About a year ago, a Japanese politician’s sexist remark became huge news in Japan. The former Prime Minister and the head of the Tokyo Olympics organizing committee, Yoshiro Mori, said committee meetings with many women will last forever because women are competitive and talk too much (“Yoshiro Mori,” 2021). His remarks got massive backlash. Why did he receive so much criticism?
His remarks are severe problems because they encourage a system that eliminates women from decision-making process. This can lead to a society lacking diversity and only benefits the privileged. Also, such statements of authority would create a legitimate inequality between men and women.
Moreover, Japan’s gender gap stands out globally. The World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report says Japan “ranks 120th, among the lowest-ranked countries in the East Asia and Pacific region.” (Global Gender Gap Report 2021, p. 37). Thus, Japan lags far behind the rest of the world.
So what exactly can we do? For example, we need to increase the number of women in decision-making positions, evaluate women fairly, and read the meaning behind the words rather than just criticize them as terrible statements.
In fact, a #DontBeSilent campaign was sparked on social media over his comments. A petition was created demanding that Mori’s comments be addressed, gathering more than 150,000 signatures in less than two weeks. Mori eventually resigned and was replaced by a woman (DeWitt, 2021). In Japan’s male-centered society, comments like Mori’s are just the tip of the iceberg. However, this may be one of the first step toward positive change. Japan must urgently address gender equality.
Resources
BBC. (2021, February 12). Yoshiro Mori: Tokyo olympics chief steps down over Sexism row. BBC News. Retrieved September 29, 2022, from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56020674
DeWitt, L. E. (2021). Japan’s sacred sumo and the exclusion of women: The olympic male Sumo Wrestler (part 1). Religions, 12(9), 749. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel12090749
Global gender gap report 2021. World Economic Forum. (2021, March 30). Retrieved September 29, 2022, from https://www.weforum.org/reports/global-gender-gap-report-2021
Hello fellow classmate,
Your title is what drew me into reading your post this week. I was confused at first, but it makes sense that an individual named Yoshiro Mori, stated that women talk too much and are too competitive. This comment by Mori not only shows sexism, but prejudice and discrimination as well. Sexism in this case is displayed as a response to gender diversity, the difference in sexes, and is related to the treatment a person receives based on their sex (Gruman, et al., 2016). In this specific example, Mori was sexist as he responded to a different sex with horrible treatment. Prejudice is a bad mental outlook towards a specific social group (Nelson, 2022). Mori clearly has a negative outlook towards groups of women in committee meetings based on his statement. Discrimination is a negative behavior towards that social group (Nelson, 2022). In this case, Mori makes the comment publicly for many women, not just the women who have been in meetings with him before, can see.
I agree that his remarks cause severe problems. One problem this causes is hostile sexism. Hostile sexism are negative behaviors that give back bad mental outlooks toward women in particular (Gruman, et al., 2016). Just as you stated, Mori’s comment “encourages a system that eliminates women from the decision-making process.” If Mori said this and he is a powerful figure in Japan, this could have the potential of bringing other people to a similar conclusion as him. In addition, the statistic you mentioned about the gender gap report of Japan being 120th stuck out to me. I like that you mentioned ways to change this. Another way we can change the gender gap might be by acknowledging diversity and bringing diversity into more conversations publicly.
Reference
Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (Eds.). (2016). Applied social psychology :
Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE Publications,
Incorporated.
Nelson, A. (2022). Psych 424 – Prejudice and Discrimination The Pennsylvania
State University, World Campus.