Here are a few facts and figures that make for some interesting reading.
On average, Japanese husbands do 7 minutes housework a day. Wives on the other hand do considerably more, weighing in with a hefty 4 hours and 49 minutes. This according to the ‘housework sharing’ survey done in 2001. Plus, in regards to childcare, wives give up 1 hour and 48 minutes of their time. Men however only manage to squeeze in 13 minutes.
Outside the home, female employees get just 69 percent of what their male equivalents are paid. And according to a study done in July this year, 63 percent of Japanese companies had no plans to hire women.
In a World Economic Forum survey of 58 economies — both developed and emerging — Japanese women ranked 52nd for economic opportunity. Slightly better than in the area of political empowerment, where they only managed to sneak in at number 54.
Make of these numbers what you will.
Personally, I’ve printed out the housework stats and left them ‘casually’ on the table at home. I may not exactly be ‘Mr man about the house’, but those figures put me in model husband territory. Or at least in the vicinity.
Bart says
Seven minutes? What do they do, put on the micro-wave and watch the food heat up?
EFL Geek says
I guess this puts me at near model-husband. I’m not sure how much housework/cooking etc one can accomplish in 7 minutes – maybe these men manage to put their dirty socks and underwear in the basket rather than the floor and that counts.
Jim says
Japanese women can correct that. Make him sleep on the couch.
Imogen says
Seven/ thirteen minutes? Exactly how do they measure these things?
Hanuman says
Probably just taking the trash out!
Eran says
Its sad this is the situation . I will say that a national program need to be planes to equalize woman status in the japanese socity .
melina says
i hate to be so filty-minded, but i thought of something else that would take less than seven minutes time, but on the clean “flip” side, i’d say this is about the same time to microwave a stouffer’s entree, even allowing for that additional two minutes of “sitting in the microwave” before taking out and consuming.
melina says
*filthy