"Let a virgin develop a beef rice addiction"? Discriminatory remarks are a hot topic in Japan, and unconscious gender bias is causing us harm.

 "Let young country girls fall in love with beef rice while they are still virgins." Yoshinoya management recently launched a new marketing strategy that was criticized for its evident misogyny. The beatings in Tangshan demonstrate women's powerlessness and fragility in the face of violence due to power imbalances. Power abuse is frequently overt and obvious, but Yoshinoya's discriminating marketing shows a different angle: the subtle violation of concepts. More alarming than violence, according to sociologists, is the fact that women are sometimes unaware of their experiences of being "served" and "commodified."

Discriminatory Marketing

Japan's "Mainichi Shimbun" reported on the 12th that Yoshinoya executives were fired after releasing the marketing strategy of "getting virgins hooked on beef rice".

The Yoshinoya executive described the company's marketing strategy as "getting young girls who have just left the countryside to be hooked on beef rice when they are virgins," the report said. In a lecture held at a university in Tokyo, he further explained: "Once men treat them to expensive meals, they will definitely not eat beef rice again." These remarks were then widely criticized by Japanese public opinion. Two days later, Yoshinoya It was announced that the executive had been fired.

Tadashi Nakamura, a professor at Ritsumeikan University who studies domestic violence, pointed out: "Today, many Japanese business and political leaders are male, and the male-dominated social structure still exists. In such a society, men even discriminate against women through publications. Discriminatory words will naturally emerge in such an atmosphere.  ”

"The economy of sex at the dinner table"

"There is also an 'unconscious gender bias' behind this incident ." Nakamura is further raising the issue of "micro-attacks"-a lot of prejudice and discrimination are hidden in the details of interactions in schools and workplaces, even women themselves. do not feel. "The root of the discriminatory remarks by former executives of Yoshinoya lies in the notion that Japanese society is accustomed to - that men should pay for women's meals."

Sociologist Lee Ra-young pointed out that gender differences in Japan are vividly reflected in a small dining table. In Japan, whether you are an ordinary housewife or the first lady of Japan, you need to serve the men at the table . Not long ago, when US President Biden visited Japan, two male heads of state sat at the table, while Yuko Kishida, wife of Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, stood beside him in a kimono serving tea, which was considered cordial at the time. A symbol of politeness. 

Lee thinks that when all the pleasing phrasing of Japanese aesthetics is removed, the core message is clear: In male-dominated politics, women are seen as having a "servant" role, and the president's wife is required to give the best possible An elegant way to entertain guests, and it became a common form of diplomacy.

So how does a service identity come to be taken for granted? Kim Joo-hee, author of Lady Credit, calls the situation the “Sexual Economy of Tables ,” in which a power relationship develops when men pull out their wallets. Many men feel that they have paid for an "entertainment experience" and thus gain the power to control these women for a certain period of time, which includes making women drink alcoholic beverages, singing and dancing for fun, etc. 

Li Luoying further pointed out that what is even more frightening is that women are sometimes ignorant of their "service" attributes - they believe that only providing "sexual services" belongs to the category of women being "commodified". In fact, whether they are soliciting customers in a dark alley or serving tea elegantly at a formal dinner, they are all servants.

Gender equality is a long way off

The dining table is just one tip of Japan's deep-rooted misogyny. In recent years, there have been numerous incidents of gender discrimination in Japan. For example, in 2018, the medical departments of many Japanese universities were exposed to gender discrimination in admissions and deliberately lowered the scores of girls; and in 2021, the chairman of the Tokyo Olympic Organizing Committee Yoshiro Mori claimed in an interview with the media that if women are on the Olympic Organizing Committee Council Too many members can reduce meeting efficiency.

According to the 2021 Global Gender Gap Report published by the World Economic Forum, a Swiss think tank, Japan ranks 120 out of 156 countries. Among them, Japan ranks 147th in terms of political participation, mainly due to the low number of female parliamentarians and female cabinet members; in the economic field, the issue of the low proportion of female managers is particularly criticized; in the field of education, according to literacy and enrolment rates 92nd in health; 65th in health based on life expectancy and other factors. 

The report also pointed out that many women have lost employment opportunities due to the impact of the new crown epidemic. In order to eliminate the global gender gap, the time it takes for Japan will increase from 99 years mentioned in the previous report to 135 years. The Mainichi Shimbun pointed out that this shows that Japan's gender gap in various fields has not improved.

In order to narrow the gender gap between men and women, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe once proposed the "Japan Rebirth Strategy" and made supporting women's employment as one of the important goals. As a specific legal guarantee, in August 2015, the "Act on Promotion of Women's Activism" was passed by the Japanese National Assembly. However, the pandemic has magnified gender inequality in Japanese society. Data released by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare shows that the number of suicides in Japan in 2020 has risen for the first time since 2009, and the number of suicides among women has increased significantly. The number of suicides among men fell by 1%, while the number of women rose sharply by 14.5%.