The difference between Japan and England

As I told you in the class I used to live with my host family for four months. This family consists of four members, father, mother, two children. And they usually have few a international students in the house like me. I can't say it's a general English family but all I experienced is based on the experience there. In this house the roles of the mother and father are really flexible and interchangeable. My host mother is working as an education adviser at school in quite a high position. She is full of ambition and has a sense of achievement. Also she tends to be away from home because she's always busy with meetings and presentations at school and with the local government. On the other hand my host father used to work at school as an Art teacher but after retiring he has worked as a buyer of paintings. He often goes to France and London to buy and sell some paintings, but his work is usually flexible and irregular. That's why my host father usually tends to do housework including cooking, looking after children and organising international students. For example it was my host father who taught me the house rules which are about how to use facilities and general and useful information about Brighton such as transportation, local shops and restaurants. At first it was easier to get to know my host father than the mother, which was not what I had expected. I've seen families with husbands and wives share the housework if they both work, but it was surprising that a man does more housework than the woman.
In Japan it's getting more common and could happen but I could say Japanese society tends to be dominated by men. But it keeps changing and it is true I actually can see the change in these days. For example, my father didn't use to do housework at all when I was a child even though my mother was working as well. But recently he started helping my mother wash the dishes, gardening, cooking and shopping. My mother has kept saying and trying to persuade him for a long time and he started to help her eventually. Another example, me and my boyfriend used to live together and we shared the housework. I usually cooked the meal and he washed the dishes and cleaned the house. It didn't happen in the generation of my grandparents and or in my parents' generation. But nowadays it's becoming popular and common in Japan. I think one of the reasons is the influence of western countries and broadcasts. If you watch the TV you will see many TV programmes telling you about modern society in which men do housework as well as women and women work really hard and are promoted as well as men. These things encouraged people to have an equal idea about men and women and this idea has already been established in Japan but there are still disadvantages for women. Woman have a desire to have a family and children and a need for a stable situation both financially and mentally. Men tend to like competition and the need for adventure and ambition and they can't live without a sense of achievement. They tend not to like to stay in the same situation or to be tied up and they prefer change rather than steadiness. That's why they have a fear of commitment. Thus they have different ideas about their work and they put importance on different things. That is why men tend to put an emphasis on their achievement or their work in their life, while women tend to put an emphasis on their family in their life. I think this generalisation about men and women are meaningful and helpful because sometimes it's difficult to understand them because of different values. But I don't agree with the stereotypes such as 'Women in the kitchen, men go to work.' I hope Japanese society becomes more equal and we can see my host family's house as a common thing.