Male politicians in Japan wore a pregnancy vest in an effort to convince the men to help around the house and ease the burden from the women. In a video campaign entitled "The Governor is a Pregnant Woman," three politicians based in the southwestern prefectures were filmed with a 7.3 kg pregnancy fat suit to simulate how a seven-month pregnant woman is able to manage her daily routines.
The male politicians were followed around by a film crew as they wore their pregnancy vest and went about their usual activities, such as riding the bus to work or doing the groceries. They realize that it's not a walk in the park at all.
"Now that I understand what my wife put up with for so many months, I'm full of gratitude," Yamaguchi governor Tsugumasa Muraoka said after his experience with the pregnancy vest, Japan Times reports.
The idea to have "pregnant" male politicians don pregnancy vests comes from the Kyushu Yamaguchi Work Life Promotion Campaign, which hopes to convince Japanese men to share in the household chores. A 2015 study published in the Oxford Journals ranks Japan with least helpful men when it comes to sharing the workload at home with their wives. Only six percent of the Japanese male population apparently do this.
Most Japanese men are workaholics and lending a hand with housework isn't a common scene in many households. This happens even as Japanese women also juggle a career on top of managing a family, thus the arrangement can be seen as unbalanced and unfair.
The scale seems to tip even lower for Japanese women because they experience missed opportunities and harassment at work whenever they prioritize pregnancy, Global Voices reports. As a result, more and more women are opting to delay becoming pregnant, which has led to an alarming population decline, The Guardian reports.
Do you think this campaign will be effective in convincing workaholic Japanese men to help their wives more? Watch the video of the "pregnant" male politicians below.
