The Land od the Rising Yen

minority — refuse to be told by their parents whom they are to
marry; and young men, too, silently refuse to accept their parents’ choice.
Today, as likely as not, they will obey their firm’s orders instead: one group
replaces the other. The firm is a reactionary influence but not quite so
reactionary as the family, which is not only a closed, incestuous entity, not
only one of the most conservative of forces, but also, and obviously, the
paradigm of the hereditary principle.
    The more spirited and adventurous
women revolt more or less openly — and many of them do not even have to revolt
because their husbands dislike the old feudal ways as much as they do. But,
even today, the revolutionaries are the exception. People, on the whole, do not
really want freedom: indeed, they run away from it. Freedom means
responsibility — one of the most terrifying things in the world, hence the
success of religions, of the communist parties and of the various Hitlers of
the various ages. Usually it is a few outstanding, admirable individuals who
force freedom on an unwilling mob, which is always ready to pay lip-service to
the idea but does not want it in practice. British and American suffragettes
met as much opposition from women as from men; the majority of Swiss women
still do not want the vote (Japanese women, as I have said before, have it);
and there are many Negroes who oppose all civil-rights movements.
    Yet Japanese women have another, more
powerful motive for the fight than the desire for freedom.
    Household work in Japan used to be heavier than in Europe and much heavier than in the United States. It is true that
there is less furniture in the house, but putting away the heavy mats every
morning and dragging them out every evening is heavier work than making the bed
in our way. Cooking, too, means an enormous amount of fiddling work in
antiquated kitchens, and the innumerable tiny dishes do not make washing up any
easier. (Any husband would, of course, roar with laughter at the mere idea that
he might help.) Shopping is easier because everything is sent home free of
charge. But the poorer woman’s life used to be drudgery, and the richerwoman’s
complete boredom. The latter had servants and all Japanese women — rich and
poor — are exempt from one duty: entertaining at home. Women are often alone
during long evenings while their husbands are working hard for promotion in
first-class restaurants, night-clubs and geisha-houses, often until the early
hours of the morning, poor fellows.
    Nowadays, however, more and more
women are relieved from the drudgery. Husbands, perhaps with slightly uneasy
consciences, are quite happy to buy washing machines, washing-up machines and
all sort of new gadgets, not realizing that their generosity, instead of
appeasing their wives, turns them into rebels. Drudgery they used to accept as
their inevitable lot; increased boredom they refuse to put up with. They suffer
intensely from it, and although the innumerable channels of Japanese television
may alleviate it, they cannot eliminate it. A noble desire for freedom will
move only a few; a desire to escape boredom is creating a mass movement.
     
    The brave ones rebel, the spirited
ones want a change, but the truly cunning ones know that their situation is not
half as bad as it seems. It is true that the man gets all the bows and enjoys
many outward signs of respect, but he is like a constitutional monarch: he
walks on red carpets all his life, enjoys the trimmings of power but has very
little of the substance. He reigns, perhaps, but he does not rule. It is the
little, oppressed, obsequious female who wields the real power. As a Japanese
friend told me ruefully: ‘I’ll tell you a secret: Japan is, in fact, a
matriarchy. Worse than the United States.’
    That poor little oppressed woman in
the background holds the reins and is, very frequently, a formidable
personality. It is she who makes all the decisions concerning the household and
the house, about the children’s education, about the children's marriages (as
far as they will listen) and — most important of all — she is the family
treasurer; her fingers are on the purse strings and thus on the levers of real
power.
    The extent of female power is borne
out by the birth of a new industry, unique to Japan. It is the false pay-packet
industry. Millions of Japanese men — the great majority of them — have no
access to the expense accounts racket and they would like to