Liberal Help Wanted

Posted on 22. Apr, 2008 @ 11:03 am by in Osaka, Society Views: 310

This is just your run-of-the-mill “help wanted” poster in Japan.

With a down right dangerous twist.

It says…

年齢伺わず 問わず- We won’t ask your age (meaning any legal age is OK)

性別伺わず 問わず- We won’t ask your sex (meaning they don’t discriminate male or female)

オカマOK – Homosexuals are OK too.

Some joke.

Only in Japan…

(actualy, I’m not sure if I totally understand what’s going on with the verb 伺わず。It’s just the 伺う in the ず form right? Like 食べず〜 and stuff? Is this related to おかまいなく? Just curious.)

It’s 問わず! (とわず) Thanks for pointing that out Ken Y-N. I dropped the ball on that one! 恥ずかしい〜

- Harvey

  • http://whatjapanthinks.com Ken Y-N

    That’s 問わず, which is regardless of age/sex/sexual orientation.

    The shorthand/cursive form of the 門 radical is…difficult to explain! Let’s try this, which will probably get chewed up by WordPress:

    —|—
    | |
    | |
    | |

    Three strokes, with a line through the cross-bar, is the quick way of doing 門.

  • http://www.victorymanual.com Alex

    I always that オカマ meant a transvestite. Slightly different connotation than ‘homosexual’, but maybe I was just misinformed.

  • http://www.japannewbie.com harvey

    I totally should have known that. Thanks for catching me Ken Y-N! Geesh.

    Hey Alex, I’m not sure about the real definition of Okama… I think I have heard it used both ways, but not sure…

  • Ret

    If you check out the Japanese want ads for any industry, you’ll often see restrictions on age and gender (plus the whole must submit a passport photo thing). So they’re saying they don’t subscribe to the ‘only young attractive females’ discrimination that is common for jobs like these (or the health profession for that matter; check out the want ads for nurses or dental assistants/hygienists some time).

    As for okama, I had an interesting discussion with a female Japanese friend the other day. She split the difference between gay and okama in that okama visibly act gay (for guys, the higher voice, female speech patterns, feminine gestures). So they’d be the types to face a lot of discrimination at an interview as opposed to many gays whose only difference is sexual preference.

  • Joe

    Why not go all Jerky Boys on them, and call and record a conversation with them posing as a flaming okama looking for work?

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