I’ve recently begun studying the nature of Public Relations (Propaganda) and I believe I’m beginning to learn how to spot PR when I see it. I am fairly certain that Japan’s choice of astronaut is a deliberate effort on their part to convey to Japanese women the message that it is possible to have both children and a career.

One of them is a Japanese astronaut, and her space flight is making people back home question the traditional roles of men and women.

Faced with a dwindling fertility rate Japan faces an increasing burden of supporting an older generation with a small working age group than at any time in the history of any modern industrialized democratic nation.

Japan has for nearly half a century now been a world leader in the march of technology.  Is it possible that their woes are a harbinger for the future rest of the consumer world?

Will other nations choose shopping over breeding?

via BBC News – Japan’s first female astronaut changes gender roles.