t you think he can do his best?
That may indeed be true.
So how would you feel if you were able to jump five steps in a jumping box, but were told to only jump three steps all the time?
That’s… I don’t like that.
Even if you feel that you are helping others by demonstrating your abilities at work, or you are motivated to grow more, if you don’t have the opportunity to do such work, you may quit because you find it boring. This is a waste of time.
Really. But why can’t you do that kind of work?
First of all, in the past, many people quit their jobs when they had children, so companies could not entrust them with important jobs. However, Japanese companies have increasingly established a system for people who have had children to return to work, and the number of people who quit has decreased. However, Japanese companies have been making more and more arrangements for people who have given birth to children to return to work, and the number of people who quit has been decreasing.
In addition, as Souta said, it must be difficult to balance work and child rearing! In addition, as Sota mentioned, there are many people who think that balancing work and child rearing is hard work! If that is the case, then they will ask for jobs that are less demanding.
Hmmm…I see…sometimes what the company is doing for the best of its intentions is in fact making mothers feel that it is difficult.
Mom also wants to do her best in both child-rearing and work, but she is not able to work as hard as she would like, and that might have made her feel “difficult”….
Can’t you do something about that?
Of course, there is a movement to change that.
In a company, there are people in managerial positions who organize everyone, like class members at school, but in Japan today , only about one in ten women is in that position.
But I’ve managed to increase that to 3 in 10 before.
Three out of ten…still not too many, is it?
To give you an idea of what it is like to be one out of ten, when you enter a classroom to decide on a play for the school arts festival, there are nine girls in the class, all of them except Souta-kun. If the girls had already agreed to some extent on what kind of play they wanted to put on, could a single boy say, “I want to put on a different play?
No, it’s a little too much for one person (chuckles).
But what if there were two more boys there besides Sota?
Maybe I can talk to the other boys and the three of us can make a proposal….
Yes, just like that! It’s important to have more people first.
In addition, there is the idea that diversity is necessary for a company to be able to handle various things these days, that is, it is better to have people of different genders, ages, nationalities, etc. involved, so more and more people are thinking about adding more women where there have been few women in the past.
Diversity…what good does it do to have a variety of people in a company?
I want you to imagine a card game. If all the cards you have are warrior cards that are powerful but weak against magic, you would be strong when you need power but helpless when you need magic, right? If I had not only warriors but also wizards and ninjas, I might be able to win against many different opponents.
I see!
However, it is very difficult to master the various cards, so many companies are still practicing. So far, they have only used one kind of card. I think this will change in the future when companies can better use the power of women, people of different nationalities, etc.
Then the company should change!
In addition to that, I think moms themselves need to change.
Is that an assumption that only mothers should do housework and childcare?
You know it well! Of course, we need to let go of that belief and not try to do the housework and childcare alone, but properly delegate it to dad, for example. But that’s not all.
Yes, that’s it! That’s not all?
It is also important to be prepared to be responsible for your own work and salary. Just as fathers think that housework is something that should be done mainly by mothers, mothers often think that work and salary are something that they should do mainly by their fathers. I think that is something you have to be prepared for. You have to be prepared for that.
Hmmm… So that means mom and dad can do their work and housework to the fullest.
That would be wonderful. The important thing to keep in mind then is that both mom and dad may work harder than ever, both at work and at home, so you have to be careful!
How do I take care of it?
After all, if you push yourself too hard, your body and mind may not be able to keep up, so it is important to rest and take care of yourself. You wouldn’t want both Mom and Dad to collapse, would you?
That is not good.
Then help Mom and Dad get some rest.
I understand!
That evening, I massaged Mom’s shoulders. I thought she was more ticklish than I expected and always had a hard time. Then, before going to bed, I told Rico what Mr. Hanyu had told me…and he looked kind of difficult.
Hmmm…
Was it a little difficult?
I don’t know…I feel like everyone is doing their best.
Yup. I think Dad, Mom, and the company are trying to do better.
So why is it still so hard for Mom and Dad?
I wonder… I think it will take time for everyone to come to believe that it is natural for fathers and mothers to work the same way and to share housework and childcare.
But then, that doesn’t mean that both mom and dad will remain in a lot of trouble until we grow up. Is that okay with you?
Hey, big guy!
What?
Hey, big guy!How can we change the “social atmosphere”?
Sure, maybe that’s where we need to change after all, but how? Let’s think about it, remembering what various people have told us!
<Collaborator: Sachiko Hanyu, Visiting Researcher, Nikkei xwoman>.
Graduated from Kyoto University, Faculty of Agriculture in 2007 with a major in Literary Theory and a minor in Cognitive Science. 2000: Graduated from Kyoto University, but went to France during the “ice age” of employment. In 2002, he joined the Editorial Engineering Research Institute, where he studied under Seigo Matsuoka. In 2005, he joined Nikkei Home Publishing, where he was deputy editor-in-chief of Nikkei Money, editor-in-chief of Nikkei DUAL in 2001, editor-in-chief of Nikkei xwoman in 2006, and editor-in-chief of Nikkei Women Empowerment Project in 2008. She has served as a member of the Cabinet Office’s Study Group on Measures to Cope with the Declining Birthrate, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare’s Ikumen Project, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s Child-rearing Council, and other committees, providing a voice for working women and families with two working parents. She has appeared as a university lecturer, at corporate seminars, and on TV. In her private life, she is a mother of two children. Her hobbies include playing the piano, cooking, swimming, and studying finance. She is currently focusing on “Japanese individuality,” which is fading in the global marketplace. 2022: President and Representative Director of Hanyu Pro Co.
(Continued next time)
