On March 3, Hinamatsuri (雛祭り) is celebrated in Japan. This Girls’ Day, a.k.a. Dolls’ Festival, is a day to pray for a young girl’s growth and happiness.

Girls' Day in Japan

On my very first Hinamatsuri living in Japan, I was invited by a student’s mom to attend her daughter’s hinamatsuri celebration. My being a foreigner also lured other moms to her house to have a closer look at me – the foreigner with yellow hair and a high nose. And being from Germany also added even more to my being an exotic guest (Kitakyushu had a population of over one million, only four of them German citizens).

They asked about my previous employment in Germany. I told them about my job in management and was surprised to learn they limited my skills  to that of an office lady (OL). As late as the early 90s, office ladies existed en masse within Japanese companies. Their job description entailed the following: be young and pretty, willing to make copies and serve tea.

With great effort due to my then limited Japanese speaking skills and their low English listening skills, it was difficult to convey I had not been an OL. But I managed, but then I got classified as a career woman. Among others, future Rabenmutter also entered my mind. Career woman just sounded being so selfish, with these moms tending to their children’s educational needs and their husbands’ appetite.

It was rather difficult for these Japanese wives to place me in the middle – I was a young woman in my late 20s, working to make a living away from home, and paying my own bills.

A lot has changed in these past 20 years. Young Japanese women have more options nowadays and can fill the in-between spots in society. They have the freedom to be   more than an OL, yet also more than a housewife, and succeed in a career without being called a career woman.