Japanese are Like That. Ichiro Kawasaki

certain amount of money, either from old age insurance or in some form of savings. However, we in Japan would believe that as such women grow older they would inevitably become lonesome, restless, and even hysterical. Their unhappiness would be further aggravated by the need to be careful in spending money. Since the keynote of Western society is individualism, such situations as this are no doubt taken for granted. To me, however, a Japanese widow looks infinitely happier, surrounded by her children and grandchildren. She is usually beaming with contentment and happiness, secure in the knowledge that none of her offspring will desert her, even until the very day she breathes her last.

      Six years of Allied Occupation had a salutary effect on the relationship between the sexes in Japan. I believe that millions are grateful for the change. Coeducation has been encouraged, and young women are mixing more freely and naturally with men. More and more young men are finding their wives among their own circle of girl friends, and such marriages, as far as can be judged thus far, have been largely successful. No longer are a couple walking arm in arm down the street frowned upon, nor does their act evoke the curious stares and disapproving grimaces of passers-by, as in prewar years.

      Women's suffrage was finally put into practice after the war. Women before took little interest in their own government; in some cases, none at all. When women voted in the general election for the first time in 1946, there was a certain misunderstanding: many voters, particularly in rural areas, had the mistaken idea that women had to vote for women candidates and that men voted for men. Such laughable misconceptions, however, no longer exist, and the turn-out of women voters in recent elections has been as good as that of men.

      There has been a marked increase in the number of women working in governmental offices and in the professions, in competition with men. This is a result mainly of the economic difficulties experienced by many households in postwar years. However, there is a definite and encouraging sign that women are demanding and obtaining equal rights with men. It now appears that emancipation of women is well on the way to achievement.