As you all know, Shinzo Abe is the new Prime Minister of Japan. What does this mean? Hard to know…I haven’t commented on this yet (he was named PM on Tuesday) because I haven’t had much time to do my daily news surfing.

Prior to being chosen, however, he was pretty quiet on the issue of Yasukuni and a number of other controversial topics, but it’s no secret that he is very conservative in his views. Looking at his cabinet, you might be either pleased or shocked (or both) to note that there are 2 women (yes, that’s TWO out of TWENTY – how’s 10% for those diversity initiatives??):

To many in Japan, these two women may seem a step forward (shocking, but true); BUT, before you get all excited, you should know exactly who these two women are. We have Sanae Takaichi, minister in charge of gender equality issues, and Eriko Yamatani, special adviser in charge of education reform.

How’s this for the “minister in charge of gender equality issues“:

Takaichi is a vocal opponent of a draft bill that would allow couples to use different surnames after marrying.

Under current law, married couples are required to use a single surname and in most cases it is that of the husband.

Many working women have called for a change, saying the law is unfair to women, who lose name recognition in their workplaces.

But LDP lawmakers such as Takaichi have kept the bill shelved for more than 10 years, saying it would undermine the traditional Japanese family.

Yep, 2006 and you are still legally obliged to change your name when you marry. Technically, it can be either spouse who changes his/her name, but, as noted above, it’s usually the women.

I have personally encountered a number of Japanese women who are scientists and who suffer a lack of professional recognition because, once they get married, they have to publish their research under a “new” name, and they then don’t appear to have any other published papers when, in fact, they’ve published numerous times under their pre-marriage name (I loathe the term “maiden name”, as you can probably guess. It conjures up in my imagination the gathering of daisies and dancing around the Maypole…circa 1435, or some other time prior to the 20th Century).

Here’s a look at Yamatani – “the special adviser in charge of Education reform“:

Yamatani has also raised eyebrows, arguing that “gender-free” education at public schools has gone too far.

“(I will) stop gender-free education, which treats distinctions between men and women as discrimination,” Yamatani wrote on her own Web site.

Now, THAT’S encouraging, isn’t it…??

Clearly, there’s more to say here, but I’ll leave it at that for now.

After getting back from my little stint in Atami on Friday/Saturday, we decided to head to down to Kamakura on Sunday to take advantage of the beautiful, sunny day. I realised that, although I’ve been down to Kamakura a few times in the past couple of years, I hadn’t been to see the Daibutsu with my digital SLR. Fortunately, it was a great day and I was able to get a few nice shots.

For those who have never been to Kamakura, the Daibutsu (Great Buddha) was built in the 13th C and it is the second largest buddha statue in Japan (the largest is at Todaiji, in Nara). Originally, the statue was within a wooden structure, but that was destroyed by a tsunami first in the 14th C and then again in the 15th C. It weighs 125 metric tons and is over 10 metres tall.

Pictured above is a close-up of the face, which many (including LY) consider to be more beautiful than the Todaiji buddha (which you can see at the very end of my Nara slideshow, here). I think the Kamakura Daibutsu is just much more striking in every regard, although the wooden structure housing the Nara Daibutsu (the largest wooden structure in the world) is incredible to behold and it alone makes the trip to Nara worthwhile.

Here’s a full shot from yesterday:

As the sun started to go down, we walked down to the beach and had a cool drink while watching all the surfers wait for some waves: