Young women set out for Tokyo for reasons

“Japan’s countryside empties as young women set out for Tokyo” offers several reasons why women from rural areas of Japan are moving towards large cities. Cities seem to have more job opportunities for young women, and they are able to continue working even after they marry and have families. Women feel more freedom to live their life how they want in the city, away from their parents. In 2018, more women than men migrated from their rural hometowns to bigger cities.

The migration of young women from rural to urban is concerning for Japan’s declining population. In Prof. Saperstein’s Demographics class, we learned that Japan’s population will soon be 1/3 retired seniors, and this is already the case in many rural places. The article also voices this concern, saying that with so many women moving to cities, there will be fewer women starting families in rural areas. Furthermore, with so many families starting in big cities, there are shortages of daycares and preschools available to take care of children.

This story did not say it explicitly, but hinted at the problem driving women away from rural towns with its example of Aichi prefecture, where Toyota Motor and other manufacturers hire more men than women, and where women are leaving to find better job opportunities. It is rural Japan’s subtle sexism and gender role expectations that women are trying to escape. In rural Japan, women are not expected to work and raise a family at the same time; in fact, the two are mutually exclusive. I think that it is good that some companies are making an effort to not discriminate between men and women when hiring, but I am not surprised to hear that the efforts have not really worked yet.

I think that America also has similar problems to Japan, although not quite as bad. In America we do not have a declining population problem like Japan, but workplace sexism and hiring practices is a problem. Women in America are also not encouraged to have a family and continue working after childbirth, as many workplaces do not offer paid maternity leave to parents. Even the overpopulation in urban areas seems like a familiar problem, as I’ve heard many news stories about the gentrification of New York neighborhoods and Silicon Valley. Many people working in tech move to Silicon Valley for work. With so many people looking to live in these areas, housing prices are driven up, pushing out the poorer people who have lived there for a long time.