The lifestyle in Japan is changing with the times. Women are starting to focus on making a career than settling down. Some women even do both career and motherhood. But there are women in Japan who value motherhood as a full time job along with many other responsibilities. In the spirit of Mother's Day I'll share the tasks mothers have in Japan. In no way am I saying they are superior to mothers in any other country because that's just ignorant. This is solely to educate about Japanese culture in a Japanese home. I got to hear a lot about the Japanese household life from my tour guide when I went on a tour in Japan, and I'd like to share this bit of knowledge with you.
Cooking
There's cooking, and then there's COOKING! Dinner, sure. Breakfast, sure. But they take lunch to a whole new level in Japan. Mothers, and even wives, wake up super early in the morning to make their loved ones bento, a Japanese lunch box filled with nutritional food for lunch. Over the years it has become a phenomenon to make the most decorative and elaborate bentos. Mothers would actually start competing with one another to see who could make their children the most creative bento. These bentos can get pretty insane. These mothers are extremely dedicated in getting their children out house house with their bento in hand.
 |
| Bento box. Source: grapee.jp |
Grocery Shopping
In Japan the houses and apartment can be on the small side unless you're okay with dishing out some money for a bigger place (there are always exceptions though). Since many places are on the small side the appliances have to be small too in order to get more room out of your home. This includes the refrigerator which can only fit a certain amount of food. Since it can't store much that means more grocery outings than what some people may be used to. I'm talking about maybe three grocery outings a weeks. This is incredible to me since I only go grocery shopping once a week. Not only do mothers go grocery shopping a lot but they go at certain times to get the best deals from the stores.
Money Management
In the above introduction to this post I stated that some women consider motherhood as their job, but they also have the responsibility of managing the household's money. Yep, husbands come home and hand their paychecks over to their wives. I know this might be kind of hard to imagine for some people but that's how it's done in Japan. Once the wife gets the money she calculates how much goes into what aspect of the household. She is the one to make sure the family is on track.
Decision Maker
That's right, moms in Japan make many of the life decisions at home for their family. You know that saying "mom knows best?" Well, Japan puts that saying into action. This is because fathers are at work most of the day and don't have time to make decisions for the family. One of the biggest decisions moms have to make in Japan concerns their child's education. The mother gets to choose where their child attends school. They also choose what their child does with their time such as maybe getting them to attend cram schools.
 |
| School girls walking home. |
I hope you enjoyed this short post on moms in Japan. I decided to write this at last minute for Mother's Day, so I'm terribly sorry if it sounded rushed, but it kind of was. If you are interested in Japanese culture than you probably found this intriguing. Thanks for reading my blog, and a Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers out there! Have a great day!
Follow me on social media for more Japan related things!
Facebook: www.facebook.com/japantherapynola
Instagram: www.instagram.com/japantherapy
And subscribe here on Google+ for blog updates by clicking that follow button!