At the request of the author, the Japanese language version of this article has been removed from the website until further notice. We regret the inconvenience

The author has provided a brief translation of the article for our better understanding, as follows:

=========================================

It is an article about an event called "Men' Festival" held in Osaka on Sept 13th and 14th by men's groups in which members talked about men's roles in families, masuculinity, expressions of feelings and so on.

A standing man in photo is an office worker at a big company and taking a leave at that time. He was a hard worker, indifferent to his family and realized his dream to work in foreighn country.

After he came back home from Philippine where he was working , his two dauthters become not be able to go to school. Even at those days , he continued to work hard and did not listen to his dauthters and wife . Finally he exhausted and he could not go to office himself because of nervous breakdown.

He said in the meeting ,'I have realized that I was bound by image of stereotyped masuculine father-role and now would like to be free from it giving up promotion at office ".

I hope that this explanation helps you to understand one of aspects of fathers in Japan at present.

Tetsuya Sumi Kyodo News