Not that it's perfectly balanced in the rest of the world - women in general seem very bad at demanding higher salaries while men are more keen on it. But I'd wager a guess it's a bigger problem in Japan than, say, England.

A mans challenge is would you marry a woman who has a great heart but you are not that attracted to. That is the male equivalent. Most guys would not. I'm not a feminist. Because its survivalism that's the problem. Not feminism or chauvinism. At least that seems like the case too me.

BTW anecdotal arguments are essentially flawed because they are usually the exception not the rule. So save the whole "I dated an ugly girl no problem!" stories.

A guy can hope right?

oh wait i'd be single my whole life then @.@

Not that I'm defending the gold-diggers hunting for millionaires. Both ought to work, but one has to realize that a middle-class man and a middle-class woman make rather different salaries.

This ^_^

drink to the sorrows

This is pure bullshit. None of this is true, especially the part about women getting payed less just because they're female. Women - on average - make less than men because women - on average - do different work than men and they work less. Studies have repeatedly shown that when you compare men and women working in the same occupation, with the same level of education, same level of seniority, same level of experience and who work the same number of hours, that there is no statistical difference between the pay men and women receive. Warren Farrell (a feminist) wrote a book that goes over this in detail. The book is called "Why Men Earn More" and you should check it out:

http://www.amazon.com/Why-Men-Earn-More-Startling/dp/0814472109

"Of course, if society was willing to change their norms..."

Yeah, turn it all around and blame everyone but women for what women are doing. Women are clearly not responsible for their own behavior - it's all the fault of the patriarchy, amirite?

The 'woman as victim' camp really needs to get over itself.

"And of course there's scienctific evidence that men benefit in a marriage more"

Bullshit. The only thing I've ever seen that would even hint at this are findings that married men tend to have better health than unmarried men. However, the reason for that better health has been shown to be a result of better diet and more regular doctor visits. A man doesn't have to be married to eat better and go in for checkups. On the flip side, divorced men - of which half of all married men will eventually become - have been shown to have a plethora of health, economic and social ills compared to never married men in the same age group. So, any marginal advantage marriage even *might* confer is pretty well neutralized by the 50/50 statistical risk of divorce and the ill effects that would bring.

tl;dr - Society isn't forcing females to be gold diggers with any form of terrible discrimination against women, and men don't lose anything by just saying 'no' to such exploitation.