Even at the level of language in this country there is a difference in the name of the husband and wife. It is believed that a Japanese man lives outside the house, and a woman in the house, which is reflected in the phrases "a man outside, a woman inside." But in recent years, relations between a man and a woman have undergone major changes in the Japanese.
As it was before
Since ancient times, a man in Japan was prescribed more social functions than a woman. A Japanese man is involved in a huge society - in professional groups, in clans, in which he achieves a better place in the hierarchy. The woman's place is in the house. But such a distribution of things does not mean patriarchy, common, for example, in China. In many families inheritance of property went along the female line. And if the man was the main one in the city, the region or at least at the enterprise, then the woman was the main one in the house.
Between man and woman in Japan for many centuries there was a clear separation of spheres of influence. He is the master of the world, she is the mistress of the house. There was no question of any division of responsibility for each other's spheres. The wife did not have the right to interfere in the affairs of the spouse, and the husband had almost no right to vote in the house and even in the distribution of finances. And the more so it was not for a man to do household chores - to clean, cook or wash.
Marriage in Japan has long been divided into two types - contract marriage and marriage for love. The first marriage was concluded by the relatives of the newlyweds, the second marriage could take place only if the man and the woman categorically refused to accept the choice of the parents. Up until the 1950s, contractual marriages in Japan were more than three times the number of marriages for love.
How is it now?
The processes of active involvement of women in public life have also affected Japan. Only the development of equality between the sexes has a very original scenario, quite unlike the European one.
To a greater extent, this development affected the family and marriage, the sphere of personal relationships. The career field is undergoing much slower changes.
The woman had the opportunity to work and achieve prominent positions in the companies. However, in order to build a career, Japanese still needs much more effort than the Japanese. For example, there is no system of social guarantees for women during pregnancy and after childbirth. Maternity leave can seriously damage a woman's career, and she will never be accepted after a long break for the same position. Having given birth to a child, a woman will have to start a career from almost zero, even if she does it within the same company.
This social injustice has led to a significant increase in conscious loneliness. Not only in Europe and Russia, people began to avoid official marriage and prefer to live without a partner. The new relationship between a man and a woman in Japan has the same trait: the desire for solitude and a bachelor lifestyle. Men were not interested in marrying a careerist, because they can not deal with a house. A woman does not want to promise a man care for the house and the child, if she is not sure that she wants to give up for this successfully built career.
But having received a relative independence from the opinion of the genus, the Japanese and Japanese women began to marry more often for love. Since the 1950s, the number of marriages for love has increased significantly, and in the 1990s they were five times larger than the contractual ones. When considering the issue of contract marriage, relatives and parents of the bride and groom began to pay more attention to the opinions of potential spouses. If a man and a woman categorically do not like each other, or one of them is in love with another, such a marriage no longer exists, and they have the right to choose with whom they should build a family.
How will it be?
If further views on the relationship between a man and a woman will change from traditional to liberal, then Japan is waiting for all the same things that already exist in Europe and the US. The age of marriage will increase, the number of children in the family will decrease, the birth rate will decrease. After all, before deciding to marry, many women will try to build a career and secure a future.
And yet Japan has its own special color and its culture, which can affect how the relationship between a man and a woman will be in the future. For example, it's hard to imagine an egalitarian family becoming popular in this country, as it is in Europe. Egalitarian family - this is one in which there is no clear division of functions between a man and a woman. A woman can earn a living while a man is engaged in home and children, then they change roles. Leadership in the kitchen, in bed or in the provision of family passes from husband to wife, then back. Most likely, Japan will continue the alignment that is now in the families where both spouses work. The wife will work in addition to work at home, and the man will remain "a major garbage in the house," as one of the hieroglyphs designates, hinting that the man in the house should not do anything, interfering and getting confused under the feet of his wife.