Japan has come a long way in the past 20 years. Or has it? Here are some things that used to be acceptable to do (or see) in Japan when I arrived in the early 1990s. You decide which is better: now or then.
1. In the ¡°Help Wanted¡± section of this newspaper, it was common practice to list jobs for males and females separately.
2. In state schools, boys¡¯ names were listed on the school roll before girls¡¯ names. This was said to be just a ¡°coincidence,¡± and not a sign of giving priority to boys (no, no, of course not), but you have to wonder why they¡¯d have either group before the other rather than just listing them alphabetically. This ¡°coincidence¡± has since been rectified, however, and now all names appear alphabetically.
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