6

The only example I can think of/that I know of at the moment that has ever been of controversy with regard to sexism in Japanese was the change from 看護婦 to 看護師. I'm sure there are probably many more cases like this. I also see a lot of words with kanji that seem more or less degrading to women, but I'm not sure that this is what I'm going for with the question. Rather I'm looking for something more ingrained, more structural that has been a source of controversy in the past. Vocabulary or kanji could fall into this category as well, but I'm not looking for an exhaustive listing of words or expressions that could be considered sexist. Rather I want to know what is and has been considered sexist in Japanese by Japanese people.

As an example in English there is notably no gender neutral third person pronoun, so words like "man" and "he" are the norm while other more equal words either don't exist or aren't used as widely in situations where gendered speech has been traditionally used.

Does Japanese have these kinds of issues, and if so what are they?

ssb
  • 18,411
  • 2
  • 57
  • 96
  • It's a very wide-ranging question. – user18597 Feb 15 '13 at 08:52
  • I remember there being something about 家内{かない}. – nkjt Feb 15 '13 at 09:05
  • It's obvious that a lot of vocabulary in Japanese is "sexist". For example ご主人 means "husband" but it also means "master". So the woman has to refer to her "master". Maybe if you google for it you can find more and more things. – user18597 Feb 15 '13 at 09:06
  • @nkjt: What's wrong with 家内? Heard/seen it used a lot. On another note, 姦しい seems pretty sexist. – istrasci Feb 15 '13 at 15:17
  • I know there are tons of kanji and words and expressions that could be sexist. Maybe this question isn't exactly a good fit then since I guess I'm looking more for things that have been controversial publicly more than I am a specific question about language... I won't take close votes personally, anyway. – ssb Feb 15 '13 at 16:07
  • @istrasci: Apparently some people don't like it because the implication that wife = in the house. Same for 奥さん. Not everyone agrees, though. Mentioned here, for example. 「家内」を差別語だという人もいますが、私は公式の場では「妻」か「家内」がよいと考えています。 – nkjt Feb 15 '13 at 19:09
  • Note though that originally the word tuma was neutral and just meant "spouse" and could be either the husband or wife. In modern Japanese it is always the wife, though. – Dono Feb 16 '13 at 01:12
  • It seems that lot of Japanese people don't think about this type of thing. I once pointed out that ご主人 was used for husband and master, and the woman I was talking told me she had literally never realized before I told her, like how most people don't realize "wife" just comes from a word meaning "woman" generically. The word etymology isn't something that passes most peoples' minds in my experience, and Japan doesn't have as much of a culture of political correctness about this in the same way that countries is the west might (such as Sweden). – sqrtbottle Jun 02 '15 at 15:20

1 Answers1

7

I'm not sure exactly what you are asking, but in the workplace there was a law passed: 雇用の分野における男女の均等な機会及び待遇の確保等に関する法律 which changed a lot of the words for women in the workplace (your example is one of them). The wikipedia article also gives some other examples:

「婦人警察官」→「女性警察官」（募集の際は単に警察官）
「営業マン」→「営業職」
「保母」→「保育士」
「スチュワーデス」→「客室乗務員」

There are also controversial terms for husband and wife: 亭主、主人、奥さん、家内

They are still used a lot in everyday speech, but I believe there are restrictions on using them in the media.

Other examples:

未亡人、帰国子女、入籍する

There are also controversy with some Kanji characters:

嫁、嬲る、etc.

Jesse Good
  • 10,894
  • 41
  • 56
  • In which sense is 入籍する considered as a sexist word? It is often used as a euphemism for 結婚する, but is there a difference between men and women in the usage of the word? (There could be, I just do not know.) – Tsuyoshi Ito Feb 16 '13 at 00:08
  • @TsuyoshiIto: I personally don't consider it sexist, but I've heard people interpret 入籍 to mean 夫の戸籍に入ること. It's the same for sayings like 嫁にいく 嫁をもらう, 嫁ぐ, etc. were the women is not considered equal. – Jesse Good Feb 16 '13 at 00:16
  • That reminds me of 娶る (=女（め）取る）. Though I unaware of a *おとる (男（お）取る）. – Dono Feb 16 '13 at 01:15
  • Interesting. I had never thought that some people might use 入籍する only for women, but it sounds possible. – Tsuyoshi Ito Feb 16 '13 at 01:35
  • This is exactly the kind of answer I was looking for, thank you – ssb Feb 16 '13 at 01:58
  • What is the potential offense in 帰国子女? I'm not saying it isn't or shouldn't be, I just can't parse it. – Questioner Feb 16 '13 at 04:24
  • 1
    @DaveMG: Technically 子女 has two meanings. It can refer to children (boys and girls), and it can also be used to refer to girls only. There is a misconception by some people that 帰国子女 only refers to girls which is why in some circles it is changed to 帰国生徒, etc. (mainly by public institutions) – Jesse Good Feb 16 '13 at 22:39
  • Thanks for the clarification. So if I understand correctly, it's not so much that it's very offensive, more that it can be taken to be too specific about gender when it's not meant that way. – Questioner Feb 17 '13 at 04:05