Japanese Company Puts The “Men” in “Menstrual Pain”
Male workers at a Japanese company were given the opportunity to experience period pains, proving that even Japanese men will do anything to get out of working.
By Elon Altman · March 20, 2024
Woman wearing a mask to hide her smile. Wikimedia/Creative Commons
Disclaimer: While this article is dialed in with real facts, there are also periods of painful satire.
A Japanese telecom company is giving its male employees cramps, and not just from assembling hundreds of phones per day. The company, Exeo, is aiming to create an environment where the men at the company, making up over 90% of the workforce, would be more understanding of their female counterparts’ monthly aches and pains. They’re doing this with the help of a “Perionoid” device, which sends electric signals to the lower abdominal region of its wearer, to induce the cramping sensation experienced by women during their period. The device was created by researchers at Nara Women’s University and start-up Osaka Heat Cool (company slogan: “Let’s Make Men Suffer Too!”).
“It hurts. Oh my goodness!”
Exio believes there is a real need for this experiment. Although it’s a legal requirement for Japanese companies to allow women to take menstrual leave, 44% of women do not take any time off, according to a survey by Deloitte Tohmatsu Group. One reason is that the time off is not required to be paid, and many women say the only way they’ll take off for PMS is if there’s PTO.
One man who wore the Perionoid device said the pain was almost as intense as when everyone got food poisoning from the room temperature sushi at Exio’s last company party. The women at the company watched the men writhing in pain with glee. One remarked, “the company gave us the choice of receiving equal pay as the men, or using that money to bring in this expensive machine to give them period cramps. We all voted for the cramps, and we stand by that decision. Hopefully, this can become a monthly event.”
"I now understand women have to work while fighting this pain every month. It’s actually amazing how women can do that. I really respect them."
Overall, the Perionoid device was a success with Exeo’s male staff, but some employees were hoping for a less painful way to understand women’s period cramps. One employee suggested setting up a hidden camera in the women’s bathroom so he could see first-hand what his female coworkers were really going through. He was promptly referred to Human Resources and then suspended without pay.