Failure of Women-Centred Initiatives in Japan: A Case Study

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Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author name:

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Introduction:
Gender is socially constructed and created concept that has no relationship with the
biological features and attribute of human being. (Ponthieux & Meurs, 2015). From the point of
view of a sociologist, gender is the distinction between biological sex and gender are the result of
the ways society portray biological differences in making society productive . The term gender-
based distortion is considered as gender-based equality which defined by a state of equality
where men and women have the equal access to the resources. The resources also include the
economic resources, rights of decision making as well as the state of valuing different kinds of
behaviour irrespective of genders. The concept is coming from a root where both men and
women are free to make their choices and established their personality irrespective of the
stereotypes of the society (Snipp & Cheung 2016). Over the few recent years, the world has
witnessed of the gender inequality where women experience bias treatment. Several
developments were made in the recent ear where women based initiates were taken to reduce the
prevalence of gender inequality. However, the gender equality is yet to be reached in different
first world countries such as Asian countries and Japan is no exception of it. Despite being one of
the highest economic countries, there is a high prevalence of gender inequality exists in Japan
(Fincher, 2016). The prime reason behind it is that gender norms still exist in the society which
affected the point of view of individuals. Consequently, women have to experience a series of
different events which affected their personal life. These norms, not only affected women but
also hinders further prosperity of Japan (Okoshi et al. 2014). This paper will illustrate the failure
of women-centred development initiatives with the assistance of the two case studies and
initiatives to reduce the issues.

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Analysis of the issues:
Sex and genders are primary cultural categories which form a framework for the social
relations of individuals. These cultural frames influence beliefs and values that in turn give rise
to inequality (Abraham, 2015). From the point of the anthropologists, it was found out that in
the historical era, the society had a tendency of demeaning women and in some societies, they
consider women as a slave of men due to biological differences (Youm & Yamaguchi 2016).
History also highlighted the discouraging nature of the society in the matter of women where
they consider women as a vulnerable and under qualities part of the society and therefore deprive
of the integration in the economy of the country (Ponthieux & Meurs 2015). Although women
cantered initiatives are taken which overcome gender-based distortions, many cases represent the
complete failure of these initiatives (Connell, 2016). Two of such cases observed in the Japan
which represents the failure of women-centred initiatives for overcoming gender-based
distortions.
The first selected case has pointed out how sexual discrimination that is taking place at
the government medical university of Japan not only impacted the women’s integration in the
economy but also affect the culture and position of Japan worldwide (Asada, 2018). Medical
school discrimination went beyond gender in Japan and Japan ranked worst in case of the female
doctor, approximately 20% of the female of Japan are doctors compared to Australia which
stands at 39.4 % (Chiavacci & Hommerich 2016). The selected case is based on women in
Japan who appeared for the medical entrance and failed to get the admission into the Tokyo
University twice after years of hard work which left her devastated. After internal investigations
by Tokyo Medical University (TMU), it was found out that the student was failed because she
had the stereotypical gender tag which is a tag of being a woman (Sernau, 2016). The
investigation revealed that it was a deliberate act where the university authorities systematically

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marked down all female applicants in order to limit the number of women who are the student at
the university. This case had attracted a lot of attention from the higher authorities of the
governing body. The case study highlighted that senior Tokyo medical university officials
wanted to keep the ratio of women to men at 30 percent since they believed that women would
take a longer period of time to complete a course and eventually leave after childbirth and
marriage. Consequently, it is leaving the countries shortage of potential doctor. Therefore, it
reflects the personal values and beliefs of the Tokyo officials. Initially, when the issue
highlighted, the officials denied this factor of gender inequality (Asada, 2018). The revelation of
Tokyo medical university sparked on education ministry investigations into the sectors where the
investigations revealed that these deliberate acts of marked down women were a frequent act in
other universities and schools of Japan. The ministry investigation was conducted in 81 medical
schools and found out that the discriminations also found in other universities. Juntendo
University had the highest gap between male and female (Nemoto, 2016). These highlighted
cases affected the governing bodies of Japan and strict legislation was imposed on the medical
universities for the entrance exam where the equality should be the prime requirement. The
further report of the investigation revealed that despite failing in the medial entrance of Tokyo
University, the subsequent emotional low suffered by that student, she turned her disappointment
around and got admission in the prestigious public medical school.
The gender inequality was a well-known problem that was observed in Japan in other
cases as well. According to research international and foreign students who are living in Japan,
they are facing many issues regarding sexual harassment that have been overlooked by tourists in
Japan (Heinrich, 2016). Sexual harassment is one of the powerful issues that highlighted the
prevalence of gender inequality in Japan. A narrative was published in Japanese's article which