It was a Man's Man's World

   Many Japanese women tell me they want to marry rich men. Sometimes I wish I could marry one myself, but, well, we know what the odds of that ever happening are. Necessity of my gender has forced me instead to try to become successful myself and be satisfied marrying a woman I can love and respect.

   If you suggest to these women that they might fare better trying to succeed themselves, they’ll look at you as if you are insane.

   “It's a man's world,” they’ll say, end of conversation.

   That begs the question of whether Japan truly is a man’s world.

   For one, there are more women than men because so many of you live longer than us guys. Call us the Weaker Sex, if you like.

   Maybe it just seems like a man’s world because you gals aren't trying hard enough.

   Then again, maybe you know what you're doing.

   The typical housewife in Japan controls the purse strings. The poor men work their arses off and what do they get? Complaints from their cold wives and a small allowance that barely allows them the luxury of eating at a fast food chain every once in a while. Meanwhile, their wives are dining with friends at French restaurants, going to their lessons, shopping. Kind of makes you wonder who really is in charge?

   Go into to town and who do you see? Women! Where are the men? Why, they are locked up in their offices working their arses off is where. Go to any culture school in the evening and who will you find? Women! In the department stores and fashionable restaurants, it’s women, women, women.

   Young Japanese women spend their money like sailors on shore leave often because their parents are still supporting them. When they go on dates, the hapless male pay. If a man tries to live like a woman by wearing fashionable clothes and eating out at nice restaurants, he'll be criticized for being a spendthrift. Men in Japan are damned if they do, damned if they don't.

   And if that weren’t bad enough, this so-called Man's World is becoming increasingly off limits to men. There are now women-only hotels, women-only cars on trains, women-only busses, women-only floors in hotels and condominiums. Even some massage parlors and boutiques are off limits to men.

   The beleaguered Japanese male is increasingly being brushed aside and marginalized. No wonder so many of them have lost interest in sex: carnivorous women have turned them into herbivores.