Who Should Clean the Toilets?
Gen Z Japanese on gender parity and housework
I find it heartening that my twenty-five-year-old son always offers to do the dishes when he comes home from Tokyo for a visit.
Various studies have shown that Japanese men do far less housework than their female counterparts. This may help to account for the low rate of women’s involvement in politics and managerial positions. They are just too busy taking care of their homes to pursue career advancement!
There are, however, indications that attitudes regarding gender and domestic labor may be changing. In 2019, Shinjiro Koizumi, the charismatic Minister of the Environment and son of former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, announced that he would take 12 days of paternity leave to care for his newborn son.
Also, during the COVID-19 pandemic, many Japanese men were forced to work at home, which gave them the opportunity to spend more time with their families. Some men began to pitch in more with domestic tasks.
Furthermore, young activists have taken to social media to protest sexist and misogynistic business practices. For example, Yumi Ishikawa began the #KuToo campaign on Twitter to protest company requirements for women to wear high heels to work.
Also, depictions of men in popular entertainment, such as the gangster homemaker in the manga and anime The Way of the Househusband, and the bento-making single father in the Netflix film “461 Obentos,” may help to change gender-based perceptions of domestic labor.
While these developments are encouraging, research is necessary in order to obtain a better grasp of changes in attitudes among members of the younger generation.
My co-researcher Yoko Kita, an associate professor at Kyoto Notre Dame Women’s University and I, a researcher at Naruto University of Education, conducted a survey of 400 Japanese university students to find out what Gen Z individuals in Japan think about gender and domestic labor.
Of the 400 students, 51.5% were female and 47.8% were male. Three students identified as nonbinary.
We invited students to assign gender — male, female, or neutral — to 13 specific household chores including cooking, shopping for groceries, washing windows, giving children a bath, vacuuming/mopping, washing dishes, dusting, ironing, taking out the garbage, meeting children’s teachers, cleaning toilets, putting children to bed, and making children’s bentos (lunch boxes).
An overwhelming majority declared that all of the chores were gender-neutral. For example, 82% responded that making children’s bentos was gender neutral, although only 4.5% reported that their fathers had made bentos, while 93% reported that cleaning toilets was a gender-neutral chore in spite of having reported that only 20.5% of fathers completed this task in their households.
On the other hand, most students recognized that gender disparity exists in Japan. A 19-year-old female from Kochi, for example, had little hope for her elders, responding, “There is nothing we can do about gender equality to my parents’ generation. I’m sure they will never change their minds.” However, she added, “I think that some of the younger generations have both men and women doing housework.”
A 19-year-old male from Okayama concurred, replying “Especially among the younger generation, the stereotype of men and women doing domestic work is slowly disappearing. What is important is the spirit of mutual help, and if we have that, time will solve the problem.”
Many mentioned the importance of discussing the division of labor as a couple or a family. For example, a female student from Kanagawa wrote:
First of all, I think it is effective to visualize the working hours and the equivalent compensation, so that people who do not participate in household chores understand that all of this is done without pay and relies on goodwill. It would then be good to discuss how the household can share the burden.
Others suggested that gender parity in Japan might be achieved through education. For example, a 19-year-old female from Osaka advised, “Educate elementary school children about the relationship between gender equality and domestic work and teach them that both men and women can do housework.”
A 19-year-old male from Wakayama proposed, “Appeal to the awareness of gender equality by showing text and diagrams to help people understand the reality of domestic work.”
Others pointed out the potential effect of representations in media:
I believe that the process of creating an ideal family image includes the entertainment we watched as children, such as anime and manga, so I think it would be good if there were more anime with various family structures, not just those like Sazae-san, where men are outside and women are at home. (female, 22, from Kanagawa)
Still others advocated living independently: “Make sure that every person experiences living alone at least once. (They can learn how to do and what kind of domestic work it is and how hard it is)” advocated a 20-year-old male from Kanagawa, while a 21-year-old female from Ehime wrote, “I think you should experience living alone at least once before you get married.”
Finally, an 18-year-old male from Ishikawa replied, “Hire a professional.”
While these results are encouraging, when asked how tasks may be delegated during cohabitation, most indicated that whoever has the most free time will be expected to do the most housework.
Currently, in workplaces dominated by older men, males tend to work the longest hours. While younger men appear to be ready and willing to do their share of future domestic tasks, a shift in workplace culture is still required.
Suzanne Kamata is the author of numerous books, including the forthcoming novel Cinnamon Beach, a multicultural tragicomedy in which an American writer living in Japan returns to South Carolina to scatter the ashes of her brother and reconnects with her college friend, now a famous African American country music star. Now available for preorder!
