TODAY we continue a regular column from Bolton lass Danielle Hayes who lives in Japan. She was born in Bromley Cross and attended Turton High School – class of 2008. She now lives in the beautiful city of Kyoto and spends her days teaching English, writing, and exploring!

WOMEN’S rights and equality are hot topics at the moment. From Harry Potter star Emma Watson working with the UN and the “He for She” campaign, to Michelle Obama travelling the globe promoting girls education; equality is firmly in the public eye.

And while Japan is famous for its technological advances, it still has some big steps to take towards embracing equality.

The first thing that surprised me when I first came to Japan, was the general opinion that married women don’t usually work. The majority of women who get married here, will leave their jobs (as long as they can afford to) so that they can stay home and become a full time home maker. And while there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing this if it’s what you want, the fact that it is the cultural norm here, surprised me. In many countries women are encouraged to pursue whatever career they ant.

Campaigners have been working for years to break through that glass ceiling, and to abolish the stigma that women are less reliable in a professional setting. The fact that Japanese women are expected to leave work when they are married, I feel, has a negative effect on this.

I work for an international company, so thankfully, this is not something I have had to deal with. But, that doesn’t mean that living as a woman in Japan doesn’t have its drawbacks.

Dating feels almost impossible as many Japanese guys are looking for the super-cute and slightly submissive Japanese stereotype (of which I am neither!), and foreign guys are often more interested in dating Japanese girls over foreigners.

Japan has also earned itself a reputations of being a little bit unsafe for women in terms of unwanted sexual acts. There is even a Japanese phrase, “chikan”, to describe a man who gropes women on the train. When I asked my female students about this, nearly all of them had experienced this public groping at least once. When I asked how they reacted, they simply said “I just turned my body and moved away”. This passive reaction is the norm across the country, and it saddens me that Japanese women won’t stand up for themselves in the face of these attacks.

I have never encountered a chikan, and for that, I am thankful. But, I have had a man try to grope me in a lift on my way to work; a man following me home and asking questions; and a man flashing me on a main street. Every time, I shouted at them and pushed them away. The look on their faces was pure shock. Clearly they had been doing this to other women with no chastisement. Despite this, I still feel incredibly safe here.

Crime rates are very low, and I feel comfortable walking around on my own. Although it is common for these low-level sexual assaults to happen across Japan, more serious cases are much rarer. I just hope that Japan will soon join the fight for equality with the same uproar as we have.

n Read Danielle’s blogs at kinkigeek.wordpress.com