Why write about Japanese women?
I had gone to Japan for the first time as a fellow at Newsweek in 1999, and like a lot of people I was really surprised. It would be all men in a (business setting), and if there was a woman in the room, she was there to pour tea. I always thought of (Japan) as like The Jetsons, with how modern it was. I hadn’t really studied the culture to understand how traditional it was. But now, it’s like the 1970s (in the United States). There is a change for women, but it’s really, really far behind, in terms of the U.S. Japan is so technologically advanced, and Japanese business practices are thought to be very forward-thinking. I just assumed they would be advanced in terms of gender. Q: What did you know about the current state of women in Japan before researching your book? A: I knew there were a lot of these things happening – there was all the stuff with the Yamamba girls (who wear extreme makeup and blond, blond hair), and the signs in the subway that said “No Touching.” There was a huge
