JAPAN — A city in Japan has apologised for distributing flyers to pregnant women that gave advice on how to behave after giving birth in order to avoid annoying their husbands. 

The flyers, which had been distributed in the city of Onomichi in Hiroshima Prefecture since 2018, included suggestions that women should give massages, do housework, and always maintain a smile around their husbands.

Onomichi Mayor Yukihiro Hiratani made an apology last Tuesday (July 25) on the city government's website and Twitter account after public outcry, acknowledging that the contents of the flyers did not align with sentiments of pregnant women and others involved in child rearing. 

He added that the distribution of the flyers has been stopped as it “included expressions that promote fixed roles based on gender”.

Titled “Seasoned husband’s advice to you”, the flyer was based on a survey conducted in 2017, involving 100 fathers from the city. 

The colourful flyers, accompanied by cartoon drawings, reportedly state that wives may irritate their husbands if they are "busy taking care of the baby and not doing chores".

The flyer also advises women not to "get frustrated for no reason".

“There are differences in the way men and women feel and think,” the flyers read. 

“One of the reasons for this is the structural difference in the brains of men and women. It is known that men act based on theories, while women act based on emotions. The important thing is to understand each other’s differences and divide roles well.”

SOCIAL MEDIA USERS BLAST SEXIST FLYERS

Though the local government has apologised and retracted the flyers, that has done little to quell the anger of many people, who believe that the flyers reinforce harmful stereotypes about gender roles.

The flyers, and the public survey it was based on, “mean that this is what men really think,” one person wrote on Twitter, the social media platform recently rebranded as X. 

“Most men think that childcare is someone else’s business, wives are supposed to do the housework, don’t neglect looking after their husbands, don’t upset their husbands…You’d better not get married.”

Another wrote: "It's bad enough that local authorities are perpetuating the idea that childcare is the mother's job and that a father, who is seen as a third party (in childcare), will help the mother. I would like local authorities to raise awareness that fathers are also main actors in childcare."

One person pointed out that childbirth takes a heavy toll on women's bodies and that stress is the enemy during pregnancy. 

"Why exactly are they only attacking women? A letter from an experienced mum to a new dad would probably be a hundred million times more helpful," the person wrote on Twitter.

Some online users noted that misogynistic views on the flyer are a reflection of Japan's outdated gender norms and the unequal burden placed on women.

Japan ranked 125th out of 146 countries in the World Economic Forum's latest Global Gender Gap Index, the lowest ranking nation out of the Group of Seven (G7) countries.