November 30, 2016

Akahata ‘Morning breeze’ column

Getting together to talk about the Constitution at cafés in various locations in Japan has been attracting many women to participate. The topic that dominates their conversations in particular is article 24 of the Liberal Democratic Party draft constitution. The existing Constitution guarantees sexual equality in Article 24, but the LDP draft adds, “Families shall help each other,” to the text.

“Why is it that the LDP has taken the trouble to add this sentence to the text?” “We already bear the heavy responsibility of domestic work, childrearing, and taking care of our aging parents,” “It is always us, women, who are compelled to leave our jobs or limit the amount of time working because of the shortage of children’s daycare centers and care homes for the elderly. If forced to do more to help, I might no longer be able to bear the burden,” and “I feel this revised article doesn’t respect women who choose not to have a family.” These are just a small example of sentiments expressed in their conversations. They have plenty to say on family matters such as marriage relationships, imbalanced sharing of housework chores between partners, nursing of elderly parents, and the worries about unmarried children.

The Japanese Constitution, in the first place, is the country’s Supreme Law established to limit the power of the government. In this context, the LDP draft constitution which obliges added social responsibilities to individual persons cannot actually be a supreme law. Given that article 83 of the LDP draft constitution stipulates the need for sound fiscal administration, the central government under the LDP constitution may possibly abandon its responsibility in the near future to build children’s daycare facilities or elderly’s nursing homes due to the dire financial situation and may claim that families are responsible for rearing children and caring for aged parents.

The prewar family system is supposedly abolished, but the LDP constitution forces married couples to have the same family name and implicitly obliges women to carry out duties as compliant daughters-in-law, wives, and mothers. Many Japanese women are fed up with all these family duties. What they do expect from the government is not the imposition of more duties but for it to sincerely listen to their expectations and demands.