Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 8, 1993 TAG: 9307080116
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB DEANS COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: TOKYO LENGTH: Medium
"How do the American people think about Mrs. Hillary Clinton acting or making political speeches in official situations?"
The president, his town hall instincts engaged, spun out a reply that would have served him well on any talk show in America. In Japan, it brought down the house.
"Most of the people who say that my wife shouldn't be doing this really disagree with our position," he said, dispensing with the matter of the first lady, for the moment, to move quickly to the core of a much larger issue confronting Japan.
"It seems to me that your country will have to take advantage of the brains and the education and the skills and the capacities of women in order to be what you ought to be and do what you have to do," Clinton said.
And with that, Hillary Rodham Clinton strode up to the podium to stand alongside her husband, America's First Couple looking the very portrait of youthful partnership, amid the spontaneous applause of several hundred university youths and the quieter approval of untold millions more in living rooms and kitchens across Japan.
That the Clintons' strong endorsement of the professional woman should strike a chord in Japan is no surprise.
Despite steady gains over the past two decades, women continue to be taken far less seriously in the Japanese workplace, and to earn less, than their male counterparts.
Foreign visitors are typically stunned to visit Japanese business offices and find themselves being served coffee or green tea by a subservient young woman, who often holds a college degree.
Likewise, the wives of prominent men in Japan remain very much in the background where they are rarely seen, much less heard.
Which might explain why Hillary Clinton, one of the world's best known feminists, has caused such a stir here. Aside from the wife of lame duck Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa, who is the host of the three-day economic summit, she is the only spouse to accompany any of the world leaders to Japan.
She has tried not to steal the show. Most of her appearances have been closed to reporters, or the media have been kept at a distance.
Still, her presence has dominated television newscasts and sparked discussion across Japan about the role of women in society. She has also inspired younger Japanese women.
"I'm just glad to be alive," gushed 13-year-old Yasuko Onuma, who saw Hillary Clinton at the museum.
"Hillary Clinton is a role model for me," a thrilled Takekura told reporters after posing her query at Waseda University. "When I asked my question, my legs were shaking."
Part of the reason that women struggle in Japan is cultural.
"In Japan, there are many people who think that women should not work, have a job, especially after marriage," Takekura explained to President Clinton.
Indeed, in a survey published last month by the prime minister's office, two-thirds of the men questioned said women belong at home instead of in the workplace. Perhaps even more surprising, 56 percent of the women surveyed agreed.
Those attitudes are changing, however - but slowly.
Only 8.2 percent of Japan's administrative and managerial slots are held by women, compared with 42 percent in the United States, the Japanese Ministry of Labor reports.
One reason has to do with educational levels. Only 5.8 percent of Japan's working women hold college degrees. The vast majority, 77.1 percent, are high school or junior college graduates.
by CNB