In defense of Japanese men, I've heard this a lot, and seen it for sure but conveniently it seems to be forgotten that these men worked from age 20 to 70 very very long hard hours to pay for everything but rarely get to enjoy their efforts. They got 50 years of working 50 weeks a year for minimum 50 hours a week but probably 60-80 hours a week. They hand 100% of their salary over to their wives and rarely get to see their children, wives, family, non-work friends, or have a hobby. On the other hand try an experiment. Go to any large station in a city in Japan and plunk yourself down at a cafe. Early in the morning you'll see lots of people of all ages and both genders running around to get to work and school. Then there will be a lull and then you'll see more and more women in pairs and threes with expensive shopping bags strolling around and eating in expensive cafes. Not many men. Wait a few hours, still not many men. A few more hours and only a trickle. Where are the men? At work. Wait a few more hours after dark and suddenly the station platforms are full of men going home to collapse in bed to do it all over again the next day. Again and again for 50 years. We can see from statistics that Japanese life is not fair for women but I'm not convinced it is a cake walk for Japanese men either.