The percentage of men and women in Tokyo believing in traditional gender roles has sharply dropped in the past decade, Tokyo Metropolitan Government officials said Monday.

Among women, 14.4 percent said men should work and women should stay at home, while among men, the figure was 22.9 percent, according to the officials. The government surveyed some 1,500 randomly selected adults in Tokyo in December 1997, with 70.4 responding.

In a similar poll in 1988, 53.5 percent of women and 63.5 percent of men in Tokyo said they tend to support traditional gender roles regarding work. The latest poll also showed that between 70 percent and 80 percent of pollees believe that men are treated better than women in various areas, such as politics, social practices and on the job.

The sense of gender inequality has not changed much since the 1985 survey, the officials added.

Opinions also differ over women's careers, the poll found. It showed that 51.2 percent of male respondents think women should have a job that does not interfere with their families; 35.7 of the female respondents held that opinion.

While 53.2 percent of women in their 20s said both men and women should hold jobs, only 15.1 percent of women in their 50s and 26.3 percent in their 60s agreed, according to the report.