In the early 1990s I interviewed a representative of the vending machine industry who told me that one of the most revolutionary developments in his business was the installation of coffee and tea dispensers in new office buildings. "Think of it," he said excitedly, "women office workers will no longer have to make tea for their male colleagues. They'll have time for more productive work."

It didn't sound revolutionary to me. Why didn't the male colleagues just make their own tea? The representative smiled at my ignorance of how the world really worked. He believed that Japanese business culture was on the cusp of a great change, where the kind of housekeeping chores that female office workers traditionally handled would be automated. Women could then take their place on the front lines of business.

Based on what went down on NHK April 1, it appears a change still hasn't come, automation or no automation. As part of its occasional series of discussion specials titled "Nihon no, Korekara (Japan From Now)," the public broadcaster tackled the gender divide, inviting a cross section of men and women from all walks of life to talk about "Women's Anger and Men's Real Feelings."