In honor of International Women's Day (Mar. 8), I'm going to post these articles about women in the workplace:
I like these 2 articles about sexual harassment. However, when I read them I became angry, depressed, and in a bad mood. I forewarn you that you may feel that when you read this:
May 12, 2018 "#MeToo movement becomes #WeToo in in victim-blaming Japan": Today I found this article by Kurimi More and Shoko Oda in the Edmonton Journal:
(Bloomberg) -- Monica Fukuhara was a college student working at a restaurant when it happened to her. As she was saying goodbye to a customer, he grabbed her chest, she says.
The man was a valued regular. She was a part-time waitress. The manager shrugged.
“I didn’t tell people close to me what happened, certainly not my family,” recalls Fukuhara, now 26. She remembers being left with a feeling of helplessness and anger, which soon turned into shame.
This experience fueled her decision to help organize #WeToo Japan, a movement following the #MeToo phenomenon in the U.S. yet with some key differences.
In Japan, societal norms make it difficult for sexual harassment victims to talk about their experiences because of shame and worries about victim-blaming, she said. So in a society often used to looking the other way on issues of sexual harassment and abuse, the #WeToo hashtag is meant to be used in social media not only by victims, but by those endorsing an end to harassment.
A group of activists including Fukuhara and Shiori Ito launched #WeToo Japan in February after deciding on the need for widespread support, saying it goes beyond the self-identification of victims in the #MeToo movement started in the U.S. last year.
“By using #WeToo instead, we show greater solidarity. We are letting victims know they’re not alone and that we listen and support, making it easier to speak up,” Fukuhara said. “Since Japanese society has some sort of prejudice against victims, it’s difficult for women to raise their hands and say #MeToo.”
Their cause has struck a chord in Japan. According to organizers’ estimates, a crowd of about 2,000 people gathered in Tokyo last month for a protest against sexual violence, with the slogan “I Will Not Remain Silent.” The protest, which attracted people from their 20s to 70s, was organized by women over various social media platforms.
A week before, more than a dozen female and male opposition party lawmakers held up posters bearing the #MeToo slogan in the Diet, Japan’s Parliament. Members had gathered for a hearing on the sexual harassment scandal involving the Finance Ministry’s former top bureaucrat.
Assault Underreported
In Japan, more than two-thirds of rape and sexual assault victims said they have never told anyone what happened to them and only 4 percent have reported such crimes to police, according to a 2015 government survey. By comparison, the U.S. Justice Department in that year said almost 33 percent of rape and sexual assault crimes in the U.S. were reported.
Things have been slow to change in Japan. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been pushing his “Womenomics” measures in recent years, yet the country’s progress on female empowerment has been limited. Japan ranked 114th in the World Economic Forum’s gender gap report for 2017, slipping from 111th a year earlier.
In 2016, the percentage of women on boards of the largest publicly listed companies in Japan rose to 3.4 percent from 1.7 percent in 2013, according to OECD data, putting it near the bottom of the list of OECD countries. The country also ranks low in female political representation at 158th among 193 countries as of April, below Syria and the Congo, according to Inter-Parliamentary Union data.
In patriarchal Japan, some women who have gone public with their #MeToo stories have been met with personal attacks and ridicule rather than sympathy.
Rika Shiiki, a 20-year-old college student entrepreneur, faced harsh online criticism when she said she had lost business contracts after refusing to have sex with clients. Shiiki was accused of lying and received online comments such as, “Show us evidence” and “Just go to the police.”
Shiori Ito, a journalist who has been credited with being the first to use the #MeToo hashtag in Japan, also faced bashing and blame after going public with her story, she recalls.
“I was vilified on social media and received hate messages and emails and calls from unknown numbers. I was called a ‘slut’ and ‘prostitute’ and told I should ‘be dead.’ There were arguments over my nationality, because a true Japanese woman wouldn’t speak about such ‘shameful’ things,” Ito wrote on Politico.eu in January.
Ito is suing fellow journalist Noriyuki Yamaguchi over allegations he raped her after discussing job opportunities over dinner and drinks in 2015. Yamaguchi -- a former Washington bureau chief for broadcasting company TBS and an Abe biographer -- denied any non-consensual interaction with Ito and prosecutors dropped the case in 2016.
Protests, Support
Although Japan has been slow to the movement compared with other countries, the protests and growing support for victims show attitudes may slowly be starting to change.
A new survey conducted by Nikkei revealed that about 24 percent of women who experienced sexual harassment at work either reported it or told someone. The online poll of 1,000 working women in Japan was conducted from April 24-26. Still, 60 percent of women who said they had experienced sexual harassment said they “put up with it,” many because they thought speaking up would affect their status in their workplace.
Most recently, two high-profile men have seen their careers fall apart over sexual harassment allegations. A member of the TOKIO pop group was fired by his agency on Sunday over allegations he forcibly kissed a high school girl. Johnny & Associates terminated its contact with 46-year-old bass guitarist Tatsuya Yamaguchi, after his tearful public apology on April 25.
Separately, top Finance Ministry official Junichi Fukuda resigned on April 18 after a female journalist with broadcaster TV Asahi went to a tabloid magazine with recordings of lewd comments allegedly made by him. Although Fukuda has denied harassment, the ministry later announced his retirement allowance would be slashed because of the encounter.
Keiko Kojima, a former TV personality, knows all too well that the Japanese media industry is a man’s world. She explains that if you want to survive as a woman in the industry, you’re expected to get used to sexual harassment.
“For that TV Asahi journalist, I know just how difficult it must have been and how much courage she needed and how much she risked to speak up against Fukuda,” Kojima said. “This is why we can’t let her fight alone. Telling her story with #MeToo, then supporting her with #WeToo gives us this chance to create change.”
Nov. 14, 2019 "Outrage as women in Japan told not wear glasses in the workplace": Today I found this article by Miriam Berger in the South China Morning Post. My parents went to China and brought some newspapers home:
In recent reports by Japan’s Nippon TV and Business Insider Japan, women from a range of industries described being instructed by their employers not to wear glasses.
One receptionist recalled being told that glasses for her were not allowed, while a male receptionist was permitted to don corrective eyewear, Business Insider reported. A nurse at a beauty clinic developed dry eye from long hours in contacts but also was not allowed to wear glasses. Her employer imposed other requirements: Makeup was a must, as was making sure she didn’t gain too much weight. A domestic airline reportedly has the no-glasses rule for safety reasons. Some restaurants said glasses on female employees didn’t go well with their traditional attire.
Why all the fuss? Glasses can give a “cold impression,” or cover up one’s makeup, or just aren’t liked by the boss, said women interviewed by the news organizations.
All of this was apparently news to many women in Japan, who, upon hearing what their fellow women have had to endure, took to social media to break that glasses ceiling.
The hashtag “glasses are forbidden” (#メガネ禁止) has been trending in Japan since Wednesday.
“Isn’t it so troublesome when you can see all the middle-aged men in the world?” someone wrote on Twitter under the hashtag after tweeting out a picture of her new glasses.
There don’t appear to be any official numbers on how widespread the bans are. “It was not clear whether the so-called ‘bans’ were based on company policies, or rather reflected what was socially accepted practice in those workplaces,” the BBC reported.
But judging from the reaction, the news has touched a nerve among Japanese women tired of having their bodies scrutinized and regulated in ways that they say their male counterparts are not.
Many online commentators drew a connection to another recent uproar over Japanese workplaces requiring women to wear heeled shoes, which can be uncomfortable and difficult to work long hours in. Some high heels, medical experts have warned, can even cause chronic health problems.
“Earlier this year, Japanese women began voicing their discontent with arcane workplace restrictions on their looks through the #KuToo movement, which drew attention to the requirement that many companies still have that women wear high heels to work,” Quartz reported. “The term #KuToo is a triple pun, playing on the Japanese words kutsu (shoes), kutsuu (pain), and the #MeToo movement.”
As Yumi Ishikawa, who helped to spark #KuToo, told Bloomberg News: “If wearing glasses is a real problem at work it should be banned for everyone — men and women. This problem with glasses is the exact same as high heels. It’s only a rule for female workers.”
Ishikawa started the hashtag when her feet bled from having to wear high-heeled shoes at work.
Others on social media this week compared the glasses controversy to restrictions on clothing in Japanese schools, known as “black school rules.” Many Japanese schools mandate, for example, that students must have black hair and style it in certain ways.
It’s not just Japan where bespectacled women face public scrutiny. Last year, a South Korean early-morning news presenter broke ranks when she wore glasses on air — as some male counterparts do. This was a change from her previous look involving contacts and false eyelashes. The simple move was seen as a big affront to Korean female beauty standards and prompted the presenter to explain herself on social media that sometimes her eyes were just too dry or tired for contacts.
“I have to wake up early in the morning for the morning news, but when I have insufficient sleeping time and short preparation time, I sometimes want to wear glasses. … Viewers are also focusing on the nature on the news, not the appearance of the anchor,” she wrote on Instagram.
In Japan, many women have had it and are hoping to do away with dress codes specifically targeting women in the workplace. Ishikawa submitted a petition in June asking the government to bar companies from imposing dress codes that activists say specifically discriminate against women, like requirements that women wear heels, makeup or glasses.
“Women are evaluated mostly on their appearance,” Kumiko Nemoto, a professor of sociology at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, told the BBC this week. “That’s the message that these policies are sending, at least.”
Aug. 17, 2020 Saying: I found this on Facebook:
"You never look good when you are trying to make someone else look bad."- Unknown
Cham: Sometimes people need to be exposed for who they are hahah or maybe I should stop being petty
Tracy Au: There's a difference between trying to make someone look bad, and exposing them for who they are. It's like those #MeToo accusers and victims, they are plainly telling everybody about the perpetrators. They're not trying to make them look bad.
This week's theme is about women in the workplace:
"Dress code's great divide"/ "When dismissal with cause seems clear"
"Getting caught up in the business of #bossbabe"/ "Is the gender gap actually based on gender?"
My week:
Mar. 8, 2021 We Bare Bears: I have Telus free preview of Teletoon channel 622. Now I get to watch this show. Each episode is like 10 min. long and they air 4 episodes at a time on Sun. nights at 10-11pm and Tues. night 9-10pm.
The Grand Cafe and Bistro: You should all go to this local restaurant that sells sandwiches, pizza, and specialty coffee.
Fundamental Care: I was checking out my blog and someone made a comment:
love your work great work done by your compaign ....nice blog
Regards:
Organizations to Donate to
job interviews/ Kid's Kottage needs donations/ Shy dolls
"Fundamental Care Foundation was organized simply to help those in poverty and give hope for a better future. We have been helping children in orphanages, as well as simply those who are on the streets in very poor areas of Mexico, with food, water, clothes, and daily hygiene supplies. We have also expended our boundaries to Moldova, Gagauzia where we have been sponsoring children’s summer camps for those in poverty, as well as providing food, clothes, basic hygiene supplies to these children. Looking for Organizations to donate to, Our organization also helps elder care facilities by providing things like wheelchairs, shower stools, diapers, pads, and other necessities to ease off life those that are lonely and need care."
Robert Deblois from North Bay, ON, would like to know:
Would you still work if you won the lottery?
No- 50.88% (1813)
Yes-49.12% (1750)
I said yes, because I would be bored if I wasn't working.
