{"id":2802,"date":"2016-10-06T13:08:08","date_gmt":"2016-10-06T13:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/?p=2802"},"modified":"2016-10-06T13:08:08","modified_gmt":"2016-10-06T13:08:08","slug":"pregnant-male-politicians-lead-japan-housework-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/2016\/10\/06\/pregnant-male-politicians-lead-japan-housework-drive\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Pregnant\u2019 male politicians lead Japan housework drive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A trio of male Japanese politicians has gamely strapped on \u201cpregnancy vests\u201d that simulate swollen bellies in a lighthearted campaign for men to pick up the slack in a nation where women do most of the housework.<span id=\"more-306777\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The three governors of southwestern prefectures are taking to the airwaves with the public awareness campaign that loosely translates as: \u201cThe governor is a pregnant woman.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Japanese men are not very helpful husbands when it comes to housework: they do just one hour of unpaid work daily compared to five hours for their wives, according to a 2014 study by the 35-nation Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.<\/p>\n<p>The three-minute spot, which started running last week, shows the hapless lawmakers being outfitted with seven kilogramme (16 pound) vests that mimic the belly of a woman who is about seven months pregnant.<\/p>\n<p>Then it is time to clumsily navigate stairs, carry groceries, or wait for someone to give up their seat on the bus.<\/p>\n<p>One politician struggles to put on socks, while another wipes sweat from his brow after hanging a load of laundry, as an upbeat tune plays in the background.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can see how hard it is to be carrying a child and do house chores,\u201d says 52-year-old Shunji Kono, the governor of Miyazaki prefecture.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think I have to be much kinder,\u201d the father of three adds in the video.<\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made drawing more women into the workforce a top priority to fix the economy, heeding calls to make better use of a highly educated but underemployed labour pool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A trio of male Japanese politicians has gamely strapped on &ldquo;pregnancy vests&rdquo; that simulate swollen bellies in a lighthearted campaign for men to pick up the slack in a nation where women do most of the housework. The three governors of southwestern prefectures are taking to the airwaves with the public awareness campaign that loosely translates as: &ldquo;The governor is a pregnant woman.&rdquo; Japanese men are not very helpful husbands when it comes to housework: they do just one hour of unpaid work daily compared to five hours for their<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2803,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2802"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2802"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2804,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2802\/revisions\/2804"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}