Japan Behind the Scenes

The news of the journalist Shiori Ito, a Japanese woman who broke the silence on rape in Japan has made the headlines all over the world. She has become a symbol of the  #metoo  movement in Japan, denouncing that Shinzo Abe's  government and the police discouraged her sexual assault  investigations. But is Japan really so bad for gender equality? Japanese men will say that their country puts "lady first" , they see being a housewife as a  privilege and, in a society where you work shift can last 11 hours per day, it is not so difficult to understand them/ Also, they blame the fact that women can have many reduced price for cinema or lunch menus (well actually Japanese women having a lot of free time are just a good business target) or have nicer and bigger toilets or special train cars against "chikan", the perverts. However, all  these policies are only strengthening gender division .  In fact...

Kimono starter pack: Kimono's Cultural Meaning Hello, it's been a while! Thank you for being here. Japanese life and its crazy 残業 (zangyou, overwork) almost killed me... Almost, hehe!  I will be doing a series of special posts about Kimono, "Kimono starter pack": I    Cultural Meaning II   Basic knowledge  (kimono is made of MANY parts and MANY kinds) III  Good kimono accounts or shops, online and in Tokyo What is a kimono? Kimono きもの 着物 literally means " thing to wear ": Ki き 着 means to "wear on the shoulders", while mono もの 物 means "thing, object".  Before the introduction of Western clothes, the word kimono was used to refer to any cloth in Japan, and only during the late nineteenth century , kimono became the term for the Japanese national dress. It has a long history and it is one of the best examples of how clothing can be used as a cultural identifier, conferring a strong sense of identity . Kimono ar...