2025 saw a new slice of Japanese internet slang: sasu-kyū (さす九). It’s short for “sasuga Kyūshū” or “that’s so Kyushu” as a way to sarcastically call out people on social media for sexist views. The phrase mainly stems from the Kyūshū danji stereotype of a tough, blockheaded, man’s man.
However, what started as an online catchphrase grew into a nationwide debate about gender roles, regional identity, and whether Kyushu really deserves a reputation for being sexist.
Rewinding a few steps: how the debate started
The debate kicked up after the Fukuoka-based newspaper, West Japan Shimbun, published an article in March 2025 about the then-new term sasu-kyū.
The X post for the article alone got around 290 million impressions, with thousands of users responding. Many shared personal experiences of traditional gender expectations, discrimination in the workplace, and patriarchal family dynamics. However, a lot of Kyushu residents objected, saying that the label unfairly stigmatized an entire region.
The debate touched a nerve because in Japanese popular culture, the Kyūshū danji stereotype runs pretty deep. Four Kyushu newspapers conducted a survey in 2022 asking about people’s perception of the stereotype, and over 2,100 people responded.
The survey found that most people who heard the phrase Kyūshū danji immediately thought “domineering husband,” “stubborn,” and “male superiority.” However, it also found that over half of the respondents didn’t believe the stereotype should be perpetuated to future generations.
The gender divide was particularly striking. Nearly two-thirds of women opposed preserving the stereotype, while a majority of men supported it.
Kyūshū danji and its historical origins
To understand how the Kyūshū danji stereotype developed in the first place, historian Haraguchi Izumi says that you have to look at the Meiji Restoration period.
Around that time, many police officers came from the former Satsuma domain (present-day Kagoshima). Their speech and mannerisms (such as, “Oi, kora!“) sometimes intimidated folk outside of Kagoshima. Satsuma also had a relatively high meat consumption, which helped bump up the average height. That, of course, only made them seem that much more threatening.
Over time, the image of the imposing Satsuma man expanded into a broader stereotype for all of Kyushu.
Ironically, Sada Masashi, a singer-songwriter whose 1979 hit song Kanpaku Sengen is often associated with the image of the domineering husband, says that the stereotype is misleading. Sada jokes that Kyushu men aren’t overbearing or authoritarian as a rule. Rather, Kyushu women are just good at lifting their men up and making them think they’re all that.
Is there any truth to the stereotype?
The thing is, there kind of is something to the stereotype.
In 2022, when the Kyushu Economic Federation’s Gender Gap Index first came out, it ranked Kyushu near the bottom among Japan’s major regions. One of its biggest failings was (and still is) female representation in politics. There just aren’t many women in Kyushu local governing bodies.
But it’s not like the rest of Japan is in any place to criticize. A lot of prefectures have pretty abysmal female representation in government.
That’s just one metric. By other metrics, the area does okay. A 2025 student research project found that the chore gap (i.e., the average amount of housework done by men vs. women) in Kyushu was about the same as the rest of the country.
Other surveys found that Kyushu fathers tend to be pretty involved in childcare, a nice positive. It’s certainly the polar opposite of the “traditional” motif of the father leaving all the parenting to the mother.
Some who argue that Kyushu is more sexist than the rest of Japan have pointed to the region’s relatively high birth rates. They accuse the region’s patriarchal values of forcing women to stay home and give birth.
However, Shigenaga Shun, the president of the Kyoto University Geography Research Society, says higher birth rates mainly reflect the higher proportion of women in western Japan vs. the east. Western prefectures like Kagoshima skew female among people in their 20s and 30s, in part because the expectation to care for aging parents has historically fallen on women there rather than on the eldest son. Since women are the ones who give birth, more women in the region means a higher birth rate.
Rooting out traditional gender roles isn’t just a Kyushu issue
Despite Japan roasting Kyushu for being “the most sexist,” the rest of the country isn’t far behind. Japan as a whole (not just Kyushu) is ranked 118th out of 148 countries in gender equality.
Much of Japanese society has a narrow view of what women’s roles should be. Even today, but especially in smaller communities, people expect women to take on hosting, serving, or support roles in workplaces and family gatherings.
According to gender expert Shirakawa Tōko, one of the biggest reasons women move away from their hometowns is traditional gender expectations. Many of these women can’t find employment opportunities, or might have family who pressure them to marry and start popping out babies.
Ultimately, the sasu-kyū controversy reveals less about Kyushu than about Japan’s ongoing struggle with gender equality. Most experts conclude that Kyushu is hardly the only place bogged down by the issues highlighted by sasu-kyū. The whole country, they contend, needs to work on creating an equal playing field for men and women.
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Sources
男尊女卑やゆ「さす九」SNSで拡散 性別による無意識の思い込み調査、九州の傾向は 西日本新聞
九州の男尊女卑やゆ「さす九」波紋、男女で対極的な反応も…識者指摘、ジェンダー格差は「全国の問題」「少子化の要因にも」 弁護士ドットコムニュース
「さす九」が照らす全国のジェンダー格差 人口流出を嘆く前に…若い女性が地方を離れる3つの理由 弁護士ドットコムニュース
「九州が男尊女卑だから」ではない…「若い女性が消える東北」と「残る九州」で出生率格差が拡大した真相 PRESIDENT Online
「男はそげんことせんでよか！」SNSで拡散される”九州の男尊女卑”を揶揄する「さす九」の実態 一方で「イクメン力が高い」の調査結果に九州人も納得する理由 マネーポストWEB
男尊女卑な傾向は”九州”だけの問題か？ 佐賀在住の編集者が語る「さす九」騒動…問題の根源は「都会VS地方」ではないか デイリー新潮
「九州男児」と言えばどの県？ トップは4割超で他を圧倒 イメージ「亭主関白」「がんこ」「男尊女卑」…《国際男性デー・九州4紙アンケート》 南日本新聞デジタル
九経連が新たに「九州ジェンダーギャップ指数」を策定 九州経済連合会
九州は男尊女卑が強いわけじゃない？ ―九州と日本全国の男女の家事時間の差でみる「さす九」について― 名古屋大学（高校生研究発表）
さす九 Wikipedia (日本）
なぜ「さす九」や「九州男児」と言われる？ 明治の警察官に「薩摩の出身」が多かったことで「九州の男＝威圧的」のイメージに（島崎晋） 歴史人（Internet Archive）