I don't know how much of this is just the administration trying to come up with an excuse for their behavior, but this seems to say a lot about Japanese culture

I don't know how much of this is just the administration trying to come up with an excuse for their behavior, but this seems to say a lot about Japanese culture. In the West, discrimination was historically used to raise one above others and reinforce hierarchy. This behavior displays another very different, though equally abhorrent, practice. Japan's particular strain of collectivism is discriminating in order to create some perceived advantage for the country as a whole. Compare with American segregation, where a black person living near white people was seen as morally backwards because of the belief in racial superiority and hierarchy. This specific instance poses a more concerning behavior to me, because the people in question here did not think about discriminating in order to serve themselves; they were convinced that they were doing something good for everybody. Though attitudes have changed in Japan about gender, it seems like this will be something that will take a long time to go away because people don't only need to rationalize their discrimination, but instead they are convinced that they need to continue it as some kind of protection against societal issues even if they do (on the surface) believe in equality.