The increasing problem of domestic violence is being addressed by a nonpartisan group of female lawmakers who plan to submit a bill to the Diet next month aimed at protecting victims.
While legislation and institutions to fight domestic violence have been in place in the United Kingdom and the United States since the 1970s, Japan has lagged behind these and other countries as the problem has traditionally been seen here as a domestic issue between husband and wife.
But Masako Osada, a counselor at the Kawasaki Municipal Gender Equality Center in Kanagawa Prefecture, pointed out that women in this situation are genuinely powerless. She cited the example of a young housewife whose office-worker husband gives her only 50,000 yen per month for groceries to support them and their 1-year-old daughter.