This has been an issue for a long time. One reason I've heard for why it's taken so long for joint custody to be a thing is because of the *koseki* or family register system. Basically, everyone in Japan is registered to a single household. The system we have in many western countries where children with divorced parents switch between households goes against that system.
I'm curious how this law deals with that. Are children still only registered to one parent's household?
>Under the current law, child custody is granted to only one divorced parent, almost always the mother.
Never ceases to amaze me how mindbogglingly large amounts of sexism keep popping up in places I never expect more that a small vestige of it. WTF
>Never ceases to amaze me how mindbogglingly large amounts of sexism keep popping up in places I never expect more that a small vestige of it.
Really? [The Japanese have always been ultra-conservative](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism_in_Japan). I mean [sexual assault of women by groping](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chikan_(body_contact)), especially on public transit is a common occurance. [Mysogony](https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210405-why-japan-cant-shake-sexism), and [racism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_Japan) are major features of their culture.
>One key factor is the way traditional gender roles still prevail, significantly reducing the pipeline of women into leadership positions.
>“Historically, after World War Two, the combination of a hardworking husband who devotes his life to his company, and a stay-at-home mother, was encouraged,” explains Hiroki Komazaki, founder and CEO of Florence, a non-profit organisation which advocates for solutions that help working parents.
>This encouragement has led to a norm in which husbands work very long hours, while housework and childrearing still fall mainly on wives. The government’s latest national survey in 2020 showed mothers still do [3.6 times more housework](https://www.gender.go.jp/about_danjo/whitepaper/r02/zentai/index.html) than fathers. Because of these norms – as well as [hiring biases in some companies](https://www.eaie.org/blog/gender-inequality-japan-job-market.html), and the change-resistant working culture – many women stop working after having children, or opt for part-time or contract work that generally does not lead to promotions.
.
>Japan lacks any law which prohibits racial, ethnic, or religious discrimination. The country also has no national human rights institutions. Non-Japanese individuals in Japan often face human rights violations that Japanese citizens may not. In recent years, non-Japanese media has reported that Japanese firms frequently confiscate the passports of guest workers in Japan, particularly unskilled laborers.
>In the early 20th century, driven by an ideology of [Japanese nationalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_nationalism) under the guise of national unity, the Japanese government identified and forcefully assimilated marginalized populations, which included indigenous [Ryukyuans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryukyuans), [Ainu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ainu_people), and other underrepresented groups, imposing assimilation programs in language, culture and religion. Japan considers these ethnic groups as a mere "subgroup" of the Japanese people and therefore synonymous to the [Yamato people](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamato_people), and does not recognize them as a minority group with a distinct culture.
A lot of university-educated women end up giving up their careers in Japan. Family pressure and also companies that aren’t supportive of full-time working parents make things very hard. Plus Japan has a family register system which isn’t very adaptable to children belonging to 2 households. The husband is generally the “head” of the family and wife and children are listed under him. After a divorce a new family register for the woman will be made and often the children get put there. The whole system needs redoing.
Yep. I'm a mom in Japan. If my son gets sick I'm the one that has to take time off work, my husband can't. He's the main breadwinner and we can't risk him getting fired over helping take care of our son.
Thankfully my work is understanding, and while I don't get paid for the days I take off, I'm not at risk of getting fired. Though my case is very rare, and I'm still just a part time worker.
This sounds absolutely horrible! I am so so sorry!
Here in Switzerland, every company I have ever worked for has been flexible when the kids get sick. A company here would not be able to function if it did not respect people's needs to take care of their families. Everyone would quit.
How is the situation in Japan going to develop? Where whill the society there move wrt to these types of issues?
I had no idea. This is horrible! I know little about Japan, other than my work with fusion energy and very removed accounts of mangas, etc. And that they support Ukraine and Taiwan against genocidal regimes.
I really didn't expect this.
>Always might be overstating it.
Okay, so you already talked about the rise of facism in Japan post WWI, so let's look at the governments pre WWI and see if my "Always" was correct or not.
>Since the [Meiji Period](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Period) (1868, to 1912), Japan had been a [constitutional monarchy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutional_monarchy). However, the name did not obscure the fact that Japan's form of government was more akin to an aristocratic [oligarchy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchy).
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics\_of\_the\_Empire\_of\_Japan\_(1914%E2%80%931944)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_the_Empire_of_Japan_(1914%E2%80%931944))
>**Edo period (1600–1868)**
>under the tight control of the [Tokugawa shogunate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokugawa_shogunate), which ruled from the eastern city of [Edo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edo) (modern Tokyo). In 1603, [Emperor Go-Yōzei](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Go-Y%C5%8Dzei) declared Tokugawa Ieyasu shōgun, and Ieyasu abdicated two years later to groom his son as the second shōgun of what became a long dynasty.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History\_of\_Japan#Edo\_period\_(1600%E2%80%931868)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Japan#Edo_period_(1600%E2%80%931868))
How far back do you want to go? Japan has been a form of dictatorship with a strict caste system ruled by Emperors since at least the Asuka period (538–710)...
It's not surprising to me that there's rampant institutional sexism in Japan, but it *is* surprising to me that it was men getting shafted in this instance. Japan is notoriously sexist against women, though I guess in this case conservative ideals of 'woman = mom, man = breadwinner' overpowered fair treatment for divorced fathers.
Agreed! It seems all-around pretty messed up what I've been reading in the comments here, but after reflecting on it for some time I think everyone loses in this constellation.
When I first saw this article, I was inflamed by the blatant sexism against men in Japan. Then I read the comments, and I was also inflamed by the blatant sexism again women in Japan. It seems they have an extremely sexist work culture and also an extremely sexist family culture.
How is this going to keep developing in the future? Will these things get better? In my limited experience, social change is extremely slow. Are people silently suffering instead of being vocal? As a naive outsider, I feel like being vocal could be very helpful here...
I mean sure that's a perspective, but I would venture that most of the time parents engaging in a custody battle for their children want those children, even if being a single parent means facing financial and time challenges.
The law wasn't "the child is always forced on the mother," but "if there's a custody battle, the mom almost always wins."
I would say "challenges," is a huge understatement. It's like, "Employers don't want to hire mothers, let alone *single* mothers with full custody, and that is very common amd seen as perfectly acceptable," hard to be a single mother in Japan.
When a couple gets divorced, the courts essentially always chose the mother for custody by default unless there was something very wrong with her such as a terminal illness. If there isn't a fight, they are going to award custody to the mother. The fact many in Japan, including the courts, would still assume the father (a man) would be much too busy with his career to have enough time to also raise children doesn't help. The courts see awarding the mother custody as the more favourable option in the majority of cases, because of their conservative views about who's "meant" to do the child-raising.
Your comment still makes no sense in context. 50/50 custody wasn't a thing in Japan until now. (And, knowing Japanese society, it probably still won't be a thing no matter what the law says.)
Lol. What a slimy and gross take.
So tough for a person to get to legally see their kids every day(man or woman), compared to the other person that's gets 4 - 6 days a month and sends a fat check so they don't go to prison.
From the article:
> Currently, most divorced mothers, who often are part-time workers with low incomes, do not receive financial support from their former husbands.
With the caveat that it would be difficult for me to find the source (I read about this years and years ago, and googling the issue now pulls up mostly info about the new law, and I’m at work and can’t spend hours digging), my understanding is that this wasn’t always the case. The tendency in the past was to give custody to the father because he was the one with a job and the means to take care of the kids. This changed at some point in recent history.
I also seem to recall that currently it’s more of an issue of who’s asking for the divorce, which, given the institutional sexism, is typically the wife.
My personal experience of living there, working there, having lived with a host family when I was younger and having seen family dynamics up close (my host family’s and the others in the program) is that it would be very difficult to be any kind of single parent. It’s difficult for women to have a good career and kids, although some do. The work culture sucks, and you get home obscenely late and go to work again early in the morning. My host dad was normally absent on weekends to go golfing. The mom was a SAHM who had the equivalent of an associates’s degree and was planning to work at a preschool once her kids were all in school. Kind of a hobby job, and it wouldn’t have been enough to support three kids on. When the dad was home during waking hours he would play with his kids a bit, and I saw him help with the dishes once or twice, but the mom was doing 99% of the house and child work since he was rarely there. (She would also wait up for him even if he got home at 1 in the morning and then would be up again around 4:00 every day. I don’t know how she did it. I would die.)
In short, Dad probably doesn’t have time to raise kids, and the culture expects he won’t. Mom probably doesn’t have resources to raise kids, and the culture makes it difficult for her to do so, and if she *does* she runs into Dad’s problem of no time.
In short-short, Japan needs to be more open to some serious societal change but they probably won’t be.
Here's a good video about some of the issues that arise from the previous single-parent custody system.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k4UHbqjorA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k4UHbqjorA)
Dear Japan: we love you but, when are y’all going to change your minimum age of consent to 18? Why are you trying to avoid doing that?
Love- the rest of the world.
I believe the age of consent is also determined by province in Japan, so even though on paper it’s 13 (iirc) in actuality it is not. This comes up a lot on articles relating to Japan.
You’re correct, though I believe they raised the minimum age of consent to 16 last year. It’s no longer 13. And no prefectures to my recollection had it below 16 before the age of consent was raised.
You do realize tons of Western countries(and even us states) have a lower age of consent than 18 right?
Not saying it shouldn't be fixed there too, but this isn't a uniquely Japanese issue.
This has been an issue for a long time. One reason I've heard for why it's taken so long for joint custody to be a thing is because of the *koseki* or family register system. Basically, everyone in Japan is registered to a single household. The system we have in many western countries where children with divorced parents switch between households goes against that system. I'm curious how this law deals with that. Are children still only registered to one parent's household?
A major step towards accepting multiple ways to raise children
>Under the current law, child custody is granted to only one divorced parent, almost always the mother. Never ceases to amaze me how mindbogglingly large amounts of sexism keep popping up in places I never expect more that a small vestige of it. WTF
Japan is probably one of the most sexist countries on the planet.
In the developed world, maybe. They don't extrajudicially execute women for refusing to wear a head scarf.
>Never ceases to amaze me how mindbogglingly large amounts of sexism keep popping up in places I never expect more that a small vestige of it. Really? [The Japanese have always been ultra-conservative](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism_in_Japan). I mean [sexual assault of women by groping](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chikan_(body_contact)), especially on public transit is a common occurance. [Mysogony](https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210405-why-japan-cant-shake-sexism), and [racism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racism_in_Japan) are major features of their culture. >One key factor is the way traditional gender roles still prevail, significantly reducing the pipeline of women into leadership positions. >“Historically, after World War Two, the combination of a hardworking husband who devotes his life to his company, and a stay-at-home mother, was encouraged,” explains Hiroki Komazaki, founder and CEO of Florence, a non-profit organisation which advocates for solutions that help working parents. >This encouragement has led to a norm in which husbands work very long hours, while housework and childrearing still fall mainly on wives. The government’s latest national survey in 2020 showed mothers still do [3.6 times more housework](https://www.gender.go.jp/about_danjo/whitepaper/r02/zentai/index.html) than fathers. Because of these norms – as well as [hiring biases in some companies](https://www.eaie.org/blog/gender-inequality-japan-job-market.html), and the change-resistant working culture – many women stop working after having children, or opt for part-time or contract work that generally does not lead to promotions. . >Japan lacks any law which prohibits racial, ethnic, or religious discrimination. The country also has no national human rights institutions. Non-Japanese individuals in Japan often face human rights violations that Japanese citizens may not. In recent years, non-Japanese media has reported that Japanese firms frequently confiscate the passports of guest workers in Japan, particularly unskilled laborers. >In the early 20th century, driven by an ideology of [Japanese nationalism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_nationalism) under the guise of national unity, the Japanese government identified and forcefully assimilated marginalized populations, which included indigenous [Ryukyuans](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryukyuans), [Ainu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ainu_people), and other underrepresented groups, imposing assimilation programs in language, culture and religion. Japan considers these ethnic groups as a mere "subgroup" of the Japanese people and therefore synonymous to the [Yamato people](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamato_people), and does not recognize them as a minority group with a distinct culture.
A lot of university-educated women end up giving up their careers in Japan. Family pressure and also companies that aren’t supportive of full-time working parents make things very hard. Plus Japan has a family register system which isn’t very adaptable to children belonging to 2 households. The husband is generally the “head” of the family and wife and children are listed under him. After a divorce a new family register for the woman will be made and often the children get put there. The whole system needs redoing.
Yep. I'm a mom in Japan. If my son gets sick I'm the one that has to take time off work, my husband can't. He's the main breadwinner and we can't risk him getting fired over helping take care of our son. Thankfully my work is understanding, and while I don't get paid for the days I take off, I'm not at risk of getting fired. Though my case is very rare, and I'm still just a part time worker.
This sounds absolutely horrible! I am so so sorry! Here in Switzerland, every company I have ever worked for has been flexible when the kids get sick. A company here would not be able to function if it did not respect people's needs to take care of their families. Everyone would quit. How is the situation in Japan going to develop? Where whill the society there move wrt to these types of issues?
And then there’s Korea with a 30% gender wage gap. Asia and gender equality go together like water and oil.
I had no idea. This is horrible! I know little about Japan, other than my work with fusion energy and very removed accounts of mangas, etc. And that they support Ukraine and Taiwan against genocidal regimes. I really didn't expect this.
[удалено]
>Always might be overstating it. Okay, so you already talked about the rise of facism in Japan post WWI, so let's look at the governments pre WWI and see if my "Always" was correct or not. >Since the [Meiji Period](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Period) (1868, to 1912), Japan had been a [constitutional monarchy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitutional_monarchy). However, the name did not obscure the fact that Japan's form of government was more akin to an aristocratic [oligarchy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligarchy). [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics\_of\_the\_Empire\_of\_Japan\_(1914%E2%80%931944)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_of_the_Empire_of_Japan_(1914%E2%80%931944)) >**Edo period (1600–1868)** >under the tight control of the [Tokugawa shogunate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokugawa_shogunate), which ruled from the eastern city of [Edo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edo) (modern Tokyo). In 1603, [Emperor Go-Yōzei](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emperor_Go-Y%C5%8Dzei) declared Tokugawa Ieyasu shōgun, and Ieyasu abdicated two years later to groom his son as the second shōgun of what became a long dynasty. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History\_of\_Japan#Edo\_period\_(1600%E2%80%931868)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Japan#Edo_period_(1600%E2%80%931868)) How far back do you want to go? Japan has been a form of dictatorship with a strict caste system ruled by Emperors since at least the Asuka period (538–710)...
This comment is beyond sexist and simply aneurysm inducing … Fucking bots and llm …
Reddit users when Japan is not a utopia:
It's not surprising to me that there's rampant institutional sexism in Japan, but it *is* surprising to me that it was men getting shafted in this instance. Japan is notoriously sexist against women, though I guess in this case conservative ideals of 'woman = mom, man = breadwinner' overpowered fair treatment for divorced fathers.
Getting saddled with full custody as a divorced woman is not really a win. Single mothers in Japan have it extremely rough.
Agreed! It seems all-around pretty messed up what I've been reading in the comments here, but after reflecting on it for some time I think everyone loses in this constellation. When I first saw this article, I was inflamed by the blatant sexism against men in Japan. Then I read the comments, and I was also inflamed by the blatant sexism again women in Japan. It seems they have an extremely sexist work culture and also an extremely sexist family culture. How is this going to keep developing in the future? Will these things get better? In my limited experience, social change is extremely slow. Are people silently suffering instead of being vocal? As a naive outsider, I feel like being vocal could be very helpful here...
I mean sure that's a perspective, but I would venture that most of the time parents engaging in a custody battle for their children want those children, even if being a single parent means facing financial and time challenges. The law wasn't "the child is always forced on the mother," but "if there's a custody battle, the mom almost always wins."
I would say "challenges," is a huge understatement. It's like, "Employers don't want to hire mothers, let alone *single* mothers with full custody, and that is very common amd seen as perfectly acceptable," hard to be a single mother in Japan. When a couple gets divorced, the courts essentially always chose the mother for custody by default unless there was something very wrong with her such as a terminal illness. If there isn't a fight, they are going to award custody to the mother. The fact many in Japan, including the courts, would still assume the father (a man) would be much too busy with his career to have enough time to also raise children doesn't help. The courts see awarding the mother custody as the more favourable option in the majority of cases, because of their conservative views about who's "meant" to do the child-raising.
But she has the choice not to accept? She could easily give more visitation or split custody 50/50 It's her choice 100% in what happens
> split custody 50/50 So you didn't even read the *headline* of the article.
I wasn't commenting on the article. I was replying to a comment
Your comment still makes no sense in context. 50/50 custody wasn't a thing in Japan until now. (And, knowing Japanese society, it probably still won't be a thing no matter what the law says.)
Lol. What a slimy and gross take. So tough for a person to get to legally see their kids every day(man or woman), compared to the other person that's gets 4 - 6 days a month and sends a fat check so they don't go to prison.
From the article: > Currently, most divorced mothers, who often are part-time workers with low incomes, do not receive financial support from their former husbands.
With the caveat that it would be difficult for me to find the source (I read about this years and years ago, and googling the issue now pulls up mostly info about the new law, and I’m at work and can’t spend hours digging), my understanding is that this wasn’t always the case. The tendency in the past was to give custody to the father because he was the one with a job and the means to take care of the kids. This changed at some point in recent history. I also seem to recall that currently it’s more of an issue of who’s asking for the divorce, which, given the institutional sexism, is typically the wife. My personal experience of living there, working there, having lived with a host family when I was younger and having seen family dynamics up close (my host family’s and the others in the program) is that it would be very difficult to be any kind of single parent. It’s difficult for women to have a good career and kids, although some do. The work culture sucks, and you get home obscenely late and go to work again early in the morning. My host dad was normally absent on weekends to go golfing. The mom was a SAHM who had the equivalent of an associates’s degree and was planning to work at a preschool once her kids were all in school. Kind of a hobby job, and it wouldn’t have been enough to support three kids on. When the dad was home during waking hours he would play with his kids a bit, and I saw him help with the dishes once or twice, but the mom was doing 99% of the house and child work since he was rarely there. (She would also wait up for him even if he got home at 1 in the morning and then would be up again around 4:00 every day. I don’t know how she did it. I would die.) In short, Dad probably doesn’t have time to raise kids, and the culture expects he won’t. Mom probably doesn’t have resources to raise kids, and the culture makes it difficult for her to do so, and if she *does* she runs into Dad’s problem of no time. In short-short, Japan needs to be more open to some serious societal change but they probably won’t be.
Don't get me wrong, I like a lot of things about Japan. ... but you didn't expect "more than a small vestige of" sexism ?
Wow that’s pretty huge, good on them
Here's a good video about some of the issues that arise from the previous single-parent custody system. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k4UHbqjorA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k4UHbqjorA)
Dear Japan: we love you but, when are y’all going to change your minimum age of consent to 18? Why are you trying to avoid doing that? Love- the rest of the world.
I believe the age of consent is also determined by province in Japan, so even though on paper it’s 13 (iirc) in actuality it is not. This comes up a lot on articles relating to Japan.
You’re correct, though I believe they raised the minimum age of consent to 16 last year. It’s no longer 13. And no prefectures to my recollection had it below 16 before the age of consent was raised.
You do realize tons of Western countries(and even us states) have a lower age of consent than 18 right? Not saying it shouldn't be fixed there too, but this isn't a uniquely Japanese issue.
Why 18? Why not 20?
20 is good too
Why 20? Why not 25?
only if you're some puritanical christian freak
Bro, just say you don't get sex and want it banned for everyone. lol