So, I've lived and worked in Philadelphia for approaching two years, and I found my feet pretty soon after moving here and really enjoyed living in this city. But since returning from Japan, Philly feels very different. I'm way more attuned to my environment. I notice and am really bothered by harassment when I'm sitting in the park reading. I remember stories of people I know being mugged. I don't feel comfortable walking around alone after dark. I see lots of bizarre behavior. I feel threatened when I'm oogled and cat called at. I am less comfortable just wandering around alone all day. All of this contrasts starkly with my 3 months in Japan. For the first time in my life (and possibly only!), I've had the opportunity to live alone and unconnected as a young woman in a city where I never at any time felt threatened, intimidated, or worried that I would be the victim of violence.
To preface this conversation, one of the many stereotypes about Japan is how safe it is. I've heard people attribute this to Japan's sprawling middle class, its homogeneity, its monoculture, its rigid social structure, its cultural emphasis on social obligations, and a pretty intense legal system designed to keep Japanese people in and all others out. It's also important to note that guns are illegal in Japan. I've heard lots of people attribute these factors to the feeling of stability and the absence of violence in the country. I think it's also possible that these same factors create the illusion of safety for all by driving bizarre, disturbing, immoral, violent behavior behind closed doors and out of sight into Tokyo's seedy underground world.
To jump topics for a moment.... "progressive" is not a word often used to describe Japan's social policies and customs, particularly when the subject is women's issues. Japanese women get excellent educations, but enter the working world as glorified secretaries doing menial computer work and fetching tea until they get married and are expected to quit if not by the wedding, then by the birth of their first child. For the rest of their lives, Japanese women spend their time raising children, keeping house, caring for their parents and in-laws, preparing elaborate and nutritious meals for their family and pursuing hobbies and nonprofessional activities in the remaining time. Sure, this is changing, and some women in Japan are pushing back against these powerful expectations by either declaring that they refuse to marry and give birth or by delaying marriage and childbirth to quite late in their lives. But despite these attempts to buck social norms, Japan is still a country run almost entirely by Japanese men and the norm is still that Japanese families divide labor based entirely on gender.
I have no doubt that gender-based division of labor is a particularly efficient way to organize a society, but not only may Japan have taken this to an extreme, but it doesn't come at no price. I've heard of women lamenting that even though the kids are grown up and they could throw themselves into a career, the Japanese tax code penalizes the family if women work full-time. I've also heard of men wishing that they could have actually attended a daughter's soccer game or a son's school play from time to time. (Side note: this brings a whole new set of connotations to the phrase "fatherless families" that's often discussed as a huge social problem in the States!) This lack of "progressive" attitudes towards women in the workforce is at the tip top of my list of hesitations about moving to live and work in Japan for any significant period of time. These social expectations are real, they affect behavior and they are hard to go against.
Now, here's what I'm really getting at - even though Japanese women have limited options about arranging their lives, their day to day experience is not characterized by restricted movement based on the fear of violence. For example, I have way better career prospects in the Philadelphia, and I have way more options available to me about how to organize my life, but there are times that I don't feel comfortable leaving my apartment without (preferably male) company. On the other hand, I would have extremely limited career prospects in Japan, but I can move about the country alone at all times of day or night without much concern for my physical safety.
Anyway, I don't really have a cosmic point here, but putting this observation to words has helped me figure out some of the pros/cons about my life here vs. there. It also brings up a line of questions that I think may be relevant to my future career in public health, which recognizes violence as a public heath issue.
- Is it just me? Do Japanese women even feel the same way that I do? (I heard lots of Japanese women tell me to "be careful" when going home late alone, though "Be careful going home." is also a very common way of saying goodbye.)
- How might Japanese people explain my experience in their own words?
- Is my experience of not feeling threatened shared by other women in Japan, including poor Japanese women, immigrants, and tourists who don't look like me or speak like me?
- Where are the places that Japanese women DO feel threatened or that they might be the victim of violence? A couple of social workers I spoke with suggested to me that Japan greatly under reports incidence of violence that happens in the home.
- How much does this picture change when you spend more time in Japan's sprawling network of clubs and bars where alcohol complicates the picture and breaks down some rigid standards of social decorum?
- Does any of this explain why Japanese people are pretty preoccupied with safety when they travel abroad?
- Are there other countries in the world or places in the U.S. that are similar to Japan in this way? What characteristics do those places share with Japan?
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