30% of Generation Z men think equality has gone too far

Say the word “feminist” to a young Japanese guy and you may be surprised by the negative reaction you get. This is partly because the word in Japanese has a stronger connotation, implying what we might call a radical feminist in English.

Nonetheless, anti-feminist attitudes can be surprisingly ingrained.

And while we might ascribe this to the old geezers who run the country as the senior figures in the civil service and government, and as the board members and executives at major corporations, the one survey has found that a significant number of Generation Z men also have reservations about equality.

Maybe it’s time to update that “OK boomer” meme to reflect the reality in Japan?

The Paris-based public opinion research company Ipsos SA found that Gen Z men are 1.5 times more likely than their male cohort in other generations to think that equality has gone “too far.”

As reported in the Mainichi Shimbun, the research is part of a multinational poll. That said, the sample of responses in Japan was quite small: just 983 (498 men and 485 women).

In Japan, 30% of men in Generation Z, those born between 1996 to 2012, said measures [toward equality] have gone too far. This was nearly 10 percentage points higher than the 20% of women of the same generation as well as just over 20% of men of the millennial generation, or those born between 1980 and 1995, Generation X’ers born between 1966 and 1979, and baby boomers born between 1945 and 1965.

Most notable were Gen Z Japanese people’s responses regarding which groups face the most discrimination. While both men and women selected those with physical disabilities (which for women, were in a tie with transgender and nonbinary people) as a leading choice, Gen Z women were roughly twice as likely to cite groups such as sexual minorities and those who are neurodivergent, such as those with ADHD or autism, than men of the same generation.

Following those with physical disabilities, many Gen Z men chose people with mental health conditions, women, and men themselves as the groups facing discrimination. Men were three times more likely than women to see men as a group facing discrimination, showing that in the current state of affairs, men of this generation feel some form of disadvantage from efforts to promote equality.

So Generation Z men believe that men are the ones having trouble in society today. We feel that that this is the kind of statement that requires some supporting evidence!

While cases of reverse discrimination do happen, systematic discrimination against women in Japanese society (like in other societies) is undeniable. Just to provide one examples, it emerged in 2018 that Japan’s top medical colleges had altered the test scores of female applicants for years in order to ensure the number of women remained low.

We suspect that Generation Z’s reservations about measure toward equality reflect not so much a genuine anti-feminist attitude or a belief that all women should bow down at their feet, but rather anxieties about their own uncertain prospects societally, financially, and professionally.