Actually I meant it as a Western value, in reference to the fact that women in Japan often leave the workforce to focus on the home full-time. In the West, being a stay at home mom is not really acceptable socially, at least in major cities.

It’s definitely complicated though, as the salaryman phenomenon shows. No simple and straightforward answers.

I don't think there's any social judgement for a woman to quit her job and become a stay at home mom. I think it's only less popular in the US due to lack of financial freedom to pull that off.

I do noodle around this thought in my head though that socially accepting women to work ended up just making family lives harder. If take the assumption that corporations aren't generally giving in how they raise salaries and such, it seems like women were onboarded into the workplace but men and women just share the same slice of pie that men had before the change took place. So instead of a man making X$s a year to raise a family, it's just the same 2 * (X$ / 2) and now the kid has to be raised in daycare which I believe is less beneficial than being raised their parents, dad or mom. This is definitely a showerthought and not something I feel strongly for. It's just more of a what-if question.