Why Japan can't shake sexism

Having been to japan many times and experienced the culture, its undeniable how low the glass ceiling is in japan. But Ive had a few very enlightening conversations with Japanese women who want more opportunities, but at the same time are not envious of Japanese men. Its interesting to note how ridiculously high expectations are on men. If you are a man, you are expected to work around the clock, and tow the company line, and have no other life. Women have leisure and social lives, and men don't. Its reflected in the consumer culture as so much advertising is geared towards women. In some areas, the street-life is dominated by women and youth, where as men are expected to work.

You get the feeling that, more then any other place I know, the gender disparity, really hurts everyone.

One factor not mentioned in the article is how highly gendered Japanese as a language has been since the 1800s. There are almost parallel sets of ways of speaking for men and women with different vocabulary for the most commonly used words. This tends to force women into more deferential language, but it has slowly been changing with the younger generations.