Keith's Web Blog RSS Feed en-us http://www.keithwatanabe.net/index.php Keith Watanabe's Website Three Types of Japanese Women http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/1/18/8c8b5f995d7e57f8794451043b23fc12.html

The Weak Woman

This "type" has been the stereotypical image of women in Japan for centuries. Women should not work, women should have kids, women should be at home, etc. One of the persistent issues in my office (in being a Japanese company) is that management wants highly obedient women. I think they're kinda scared about maintaining the status quo in the office, the harmonious balance that Japanese falsely perceive as being a stable state. In particular, the subject of women and their roles came up. For the ideal office of management to exist, they need that stability and the submissive state for women. It's kinda sad in some ways. There's a few women in the office that fit this image/role. Funny thing is that I like those women the best.

The Strong Woman

This topic came out when they mentioned some Japanese word for describing the condition of women that travel abroad and come back with a totally different attitude. In other words, for the Western world at least, women are normal and have equal roles as men. Or at least they deign to attempt to achieve such things. These types of verbially unabashed in telling people their viewpoints. For the perpetually afraid Japanese, these women pose a terrible threat to the structure of Japanese society.

When I worked at Nikko Citigroup, there were quite a few of these types involved. The strongest had excellent English skills, having studied either in the US, England, Canada, or Australia. The worst of these people studied in England or the US and were extremely abrasive, rude and overly egotistical. Some of these people were incredibly ambitious, conniving and backstabbing. There were five in particular that were the typical high maintenance types in a securities firm. If you weren't a director making over $200k/year, you weren't worthy of their low attention span. Honestly, that even some of my American female friends would want to be around these people with all their hideous rumor mongering, political infiltration to get to the next level. It reminded me of that part in Swimming with Sharks where Kevin Spacy talked about this writer who managed to sleep her way to the top. Clearly, I doubt many people if they found out the true nature of these women would ever want to spend time with them in the end.

The Middle Tier

My friend classified herself as this and I have to agree on that self-assessment. This tier is a well balanced type of person, taking from both sides the good and some of the bad. In her case, she's opinionated, somewhat career driven, yet mindful enough other people. She's a nice welcome compared to women who have no personalities and no opinions on things vs the women who only care about getting their next Gucci purse to brag to their friends.

For myself, although I like the submissive types, in that probably for my warped mental state they would be best for me, I think the middle tier women would be the best types to have in a long term relationship at least for me. On the one hand, the submissive types are more like having a mom around; I tend to find these types at the 35+ age mark. Very family/marriage oriented and they can do a good job at home. The middle tiered women I think have a lot of potential for growth in a positive manner. They aren't so spoiled by getting what they want all the time, yet they're curious about the world and want to be fulfilled in more ways than how Japanese society has programmed them.

In a good relationship, I believe that people can maintain it through growing with each other; there has to be a willingness between each partner to want to develop themselves. When I watched my parents as I grew up, they never grew. So it was like they had a one time relationship and mutually agreed to live with each other. I found that to be sad and realized that to avoid such a situation, I'd need to find a partner that is more than just sex, or money, or something which won't keep my interest in them. In my mind, I can calculate whether or not a relationship has any long term potential; I just see what can happen in 10-20 years, which will be some of the most critical times in having a relationship like that.

Of course, I do ask other important questions like whether or not my dick will be happy. But I learned that having a happy dick is only half of the equation. The mind, the body and soul also have to be stimulated.]]> Fri, 18 Jan 2008 21:54:07 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/1/18/8c8b5f995d7e57f8794451043b23fc12.html