“Men are Worried”

About 30 years ago, when I first became a newspaper reporter, I admired my senior male colleagues who were calm, composed, and resolute in standing up to politicians and other powers. In my 30s, I was assigned to a weekly magazine with a large male readership. There, I witnessed men—whom I had assumed were dominant and strong in society—actually harboring various worries at work and at home, suffering because they could not confide in anyone. This deeply moved me. It was the beginning of my journey to explore the essence of the difficulties men face in life.

More than 20 years have passed since then. During this time, my experience of restarting my research at Keio University and refining my survey and analysis methods has been invaluable. I was awarded a doctoral degree and became a university faculty member several years ago. To date, I have conducted continuous interviews with individuals for up to 22 years, and the number of subjects in my longitudinal study exceeds 500 men alone.

In this book, I address the problems men face at various milestones in their lives—from romance and marriage to raising children, the competition for promotion, caring for elderly parents or wives, and life after retirement—and analyze the social factors involved.

One man from the "employment ice age" generation honed his professional skills, fueled by the frustration of not being chosen by women due to his low income. He finally secured a regular position at age 43, but soon became increasingly anxious that he would be unable to be promoted due to the handicap of his many years of non-regular employment. Another man, who lost out in the competition for promotion, tried to find his self-worth by participating in childcare and seeking his wife's approval. However, the excessive stress of being a reluctant "masked stay-at-home dad" led him to commit child abuse.

At the root of their difficulties are fixed gender norms of "masculinity," such as the ideas that "one must succeed and gain social recognition" and "one must be the economic and emotional pillar for one's wife and children."

Due to changes in economic and social structures, an increasing number of men are unable to embody traditional norms of "masculinity" and suffer under the stigma of being "failures." They are individuals on the oppressed side of the spectrum.

Gender equality is necessary for men as well. While women have been oppressed for many years, men have also been forced to work long hours and sacrifice their private lives, while being subjected to harsh public scrutiny for deviating from gender norms. In this book, I propose gender equality policies for men.

If the difficulties men face are alleviated, it will also become easier for women to live. I hope this book will serve as a catalyst for multifaceted thinking toward the realization of true gender equality.

“Men are Worried”

Shoko Okuda

PHP Institute

248 pages, 1,100 yen (tax included)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time this magazine was published.