Test-doctoring to keep Japanese women out of medical school
医学考试造假将日本女性拒于医学院门外
Japan has made a lot of noise in recent years about demolishing the traditional view that women should stay at home while men go out to work. So it was shocking when, on August 7th, Tokyo Medical University, a prestigious medical school, confessed to marking down the test scores of female applicants to keep the ratio of women in each class below 30%.
近年来，日本社会常有推翻“男主外、女主内”传统观念的声浪。所以，在 8 月 7 日，当声望卓著的医学院——东京医科大学承认压低了女性申请者的考试分数，以将每个班级中女生的比例维持在 30%以下时，社会一片哗然。
Their defence was that women are more likely to drop out to marry and have children. To judge female applicants to medical school purely on their merits would leave Japan with a shortage of doctors, they said. The admission has caused outrage.
东京医科大学的辩称，女性更可能为了结婚生子而中断职业。该大学指出，如果完全根据成绩评价女申请者的话，日本将会面临医生的短缺。这一说辞已经引起了公众的愤慨。
Doctoring has long been a male bastion. But it is not the only one. Discrimination is rife in banks and trading houses, where stamina and loyalty, qualities somehow associated with men, are prized, says Mari Miura, a political scientist at Sophia University.
医生是男性的传统优势职业，但它绝非个例。日本上智大学的政治科学家三浦麻里介绍道，性别歧视在银行和贸易行业同样普遍，而这两个行业都重视耐力和忠诚——两个多多少少与男性联系在一起的品质。
All this embarrasses a government that has promised to make women “shine”, its condescending catchphrase for female empowerment. The policy seems based on the need for more workers rather than on genuine concern for women. Shinzo Abe, the prime minister, says he wants to bring millions more women into the workforce to make up for a labour shortfall caused by its ageing and declining population.
这一性别歧视现象让日本政府陷入窘境，因为该政府曾用一个居高临下地支持女权运动的口号，承诺要让女性“发光发热”。这一政策似乎基于增加劳动力的需求，而非对妇女真正的关心。首相安倍晋三宣称，他想要将数百万的妇女引入劳动力，以弥补人口老龄化和人口减少带来的劳力短缺。
In the field of politics, the record under Mr Abe’s premiership is lamentable. Just two members of his 20-strong cabinet are women, including Seiko Noda, in charge of women’s empowerment. Ms Noda, who makes little secret of her ambition to dethrone Mr Abe in a leadership contest next month, has just published a book called “Grab the Future”, her manifesto for pulling Japan into line with “global standards”. She has almost no chance of winning.
在政治领域，安倍首相任内的女权政绩不甚乐观。他的二十人内阁中仅有两人是女性，其中包括主管女性权利的野田圣子。野田毫不掩饰她在下个月的竞选中击败安倍的野心。她刚刚出版了一本名为《抓住未来》的书，这同时也是她推动日本与“国际标准”接轨的宣言。而她，几乎毫无胜算。
————— 文章来源 / 经济学人
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