POPULATION-JAPAN: Recession Hurts Husbands’ Pockets

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Mar 21 2001 (IPS) - Koichi Ishiyama, a 52-year-old university professor, brings home a pay check of almost 5,000 U.S. dollars a month, but he says he hardly sees a penny of it.

“My wife is in charge of my salary. She has told me to survive on what I make as a freelance writer,” he explains.

Ishiyama says he makes around 1,000 dollars a month on a freelance writing project. He uses the money to pay for a small office, transport, his daily lunch and other expenses such as tobacco and alcohol.

His only luxury, he says, is membership in a local athletic club. “I hardly have anything left to play a little,” grins the balding academic, who says he worries of losing his freelance work as a result of the current economic recession.

If that happens, he points out sadly, that would end his only means of personal income.

Ishiyama’s predicament describes the lives of 90 percent of male Japanese company employees, who, according to social analysts, hand over their salaries to their wives every month in exchange for getting a monthly allowance.

Surveys taken by the Nikkei newspaper, a financial daily, reveal that the average monthly allowance for men between the age of 40 to 60 years has fallen to 450 U.S. dollars in the big cities over the past decade.

In these hard times with Japan’s economy stuck in the doldrums, men complain that the sum is a far cry from their ideal monthly budget of 900 dollars, which supports their personal needs.

On the 25th of every month, which is payday, it is not uncommon to see long lines of homemakers, some of them in their aprons, waiting to use the bank tellers.

They check their husbands’ salaries, which are transmitted directly into personal bank accounts, and pay for utility bills, house loans, children’s education, other household expenses and most important, setting aside savings for the future.

Haruki Murase, Japan’s first official ‘househusband’ and a well- known commentator on men’s issues, explains that the system is a feature of post-war Japan.

“Japan’s postwar economic system was based on the division of gender roles. Men worked outside and women looked after the family. Wives were given the salary because it made it easier for men to work outside,” he explains.

Junko, Ishiyama’s wife and a mother of two, says managing the household budget is the primary role in her life.

Junko gave up her job as a flight attendant when her first child, now 16, was born. Her husband, she says, is too busy with his work to keep a tab on the household’s daily expenses.

Junko recalls that the only time her husband played a major part in household finances was when they bought a new home 12 years ago. The bank loan for the mortgage was taken in his name.

The Ishiyamas insist they have no complaints about this system in the family. “It helps to keep us together,” says Junko. “I cannot survive without him, or should I say his salary,” she quips.

Her husband agrees the situation is not bad either. “Sure, I would like some more money for myself. But then my wife does everything for the family. All I do is eat and sleep at home and I would be lost without her,” he shrugs.

Murase says the government has tacitly encouraged this system, which has worked toward low divorce rates and works well with the Japanese economy.

“The system is such that the priority is the family, not the individual lives of the husband or wife,” he explains. “The man’s paycheque keeps everybody together.”

Indeed, surveys made on wives’ attitudes toward their husbands’ income illustrate this comment. Murase says 85 percent of wives in his surveys insist that the husband’s income belongs to both of them.

In addition, he points out, Japan’s tax system is aimed at keeping the wives’ income low — she can be claimed as a dependent by her husband if she earns less than half of his income.

The economic crunch however has brought some changes in the way households have traditionally been run in Japan.

Social experts point out that married women are now working and that corporate restructuring has forced men to deal with reduced salaries, a situation that is straining traditional roles and Japan’s family structure.

Local news reports have been covering a growing number of men who talk about having to resort to 2 dollar lunches, which is considered cheap in expensive Japan, or skipping evenings out with their friends as a result of the cutbacks in their allowances.

Says 42-year Tomoyuki Shimoyama, who runs his own business: “When I see my married friends, I am so glad I am not married because I get to leave myself at least 700 dollars a month. Poor guys.”