Male homemakers on the rise in Japan

Tokyo

ON a weekday morning in July, Takatoshi Miyauchi and two other men were chatting at a Tokyo restaurant. "My wife doesn't wash the dishes, but for some reason she does clean the sink," one of them said, while another complained: "My wife just throws her clothes into the washing machine inside out. I got fed up with reversing them, so I just fold them that way."

The three men are homemakers and members of Lennonpapa, a network for stay-at-home dads raising children. The network's members organise get-togethers like this to let off steam once every two months.