According to the traditional Japanese calendar, this year is Hinoe-Uma, or the “Fire Horse” year, which recurs every 60 years.

The last time it came around in 1966, the number of babies born in that year shrank 25 percent from the preceding year, creating a sizable dent in Japan’s population pyramid.

I am one of those Hinoe-Uma babies, and a woman, to boot.

But contrary to society’s old, deep-seated superstition that Hinoe-Uma women are “fiery and nasty by temperament,” I personally do not recall ever being subjected to such groundless prejudice.

That said, however, I grew up feeling always conscious of how few my contemporaries........

© The Asahi Shimbun