Around 40!!!

Have you ever heard of アラフォー　(pronunced Alafor)?
I see this new Japanese on many Japanese websites every day.

At first I didn't get its meaning and just ignored it.
However there were many articles related to アラフォー on the website.
I could no longer ignore it. So I googled アラフォー for the first time.

And I finally got the meaning of it.
It is a curtailed word of "Around forty" and indicates women whose age are around forty years old.
I quickly learned that I was one of them.

What happens among "Around forty" in Japan?
Japanese people really like making a phenomenon according to age.

For example, once we called women who could not tie the knot even though passing a marigiable age(25 years old?) "Christmas cake". Cake shop cannot sell Christmas cakes after Dec.25. That's why they are called so.

I think "Around forty" is same sort of word. Especially women who belong to "Around forty" experienced most rich period in bubble time. Besides the working enviroment of women was widely improved due to the Basic Law for a Gender-equal. Actually many of around 40 women in Japan get a high salary and work in higher position same as men. It leads many unmariage women. And now in 2008, many women around forty years old worry about their life and their future even though they are rich. However they can no longer compromise to get marry men who earn less than their salary. That's why it is said that many Japanese women around 40 years old have love affair with elder person like their sperior. It is called "Furin" in Japanese.

On the other hand, many women got marry in their young age and have kids. But it costs expensive to educate children in private schools. Now sending children to good private schools are status among Japanese. But we experienced long term recession and many husbands lost their job or their salary were decreased. Of course, mother must do part time job to earn money for education.

Unmarried women around 40 look down on married women who have to do work for their family.
But they are also jealous to them because they are married with kids.
Women around 40 have a lot of dramas in their life.

Marriage, divorce, around 40 pregnant, infertility, love affair, raising children.... There are many storys. Therefore medias try to stimulate women around 40 years old and finally it produced a new word アラフォー "Around forty". They made a new drama "Around 40" and it is getting popular in Japan. Married normal women and unmarried rich women are compared in the drama.

I am one of アラフォー. My life is not so easy. I work very hard every day for my daughter's education.
She is studying at university in Canada.
I cannot stop running for another two years. But who cares it? That's my life and I always try to find a lot of fun in my life. I hope all the "around forty" love their life and themselves and live happily!!!