To my shimai (sisters) out there:

I know it's difficult to be you, a young 21st-century Japanese woman, raised in this sometimes shockingly patriarchal society. You are teetering between two worlds, the traditional and the modern, as if balancing in a gorgeously bound kimono on stiletto heels. Recently ranked 101 out of 145 countries for gender equality by the World Economic Forum — and that's an improvement over recent years — Japanese women indeed face a dispiriting reality. You look at the world of women on offer, bold and beautiful and emblazoned across international media and wonder: Where do I fit in?

But don't be fooled by billboards. Being a woman today insists on an ability to navigate treacherous, stereotype-infested waters, and not only on this side of the Pacific. Headlines constantly remind us about pay inequalities and unfair power dynamics. For every Taylor Swift success story there's 1,000 Keshas struggling to cope. And with the race for America's White House shaping up as a woman against a misogynist, the sharp juxtaposition of possibility and limitation cuts clearly. More than ever before, conflicting stereotypes muddle a woman's identity. How dare we swim triumphantly without sinking? By embracing transparency, sisters — and I don't mean by wearing a sheer bikini to get what you want.