POLL - 81% back idea of Japan having female emperor

From Kyodo News: 

A whopping 81.9 percent of respondents to a Kyodo News survey over the weekend said they are in favor of the idea of Japan having a female emperor, while 13.5 percent indicated they are opposed.

Concerns persist over the stability of Japan's imperial succession, as the 1947 Imperial House Law stipulates that only males of the patrilineage can ascend the throne.

Following the enthronement of Emperor Naruhito, 59, the family now has only three heirs -- the emperor's younger brother Crown Prince Fumihito, 53; the crown prince's son Prince Hisahito, 13; and Prince Hitachi (Masahito), 83, the uncle of the emperor.

Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako have a daughter -- Princess Aiko, 17 -- and there are other females in the imperial family, but the Imperial House Law requires women to abandon their imperial status after marrying commoners. 

Regarding whether to allow heirs of female lineage to ascend the throne, 70.0 percent in the poll supported the idea, while 21.9 percent were against it.

read more here @ Kyodo News

450-Year-Old Book Reveals What to Name a Baby Samurai

From Live Science:

What should you name a baby samurai? What food should a samurai bring to a battle? What is a samurai's most treasured possession? A newly translated 450-year-old book supposedly written by a renowned samurai provides answers to these and many other questions about the Japanese swordsmen.

Called "The Hundred Rules of War," the book is a series of songs that could be sung by samurai, who had never gone into battle. It was supposedly written in Japanese in 1571 by a famous samurai named Tsukahara Bokuden, who lived from 1489 to 1571, during a war-ridden time in Japan. Stories told about Bokuden claim that he fought in over 100 battles and slew hundreds of swordsmen.

The book was recently translated into English by Eric Shahan, who specializes in translating Japanese martial-arts texts. The book was first printed in Japanese in 1840, and has been republished in Japanese several times since then, Shahan told Live Science.

read more here @ Live Science

The Cunning Female Demons and Ghosts of Ancient Japan

The Cunning Female Demons and Ghosts of Ancient Japan | Broadly

What seems to trap a woman between this life and the beyond is the anguish of being hurt by those closest to her.

Japanese folklore glitters with powerful female spirits and demons who terrorize the living. The common theme of their lives and deaths is transgression: philandering husbands, murdered children, or a family's shame.

These spirits often seek vengeance, typically from anything they encounter. While some have the ability to kill, others will simply watch the objects of their disaffection suffer and die. The curse of the vengeful ghost can become contagious like a disease, and can even infect an area after the ghost has left.

What seems to trap a woman between this life and the beyond is the anguish of being hurt by those closest to her.

Change For Japanese Royal Women

From the Examiner:

The Japanese government is reportedly considering some significant changes to Imperial House Law. Specifically, they are looking at an ancient law which stipulates that if a woman in the royal family marries a commoner she is no longer an official member of the royal family.

Currently, there are only seven men out of a 23 member royal family, and five of those men are over the age of 60. The aging of the men, and the marrying of the women, present a major hurdle in keeping up with their public duties. The remaining men in the family just simply could not complete the number of engagements they currently do, without women to assist them. The anxiety around the issue has only increased with the recent hospitalization of the Emperor. Changes look likely to happen, and the most immediate effect will be to TIH Princesses Mako and Kako, both unmarried daughters of TIH Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko. Changes would also affect HIH Princess Aiko, 9 but obviously she is a ways from marrying age. Aiko remains the only child of TIH Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako and is not in line to inherit the throne due to the succession laws in Japan. There is currently not push to change the law since the birth of Prince Hisahito has slotted him as third in line behind his uncle and father.

Japan: Wives Final Revolt

From the Bellingham Herald:

For centuries in this male-dominated society, women have been guided by the concept of ie, or household, in which wives are bound to their in-laws for life - and beyond.

Formally abolished at the end of World War II, the system has hung on in many parts of Japan. Yet quality-of-life changes here, including climbing divorce rates, higher education levels and increased geographic and social mobility among women, mean many are now thumbing their nose at a tradition that often forces a lifelong divorce from their own families.

"Women are rebelling against the idea of being buried for eternity with people they didn't even like that much in life. They see it as a form of eternal torture," said Yoriko Meguro, a sociologist at Tokyo's Sophia University and former Japanese representative to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. "The refusal to be buried in the husband's ancestral plot is the last stand against traditional family confinement."

At Aoyama cemetery, one of Tokyo's largest public burial grounds, new sections are reserved for people who want to be buried alone or with a spouse, unconnected to larger family sites.

Activists say the burial requirement is one of many outdated responsibilities women are forced to shoulder within the Japanese family structure. Many must perform duties such as caring for their in-laws.

Some of those traditions are also being challenged. In February, six women filed a lawsuit fighting a 113-year-old civil law that precludes brides from keeping their surnames when they marry, insisting that the law violates their right to equality.

Hideko Takamine - Gone But Not Forgotten

From The Age:

OVER the course of nearly 200 films, Hideko Takamine, developed from an endearing child star into an actress who powerfully represented the Japanese woman's search for identity and autonomy in the years after World War II. She has died in Tokyo of lung cancer, aged 86.

Takamine, who often seemed to be gallantly fighting back tears with her famously gentle smile, was widely regarded by Japanese and foreign critics as one of the three great actresses of the classical Japanese cinema.

Her two peers were the aristocratic Kinuyo Tanaka, who worked extensively with the director Kenji Mizoguchi and Setsuko Hara, whose portrayals of modern middle-class women were associated with the films of Yasujiro Ozu (Tokyo Story).

Takamine was most notably the muse of Mikio Naruse, who, although not as well known a director in the west as Mizoguchi and Ozu, is frequently ranked as equally important in Japanese film history. For Naruse, Takamine often played women from rural or lower-middle-class backgrounds who were forced to make their own way in the world, often saddled with weak or unfaithful men.

Kazumi Inamura: Japan's Youngest Female Mayor

From Asia One News:

Kazumi Inamura saw her husband off to the construction materials company he runs Monday morning, and took their 5-year-old daughter to nursery school. She then bicycled to work, her first commute as the youngest female mayor in the history of this country.

Just 38 years old, Inamura was elected mayor of Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, in November.

Describing herself as a "mom mayor," she said she wants to "fully utilise my experiences as a housewife to improve our city's measures to help residents raise children and care for the elderly."

Inamura became a member of the Hyogo Prefectural Assembly in 2003, and was elected the nation's youngest ever female mayor on Nov 21.

The previous record was held by Kaori Ito, the current mayor of Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, who took up her post in 2008 at the age of 41.

Japan: Female Life Expectancy Rises

From the Global Times:

Japanese women have held the record for the world's longest life expectancy for 25 years in a row, with an average life span of 86.44 years as of 2009, the health and welfare ministry said Monday, as the country struggles to cope with rising welfare costs in a rapidly aging society.

Life expectancy in Japan rose for the fourth straight year in 2009. Japanese men's average life expectancy came fifth globally with 79.59 years. Average life spans rose by almost five months for women and nearly four months for men, compared with the previous year.

The ministry attributed the extension of life spans to improved treatment of the three major causes of death among Japanese - cancer, cardiac disorders and strokes - as well as pneumonia.

Japan: Legends of the Deep

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

THE elderly women sit in a semicircle by a smouldering fire, warming up after diving for shellfish delicacies in the cool waters off the coast of Toba in Japan. These women, called ama - Japanese for women of the sea - are part of a tradition spanning thousands of years. Their diving practice is mentioned in ancient classical literature and there's a reference to ama dating back to AD927 in Japan's Heian period.

Toba, at the north-eastern end of the Shima Peninsula in Mie Prefecture, once flourished as the castle town of the Kuki family, who ruled the region from the 16th century. Today, with its many offshore islands, Toba is a popular holiday destination for beach-goers, surfers and seafood lovers.

Japan: Comfort Women Bill

From the Japan Times:

The new administration must ensure the Diet passes a bill recognizing the women forced into sexual slavery for the Japanese military during the war if it is to form the East Asian Community proposed by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, nine ruling party lawmakers said Wednesday.

"If we don't solve this problem, it would be impossible for Japan to speak out to East Asia on an equal standing," Megumu Tsuji of the Democratic Party of Japan said at a meeting attended by a former "comfort woman."

Since the early 1990s, some former sex slaves, known euphemistically in Japan as comfort women, have filed lawsuits demanding an apology and direct compensation from the government.

Japan: Women to Keep Maiden Names

From Anna Kitanaka @ Bloomberg:

Japan’s government plans to submit legislation as early as next year to allow married women to keep their maiden names, the Yomiuri newspaper reported, citing unidentified government officials.

The bill will enable married couples to use separate surnames and children will be able to choose the surname of either parent, the Yomiuri said.

The change will make it easier for women in the workplace as more married females take up employment, the newspaper said in a separate article.