With schools slowly reopening and some parents returning to work, it might be time to reassess the proportion of work Japanese mothers put into creating meals each day.
Close to 60 percent of households in Japan now operate on double incomes, but surveys show that women continue to shoulder the burden of housework. Although it’s true that the amount of time men spend on housework has tripled over the past 30 years, they only manage to rack up a fraction of the time that women spend in terms of cooking, cleaning, doing the laundry and caring for children.
Culinary expert Kentetsu Koh says that the “amount of effort Japanese moms put into ensuring the health and happiness of their families can be overwhelming.”