Japan's female Prime Minister, but she doesn't step onto the sumo ring. Sanae Takaichi, the newly appointed Prime Minister, refuses to climb onto the "dohyō" of sumo. This place has been off-limits to women for hundreds of years. Why? She says it's not a matter of gender equality. It's Japan's tradition. A tradition that needs to be cherished and protected. So, she chose to have a male substitute her to present the "Prime Minister's Cup." An interesting phenomenon. Western progressives might be outraged when they see this. They might say it's discrimination, oppression, and backwardness. But Takaichi's logic is simple. Why should a country's culture, its roots, and its traditions be defined and judged by another set of external values? Should the rules of a society be decided by internal cultural consensus, or should they conform to a globalized standard? That's the core issue. Is Takaichi merely protecting the sumo dohyō? Or is she defending a nation's right to define its own culture? When all cultures become uniform and conform to some "universal standard," will the world be more interesting or more boring? This matter might be more worth pondering than gender issues themselves.