Japan beef bowl chain executive fired over sexist remark
By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press
TOKYO (AP) — A popular Japanese beef bowl chain, Yoshinoya Holdings Co., has fired an executive over sexist remarks he made about a marketing strategy aiming to get young women “hooked” on its products as though turning “virgins into drug addicts.” Masaaki Ito, a managing director at Yoshinoya, known for its “gyudon” beef-over-rice dish, made the inflammatory remarks at a marketing lecture at Tokyo’s Waseda University on Saturday. Gender disparity runs deep in Japan, where only a small percentage of women hold decision-making positions in business, academia and politics. Japan in 2021 ranked 120th in the World Economic Forum’s 156-nation global gender gap index.