Japanese Flower

"A Japanese woman only pours sake for men," Dr. G explains after we visited a local sake brewery. "But that's not what Mamiko here did," he continues. "We just saw Mamiko pour sake for herself."

Indeed, during the sake tasting, Mamiko had poured herself a tasting cup when the woman had accidently missed her, apparently a taboo in Japan where one never refills their own glass and women are expected to pour whenever they notice an empty cup. Mamiko, the senior nephrologist who had accompanied us on our tour and provided Japanese translation, laughed and answered, "Somtimes I forget."

From left to right: the owner of the sake brewery, myself, Sealy Harris, Dr. Harris, and Dr. Mamiko Ohara.

The role of Japanese women in society and medicine in particular seems to be a topic on everyone's lips these days - at least, when you are tagging along with Dr. G, the American who likes to stir things up. It was part of the discussion at our fancy dinner with the dignitaries, there was a scheduled "Women's luncheon - not just for women" at the ACP conference, and it was a very real concern for Eri, one of the junior residents here who toured the region with us this weekend.

The Women's luncheon was a formal meeting, discussing the various barriers to women practicing medicine in Japan. Their handout had a neat little chart, outlining the age of a woman during the stages of medical training and showing how it overlapped with the prime years of child bearing and rearing, a very serious task in Japan where children are highly revered.

The American female physician in attendance explained how, in the States, many women now job-share. This is when two women agree to work part-time in the same position. One of the Japanese women then asked if many females in America have paid housekeepers, and the American laughed and answered, "Yes, in fact, I have an au pair."

A yamato nadeshiko or "japanese flower" is the term here for an ideal housewife - a beautiful, quiet woman who knows how to keep old customs and a good house. In Japan, housekeeping is an integral part of the female role and seems to encompass much more than vacuuming and laundry. The society is complex and one of the mother's most important roles is to teach her children to navigate the various unspoken customs. This is one of the reasons that childcare is less successful here. Nonetheless, childcare is also less available and "part-time" is still a novel concept.

Myself as a yamato nadeshiko.

Part of the problem is the shortage of physicians, which also feeds the residents' long hours. The idea of someone working part-time is... not ideal. But the problem then becomes women quitting the profession altogether. In the group of 16 junior residents, there are only three females. I have only met one female attending here and two female senior residents. I have come to realize how lucky I am at UNC to practice with so many women - maybe still not enough, but enough to feel comfortable most of the time. As long as I'm not on urology.