Is Age Just a Number? What It Means to “Grow Older” in Japanese Society
For the past few years, I have been feeling angry.
With every passing year, I have felt that it is becoming harder to live.
Especially in Japan, I feel that people are harsh toward middle-aged and older women (or is that just my imagination?)
What is this feeling that one must look their age?I feel a kind of pressure to behave like a middle-aged woman (well, it’s hard to express, but I am not defending those who try to appeal to their youth by defying their age).
It is the same at the workplace, and when I look at comments online, it seems to be a trend throughout society.
Of course, I am fully aware that I am a “middle-aged woman.” I am not a celebrity, and I have no intention of trying to look unnaturally young.
And this “middle-aged woman problem” is not limited to Japan.
In one of my favorite American TV shows, Desperate Housewives, there is a scene where Gaby, one of the protagonists who prides herself on her beauty as a former model, laments as follows:
Women only have five seconds to be young and beautiful, and then it's gone.
And then before you know it, we're old and fat…
(Women are only young and beautiful for a fleeting moment; before you know it, you’ve become a fat old lady like this)
In other words, the longing for youth is universal and an eternal theme.
Certainly, youth is fleeting and also a privilege.
I also have no intention of loudly shouting Age discrimination! about ageism.
However, what I want to say here is, setting aside biological matters like leaving descendants, why do Japanese people (perhaps it is unique to Asia) care so much about specific ages, especially among middle-aged people?, that is.
Even during lunch at work, the conversation was dominated by topics like “who is how old, and who is one year older than whom.”
Am I the only one who thinks that is ridiculous?
Actually, I recently started job hunting. I applied to a fairly well-known Japanese online media company. After submitting an essay and passing four interviews, I reached the final interview stage.
The female interviewer said, “You and I are the same age. The oldest person here is so-and-so... who is one year older than us.” In America, comments regarding age are considered employment discrimination, and such remarks would almost never happen.
Come to think of it, even at my current workplace, everyone’s age is visible in the system.
Even if they promote diversity, I wonder if this is how it ends up in Japan.
For me, believing that Age is just a number (age is nothing more than a number), this age issue is serious.
Having been aware for a long time of the reality that everyone ages equally, I have never tried to appeal to the “privilege” of youth since I was in my 20s.
There are naturally things I have gained and lost as I have aged, and if I deny my age, I would be denying my own past, so I will not do that.
However, the fact that that number is the center of conversation makes me feel like I am living in an incredibly small world.
Perhaps that is what is leading to the difficulty of living in today's society.
What do you all think?