SMITH, Robert J. - Gender Inequality in Contemporary Japan

The Society for Japanese Studies
Gender Inequality in Contemporary Japan

Author(s): Robert J. Smith
Source: Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Winter, 1987), pp. 1-25
Published by: The Society for Japanese Studies
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ROBERT J. SMITH
GenderInequalityin Contemporary
Japan
It has been suggested recently that the time has come for those who have
focused too narrowlyon the position of women in Japanesesociety to re-
cast the terms of their inquiry as the study of gender. Such a shift will
broadenand enrich our understandingof Japanesesociety and culture, it is
claimed, because "gender is a relationalconcept and considering gender
. . . requires that all domains be examined for the relational structures they
embody."' It is indeed the case thatthe focus on "women'sroles" in Japan
has led to an emphasis on the domestic and familial, on exceptional fe-
male-dominateddomains such as those of the geisha and bar hostess, and
on the few women who compete successfully in male-dominateddomains.
While I would neverdismiss thatliteratureas unimportant,I agree that it is
time to move on to broaden areas of investigation to include the educa-
tional system, labormarket,and law. In these as in all otherdomainsof the
culture, men and women may or may not be differentiallydefined and dealt
with in very differentways. Therefore,to describethe situationonly of one
sex is to imply somethingaboutthe otherand thereinlies a problem, for the
implicationmay be wide of the mark.
Reportson women in the Japaneselabor force, for example, often in-
clude the findingthat few even asked about startingwages or salarybefore
acceptingthe job. Thatdepressingfigureis offered as evidence thatwomen
Earlierversions of this paper were presentedat Duke University, the University of Illi-
nois, Ohio State University,the Universityof Iowa, McGill University,and the Universityof
Washington.I am indebtedto all those whose searchingquestionsforced me to rethinkcertain
issues and to the anonymousreaderof the manuscriptI originally submittedto the Journal of
Japanese Studies.
1. Theodore C. Bestor, "GenderedDomains: A Commentaryon Research in Japanese
Studies," Journal of Japanese Studies, Vol. 11, No. 1 (1985), p. 284. This is a reportof a
workshopsponsoredby the Joint Committeeon JapaneseStudies of the AmericanCouncil of
LearnedSocieties and the Social Science ResearchCouncil.
Journalof JapaneseStudies, 13:1

? 1987 Society for JapaneseStudies
2 Journal of Japanese Studies
enter the labor market at so great a disadvantage and with such poor pros-
pects that it is not even worth their while to ask about pay because they will
in any case have to be content with whatever they receive. I know of no
study, however, that asks male workers if they inquired about starting pay.
I have asked several people that question myself and checked with re-
searchers who have some knowledge of the situation. Without exception
their guess is that men are only marginally more likely than women to
know what their starting wage or salary will be.2 In this domain and with
respect to this particular issue, then, gender is irrelevant. The relevant cate-
gory is that of workers entering the labor force where, for men and women
alike, alternatives are few.
In the domain of language an analogous situation exists. As Jorden3 has
pointed out, in linguistic studies of the Japanese language there is a lot of
material on what is called feminine speech, but rarely do we find a separate
treatment of anything called masculine language. "The implication is that
masculine Japanese is . . . part of the language proper and that feminine
Japanese is a deviant variety which departs from the norm."4 Even more
relevant to the discussion at hand is her description of what is usually
called feminine language:
Femininelanguagecan be describedin terms of featuresthat occur almost
exclusively in the language of females and featuresthat are, qualitatively
or quantatively,more typical of the languageof females in a given context.
But more frequently,feminine languageis characterizedby certainfeatures
which occur in a particularcontext or with a markedfrequency.The most
strikingexample is the feature of politeness. Given the socialization pro-
cess which trainsJapanesewomen to be polite and subservientto men, it
follows that the honorific and formal varieties of Japaneselanguage are
used more frequentlyby women. This does not mean that the forms them-
selves are feminine, but ratherthat their frequentuse and their occurrence
in certainsocial situationsare typical of female usage. Thus, a polite form
that would be used by a man only when talking to a person of ex-
2. For a discussion of this and many relatedissues see Glenda S. Roberts, "Non-Trivial
Pursuits:JapaneseBlue-CollarWomen in the Lifetime EmploymentSystem" (Ph.D. diss.,
Cornell University, 1986), especially Chapter4. Bandfoobserves that "Even though young
employees are given poor status and low pay, if they persist with the organization,they will
graduallybe promotedand their salary increased. The company and the employees calculate
lifetime earnings, not initial salary." See Bando Mariko Sugahara, "When Women Change
Jobs," Japan Quarterly, Vol. 33, No. 2 (1986), p. 177. As Roberts conclusively demon-
strates, however,pdto make the transitionto the statusof regularemployee so rarelythatthey
seldom advancesignificantlyon the wage scale howeverlong their service to the company.
3. See EleanorJorden, "Feminine Language" and "Masculine Language," Kodansha
Encyclopediaof Japan (1983), Vol. 2, pp. 250-52 and Vol. 5, pp. 124-25, respectively.
4. Jorden,"MasculineLanguage,"p. 124.
Smith: GenderInequalityin ContemporaryJapan 3
tremelyhigh positionmightbe used by a womanin talkingto a casual

acquaintance.5
So we may agree that gender is a relationalconcept. And yet, many
years ago the British social anthropologistEvans-Pritchardwrote: "Ulti-
mately the [issue of the] status of women goes beyond the scope of social
analysis. It is fundamentallya moral question."6 I endorse that judgment
wholeheartedly,yet surely social analysis still has its place. If it serves no
other function it does at the very least lend credibility and plausibility to
whatevermoral position one may in the end adopt. What follows is a dis-
cussion of the position of women in Japanese society broadly defined,
touching on several domains, and drawing gender-based contrasts and
similaritieswhere these are warranted.
Japanesesociety is not at all unusualin the explicitness of its expecta-
tion that men behave like men, women like women. From early childhood
the words otokorashii(manly;masculine)and onnarashii(womanly;femi-
nine) are applied to demeanor, activities, interests, and preferences. The
unstatedbut quite clear implication is that what is deemed appropriateto
one sex is by definitioninappropriateto the other. In this and myriadother
ways the complementarityof male and female competence is presentedas
the ideal. As we shall see, neither sex is viewed as totally helpless or in-
competent;both men and women are accordedequal respect for the effec-
tive, accurateperformanceof their respective gender-specific roles. Yet,
viewed from the standpoint of society's requirementsof its members,
women are conceived to serve an auxiliaryfunction, albeit a crucially im-
portantone, for it has been defined as their responsibilityto offer the kind
of private, domestic supportthatenables men to make their way in the pub-
lic world of affairs. Neither can manage alone; marriage, therefore, is a
partnership,matching two people of very different abilities regarded as
necessary to the creationand maintenanceof the family unit.7
In terms of status, however, it is overwhelminglythe case that men out-
rankwomen. This cannot be universallytrue, of course, for in Japanthere
are female company presidents and section chiefs, a few princesses, and
some powerful women in the art world and demi-monde. Nonetheless,
5. Jorden,"FeminineLanguage,"p. 251.
6. E. E. Evans-Pritchard,"The Position of Women in Primitive Societies and in Our
Own (1955)," in Evans-Pritchard,The Position of Womenin Primitive Societies and Other
Essays in Social Anthropology(New York:Free Press, 1965), p. 56.
7. See WalterD. Edwards,"Ritualin the CommercialWorld:JapaneseSociety Through
Its Weddings" (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 1984), especially pp. 179-80 and 185-89,
for a discussion of marriagedefined as a partnershipof two persons of unequal status and
"complementaryincompetence."
given a hypotheticalencounterbetween a man and woman, any Japanese

can predict with reasonablecertaintythat the speech forms used, seating
arrangement,and style of interactionall will demonstratethe superiority
of the male and subordinatestatus of the female. Both men and women
sharethatexpectation. So pervasiveare these markersof genderinequality
thatthey providethe groundupon which the behaviorand attitudesof men
and women towardone anotherultimately are based. For the exceptional
woman is just that-a person who by virtue of position, power, or accom-
plishmentscannotbe dealt with routinely.One solutionto the ambiguityof
relative statusthus posed is to treather as sociologically male.
Given the irreducibleinequalityof the sexes, it is importantnonethe-
less to see that as members of Japanese society they necessarily share a
great deal. One of the featuresof that society both must deal with is that
the individualis offered few options in life. Writingof the hiring of male
universitygraduatesby Japan'slargecompanies, for example, Jolivetpoints
out thatthe candidatesinterviewedfall in the narrowage-rangeof 22 to 25.
The process, which begins in July, is completed when an informalmutual
commitment is made on the following November first. "The peculiar-
ity, then, of the Japanesesystem of hiring was the limitationin period and
age group; there was no chance of employment outside this framework,
and students' choices were guided by what was possible, not what was
dreamedof. "8 It is conceivable, of course, that a Japanesestudentof mine
was right when she observed some years ago thatafter living in the United
States for a while she was convinced thatJapanesehave more options than
they thinkand Americansfewer. Howeverthatmay be the fact remainsthat
the sense that options are limited reinforces the notion that men and
women alike shouldpreparethemselvesto make the best of what life has to
offer. Lebra'sbook on Japanesewomen bears the apt subtitle "Constraint
andFulfillment."9It has alwaysseemed to me that, althoughmen'slives are
somewhatless constrained,they too are requiredto seek fulfillmentwithin
the narrowconfines of a limited range of possibilities.
Many discussions of the place of women in Japanesesociety begin with
an assessmentof how far they have come. The assumption,whetherexplic-
itly statedor merely implied, is thathoweverfar that may be, it has been a
slow journey.Those who wish to show thatJapanesewomen today occupy
8. See the report of a talk presented at a meeting of the Asiatic Society of Japan by
Muriel Jolivet, "The Impactof the Universityon the Hiring Process and the PromotionSys-
tem withinJapaneseCompanies,"Bulletin of the Asiatic Society of Japan, No. 4 (1986), p. 3.
More detailed informationcan be found in MurielJolivet, L'universiteau service de I'econo-
miejaponaise (Paris:Economica, 1985).
9. TakieSugiyamaLebra,Japanese Women:Constraintand Fulfillment(Honolulu:Uni-
versity of Hawaii Press, 1984).
a far more advantageousposition in their society than was the case in the
past will, of course, stress the greatchanges thathave takenplace since the
end of WorldWarII. Those who lamentthe disadvantagedposition they are
seen to occupy still ordinarilyemploy one of two strategies. The first of
these is to argue that women in prewarJapanwere severely oppressed-
and remain so. The second strategy is to maintainthat the oppression of
women in prewartimes was not so great as has been alleged, but that they
have nonetheless made little headwayin the past forty years.
There have, of course, been many far-reachingchanges since Japan's
catastrophicdefeat in 1945. The following incident I think points up the
characterof some of the more fundamentalones as well as the reactionof
youngerJapanesewomen to them. In the late 1950s I was on a tour-buson
the islandof Kyushu. It was still a time when bus driverswere male and the
attendants-called bus-girls-were young women. It was the kind of job
much sought afterby the daughtersof farmhouseholdsbetween graduation
from middle school and marriage,for it was light work and consideredre-
spectable enough for a young lady intending to marry soon. As our bus
passed places of note, this teenager informedus of their local or historical
importance,filled the intervalswith stories and songs, and otherwiseenter-
tained the passengers. Demurely dressed in the uniform and cap of the
company, she employed an extremely polite level of speech.
Just as my attentionwas beginning to flag, the bus took a turnonto the
coastal highway and the girl directedour attentionto a small island lying a
few hundredyards off shore. "This is called Amadake Island," she in-
toned, "on which there is a shrineto the deity of the local fishermen. Until
aboutten years ago women were not allowed to set foot on it because of its
sacredcharacterand their inherentlypollutingnature.Now that the restric-
tion has been lifted women go there to worship and gather mussels." Fair
enough, I thought, and almost missed her concluding comment, delivered
without any noticeable change of tone: "Nothing untowardseems to have
occurredas a consequence of the lifting of the ban."
There were hundredsif not thousandsof such places in prewarJapan,
where it was felt the mere presence of a woman might bring down the
wrathof the gods. By the time I took my bus-tourthe gods themselves had
been broughtdown and the whole structureof indigenousbelief shaken to
its foundations.Women had set foot on AmadakeIsland after centuries of
being barredfrom it, yet, she was saying, there had been no tidal waves,
the fish had not all died, the village fleet had not been lost at sea. It had
turnedout-almost certainly-that the presence or absence of women in
such a place had nothing whatsoeverto do with the cosmic order.
If that is what she thought, I submit that in all likelihood her mother
and grandmotherhad observed the ban on women in full faith that the men
were right to monopolize the rites and grounds of the deity. I think it
equally likely thatboth women had since gone there to worshipand gather
mussels for theirfamily'stable. Some traditionsfade very quickly in Japan.
As we shall see, others do not.
Let us considerthe legal position of women in Japanin the period from
1870 to 1945-roughly from the restorationof imperialrule following the
overthrowof the Tokugawashogunateto the surrenderof Japanat the end
of WorldWarII. It clearly derived from the low estate to which women of
the warriorclass, which had ruledthe countryin the precedingperiod, had
fallen. In the Confucianview it was both naturaland virtuousthat a woman
throughoutthe course of her life obey three men in turn:her father in her
youth, her husbandin her maturity,and her son, as head of the household,
in her old age. Women were incompetent,barredfrom carryingout legal
acts without the permissionof their husbands.A husbandhad the right to
administer,use, and retainthe profitsaccruingfrom any propertybrought
to the marriageby the wife.
The household, as embodied in the Civil Code of 1898, was a legal
entity headed by a male, save for interim periods when a woman might
hold the position until such time as an appropriatemale head could be
found. The head of the household exercised extensive authorityover the
lives of its members, for it was he who decided on the family's domicile,
gave permission for its childrento marry,and sent back sons' wives who
failed to meet the requirementsof his house. The chief cause of the rou-
tinely early divorces of the period, of course, was that the woman had
failed to bear a child who could carryon the family line into the next gen-
eration of succession to the headship. Contraryto popularimpression, a
woman also could secure a divorce underterms of the code, but only with
great difficulty. The crime of adultery was grounds for divorce, for ex-
ample, but for the husbandit was requiredonly that he discover the act of
adultery.For the wife to obtain a divorce on these grounds, the husband
had to have been convicted of the crime in a court of law.'0 There are
innumerableexamples of such gender disparity in the legal position of
individuals.
Small wonder then that for many years prior to the surrenderin 1945
liberalelements in Japanhad been attemptingto revise the civil code. Re-
cently I came across a poignantcommenton the meaningof the household
system for women of the time. NakanoTakashi,one of Japan'sleading soci-
ologists, has publisheda book that is an annotationof one year'sentries in
10. See J. E. de Becker, AnnotatedCivil Code of Japan, Volume III (Yokohama:Kelly

and Walsh, 1910), pp. 73-75.
a diary kept by his mother.The year is 1910.11In the introductionhe writes

of the many occasions, before her deathat the age of 88, on which they had
discussed the contents of the diary. She had at first been uneasy about his
plans to publish it, but he reportsthat one day she said, "Go ahead. Per-
haps those who read it will understandhow severely women were op-
pressed by the old household system."
Althoughno law differentiatedmen from women with respectto educa-
tional opportunity,the de facto differencesbetween them were very great.
In place by 1900, the modernschool system offered roughly the same cur-
riculum to boys and girls throughthe four (later six) years of compulsory
education.After reachingthatlevel, however,theirpathsdivergeddramati-
cally. Most girls did not go on, while boys enteredeither a five-yearmiddle
school or vocational school. Those girls who did continue might enter a
four- or five-yearhigher school with a curriculumheavily weighted toward
what Americans used to call home economics. Above these levels were
several others, but few women attendedthem and almost none entered a
national university. Behind this obvious discriminationlay the quite ex-
plicit dictumthat "learningis unnecessaryfor women," 12 and the clear rec-
ognition on the part of parentsthat an over-educateddaughterwould fare
poorly in the marriagemarketof the times. In the Meiji period the proper
role for the adult woman came to be defined as the dual one of good wife
and wise mother-a slogan that does not, as is often assumed, represent
the survivalof a sturdyConfucianprinciple, but ratheris the Japanesever-
sion of the nineteenth-centuryWesterncult of female domesticity-a di-
rect borrowingof the 1880s and 1890s.13 A clear exposition of the ideologi-
cal position is given by Baron Kikuchi Dairoku, at one time Minister of
Educationand Presidentof both Tokyo and Kyoto Universities:
11. NakanoTakashi,Meiji yonjusannenKyoto:aru shoka no wakazumano nikki(Tokyo:

Shin'yosha, 1981).
12. Kikuchi Kan, novelist and founder of the renowned literary periodical Bungei
shunju, wrote, "Cases are extremely rarein which learningalone is demandedof a woman."
Acknowledging that education is essential for a woman who wishes to become an attorney,
teacher,or memberof an office staff, he suggests that "good sense, tact, care, gentleness, and
generosity are . . . much more useful in a housewife than learning." Concludingthat "even
the girls' school today stresses learningtoo much," he urges women'seducationalinstitutions
to teach them "how to createa happyhome life." See Kan Kikuchi, "Womenand Marriage,"
ContemporaryJapan, Vol. 9, No. 1 (1940), pp. 55-60.
13. See Sharon L. Sievers, "Feminist Criticism in JapanesePolitics in the 1880s: The
Experience of Kishida Toshiko," Signs, Vol. 6, No. 4 (1981), pp. 602-16, and Robert J.
Smith, "Making Village Women into 'Good Wives and Wise Mothers,"'"Journal of Family
History, Vol. 8, No. 1 (1983), pp. 70-84.
8 Journalof Japanese Studies
Ourfemale education,then, is based on the assumptionthatwomen marry,

and thatits object is to fit girls to become "good wives and wise mothers."
The question naturally arises what constitutes a good wife and wise
mother, and the answer requiresa knowledge of the position of the wife
and motherin the householdand the standingof women in society and her
statusin the State. . .. [The] man goes outside to work to earn his living,
to fulfill his duties to the State; it is the wife's part to help him, for the
common interestsof the house, and as her share of duty to the State, by
sympathyand encouragement,by relieving him of anxieties at home, man-
aging household affairs, looking afterthe householdeconomy, and, above
all, tending the old people and bringingup the childrenin a fit and proper
manner. 14
Lest the reader imagine this statement represents a hopelessly outdated

sentiment, I offer in evidence for my claim that it is very much alive today
a passage from a speech given by the president of an apparel company to its
assembled employees, most of whom were women, in 1985:
Thinkingof Japan'spast, when we ask who was greater,men or women, it

is true that it was the men who were in the foreground,engaged in activi-
ties such as politics, economics, and education. But in the background
there were always the women who, with firm hand, maintainedthe house-
hold and broughtup the children, encouragingtheir husbandsand sharing
their hardships. . . . The post-war recovery, which required tremendous
strength,is also due to such women.
However,when I came to this realizationI began shakingwith fear. Nowa-
days, women have totally changed. The women who had a wonderfultradi-
tion and extraordinarystrengthhave now begun to fall. [long pause] They
no longer maintainthe household. They dislike raising children. That is
what it has come to. And women, just like men-perhaps more so-
have become lost in amusements. Today, who is going to maintain the
household?
Azumi is a company founded with the grand purpose of making women
beautiful, but beauty is not only a matterof form. A splendid heart and
beautifulspiritare even more important.I wantto makethis anniversaryan
occasion to instill this kind of thinkingfirmly into the women of Azumi.
[In the past], as fitting complementsto such splendid women, there were
great men. However, when the women changed the men began to fall as
well. Men no longerhave strength.Therearefew manlymen nowadaysand
I feel that is the result of this kind of [modern]woman."
14. DairokuKikuchi, Japanese Education(London:John Murray,1909), p. 266.

15. Roberts, "Non-TrivialPursuits,"pp. 199-200.
His employees received this message with mixed emotion, for most of
them work because they have to, find it difficult to manage both domestic
and job requirements,worry about the children, and feel they work hard
for their wages. These women blue-collarworkersfound a certain irony in
being told by their employer that woman'sproperplace was in the home,
looking after her husbandand children.
Despite the prevalence of such sentiments in the late nineteenth and
first half of the twentieth centuries, Japanese industry found an essential
place for women who had completedtheir educationbut were not yet mar-
ried. The country'sgrowth as an industrialpower simply would not have
proceeded as rapidlyas it did without the large labor force of young, un-
marriedwomen who worked in the textile factories and other light indus-
try. As the populationwas still largely rural, the majorityof these young
women came from farm families, as did the young men who made up the
conscript military forces. The factory girls worked in generally poor con-
ditions for very low wages that often went directly to their households or
into the pockets of the labor recruiters.They provided an inexhaustible
stream of readily controlled, generally compliant operatives whose em-
ploymenthistories were short, for women were expected to leave to marry
in their early twenties. Workingconditions did improveover the period in
question and there can be no doubt that many farm girls found life in the
factory far less rigorous than that in the fields, but one central fact re-
mains. Although large numbersof women in prewarJapanheld jobs at one
time or anotherduring their lives, with the rarestof exceptions none ever
had a career.
In sum, prewar Japan was a highly androcentric society in which
women lived out their lives at a disadvantagethat was not merely legally
defined. Marriage meant being separated from their natal families and
going into anotherwith the chief requirementthatthey bearchildren. Work
meant short-termemployment in dead-end jobs. Security, which lay in
conforming to the ideal of good wife and wise mother, was to be found
only in the domestic realm. Divorce rates were very high, and those who
failed to achieve domestic security were likely to meet a very grim fate
indeed. Underlyingall this is the prevailingsentimentheld by those who
constructedand operatedthe political, economic, and social systems. In
their view the good and virtuous woman-mother and wife, be it remem-
bered-was nonetheless a limited being. Women were thought to be less
intelligent than men, more emotional and so less rational, less reliable,
vindictive, potentially dangerous if not rigorously disciplined, and worst
of all, silly. It is a major irony of that system that the rearingof the men
who made it was largely entrustedto women and that the harshdiscipline
thoughtso necessary in the trainingof a young wife was administeredal-

most exclusively by her mother-in-law.
Ella Wiswell and I recently have offered a picture of ruralwomen in
Japanin the 1930s that seems to stand in sharpcontrastto the one I have
just presented.16The women of the farmingvillage of Suye in Kyushuwere
far less docile and acquiescentthanthe picturegiven abovewould appearto
suggest. They left or divorcedtheir husbandsand remarriedwith greatfre-
quency, sometimestakingtheirchildrenwith them despitethe generalview
thatthey belongedto theirfather'shousehold.Nevertheless,a close reading
of the book will show, I submit, thatmale dominancewas the rule and that
even those strong-mindedwomen lived out their sometimes colorful lives
in the intersticesof the system. Strongerby far than the stereotypeof the
good and virtuous(read, obedient)woman of prewarJapan,it is neverthe-
less the case that no one would ever mistakethe women of Suye for village
matriarchsor even suggest that there was anything like gender equality
there.
After 1945, then, did it all change?Much of it did, as a matterof fact,
and much that happenedwas the direct result of pressureon the Japanese
government by the American occupation forces. We need not under-
estimate the courage and dedication of those Japanese women who had
striven so valiantlybefore the war to improvetheir condition in society in
orderto see that had it not been for Japan'sdefeat and surrender,women
would never have come as far as they have done in the last forty years.
Article 14 of the 1947 Constitutionreads: "All the people are equal
underthe law and there shall be no discriminationin political, economic,
or social relationsbecause of race, creed, sex, social status, or family ori-
gin." The postwarconstitutionof Japan,it would seem, requiresno Equal
Rights Amendment.Article 24 reads:"Marriageshall be based only on the
mutual consent of both sexes and it shall be maintainedthroughmutual
cooperationwith the equal rights of the husbandand wife as a basis. With
regardto choice of spouse, propertyrights, inheritance,choice of domi-
cile, divorce, and other matterspertainingto the family, laws shall be en-
acted from the standpointof individualdignity and the essential equalityof
the sexes." This single articlerequiredextensive revision of the civil code,
for the legal basis of the old householdsystem had been swept away.
Surely greater assurancesof equality before the law could hardly be
asked for. It is a measureof the extent to which behavioraland attitudinal
changes lag behind statutethatone can say withoutany fear of responsible
contradictionthat women'sposition in Japanesesociety today is still very
16. RobertJ. Smith and Ella LuryWiswell, The Womenof Suye Mura(Chicago:Univer-
sity of Chicago Press, 1982).
far from the equality long guaranteedthem. Indeed, so clearly is this the
case that in 1985, afterextendedand acrimoniousdebate, an equal employ-
ment opportunitybill finally passed the Diet. The intent of its authorshad
been to guaranteeequal employmentopportunitiesto men and women, but
the bill's many critics charged that in its final form the law is far more
favorableto the interestsof employersthan those of employees. There can
be no doubt that it fails to provide effective sanctions against those who
violate its provisions, but it is too early to assess the impactof the Parityin
EmploymentLaw (Danjo Koyo Kinto Ho), which went into effect on April
1, 1986.
It was furtherthe concern of the Americansto improveeducationalop-
portunitiesfor women, an aim subsumedunderthe general programof re-
form designed to overhaulthe Japaneseeducationalsystem from top to bot-
tom. Article 3 of the FundamentalLaw of Educationreads: "All people
shall be given the opportunityto receive an equal educationcorresponding
to their ability. There shall be no discriminationin education because of
race, creed, sex, social status, economic position, or family origin." In
1984 a slightly higher proportionof girls than boys advancedfrom middle
school to high school (the figurefor girls was 95 per cent and for boys 92.8
per cent). In that same year 32.7 per cent of female and 38.3 per cent of
male high school graduateswent on to attendcollege or university.17
This apparentparity masks a significant difference in the kind and
qualityof educationavailableto the two groups, however.For in 1980 men
accounted for 82 per cent of all four-year college students; women ac-
countedfor 90 per cent of all junior-college students.Put anotherway, two
of every three female high school graduates continuing their education
went on to junior college, while nine of every ten males going on headed
for a four-year college or university.'8Furthermore,more than half the
courses offered in the junior colleges are essentially in home economics
and education. It is with considerablejustice that they are called modern
versions of the old schools for brides. Surveys of the attitudesof women
enrolled in two-year colleges repeatedlyproduce the finding that they see
themselves as preparingfor marriage.They plan to work until they marry
17. These Ministryof Educationstatistics appearin Reporton WorkingWomen(Tokyo:

Ministryof Labor, 1984). Between 1975 and 1984, while the proportionof females going on
to colleges of all kinds rose very slightly from 32.4 to 32.7 per cent, that for males actually
declined from 43.0 to 38.2 per cent.
18. Thomas P. Rohlen, Japan'sHigh Schools (Berkeley and Los Angeles: Universityof
CaliforniaPress, 1983), p. 85. For a review of changes in school enrollmentsfrom 1920 to
1980 see Ushiogi Morikazu, "PopulationGrowthand EducationalDevelopment," Population
of Japan, CountryMonographSeries No. 11 (New York:United Nations, Economic and So-
cial Commission for Asia and the Pacific, 1984), pp. 174-86.
or have their firstchild, and then take up the role of homemakerfor a time
before reenteringthe labor market. Some of Japan'smost highly educated
women, many of them with doctoratesfrom foreign universities, can find
teachingpositions only in these institutions,wherethey endurea high level
of frustrationand discouragement.
What of the small proportionof women who do attend the coeduca-
tional four-yearcolleges and universities?Not surprisingly,the great ma-
jority of them are in the humanities. There are as well several excellent
women'suniversitieswhereemphasisis on giving the studentsan education
fully equal to that offered in the better coeducationalinstitutions. Never-
theless, it is difficult to disagree with the assessment of the future of
women'seducationoffered by Okamura:
As long as society continues in the traditionalbelief that girls must sooner
or later marry, leave their families and be absorbed into their husband's
family, become dependenton him, and find their happinessin being mar-
ried to a man of high social and economic standing-as long as these con-
ventionalbeliefs remainprevalent,so will the currentsystem of educating
women persist.9
Let me now turn to the two most fundamentalchanges of the postwar

period-those in family law and those thathave occurredin the labormar-
ket. The promulgationof the new Civil Code of 1947 markeda shift of
major proportionsin the former. Most fundamentalof all was the total
eliminationof the household;in the law, at least, Japanbecame a land of
families in which men and women alike were guaranteedequal rights.
They may hold propertyseparatelyand both spouses are fully competent
legally. The rightto seek a divorce is grantedequally to both, and although
adultery is no longer a crime, it is grounds for divorce for both husband
and wife. Parentalauthorityin such mattersas permissionto marryis rec-
ognized only insofar as the parentsare the adult guardiansof their minor
children. Whereas the old code requiredimpartibleinheritance,the new
one does not. Should there be a division of propertyon the death of the
family head, females have the same rights in it as do males. In short, there
no longer exist any legal distinctions based on gender that deprive either
males or females of their rights.
Nonetheless, thereare formidablebarriersto a woman'sfull exercise of
those rights in the face of familial opposition, just as a wife still finds it
difficultto contest her husband'sdemandfor a divorce. Underthe current
civil code, anyone qualifying as a potential heir to a portion of an estate
19. Masu Okamura,ChangingJapan: Women'sStatus (Tokyo:InternationalSociety for

EducationalInformation, 1973), pp. 81-82.
may renouncehis or her share in favor of anotherclaimant. The recordsof

the family courts reveal that more than twice as many women as men re-
fuse their share of a parent'sestate.2"Clearly, the assets are going to their
brothers,with one notableexception. It may happen, upon the deathof the
father,thatthe widow and childrengatherto agree on the settlementof the
estate. The widow is eligible to receive one-half, the children to divide
the remainder.In some cases all the children but one and the widow will
renouncetheir claims after it has been agreed that one of the children will
accept both the assets and the responsibilityfor the care of the mother in
her old age. For thatreason, in these times, the heir may well turnout to be
a daughter.
In the matterof divorce we need only look at the figures on the distri-
bution of the types of divorce in Japan.There are two-consent and judi-
cial. Divorce by consent requiresonly that a simple form, impressed with
the personalseals of both spouses, be submittedto the authorities.Judicial
divorce involves either third-partyarbitrationor a trial. In 1900, 99.7 per
cent of all divorces were by consent; in 1980 the figure was still just under
90 per cent.2'In this statisticlies yet one more bit of evidence of the glacial
characterof fundamentalchange in the conjugal relationship. Divorce by
consent, it is well known, makes it notoriously easy for a husbandor his
family to force a woman to agree to an action she does not seek. Con-
versely, it is difficultfor a wife to press her husbandto accept a divorce he
does not want. The high percentageof divorces by consent may be taken as
a handy index of female powerlessnessin Japanesesociety.22
The second majorchange in the postwarperiod has occurredin the la-
20. Joy LarsenPaulson, "Family Law Reform in PostwarJapan:Succession and Adop-

tion" (Ph.D. diss., Universityof Colorado, 1983). Between 1954 and 1961, when recordsin-
dicated the sex of those requesting renunciationof share of an estate, two-thirds of those
making applicationwere women. Furthermore,'between1949 and 1980 therewas a decline of
70 per cent in the numberof requestsfor renunciation(148,192 to 44,549 cases), suggesting
thatthe matterincreasinglyis being settled informally.I see no reasonto doubtPaulson'sclaim
that the Family Courtcommissions were constitutedin such a way as to intimidatethe young
and females (althoughthereprobablywas no intentionto do so); I assume thatinformalmeans
for settling estates equally operateagainst their desires and interests.
21. Jinko d6tai tokei (Statistics on population trends) (Tokyo: Kiseisho [Ministry of
Health and Welfare], 1981), p. 279.
22. See Taimie L. Bryant, "MaritalDissolution in Japan:Legal Obstacles and Their Im-
pact," Law in Japan, Vol. 17 (1984), pp. 73-97, especially pages 94-97, where she dis-
cusses the prevalence of the practice of one spouse submitting divorce papers without the
knowledge or consent of the other. Such fraudulent"consent divorces" are easily obtained,
for only the impress of the personal seals of both parties and two witnesses on a form is re-
quired. The form may be sent in by mail or delivered by a thirdpartyto the appropriateward
office, which does not have even to notify the principalsthatthe documenthas been processed
(p. 95). The interpretationadvanced in the text, that this system operates chiefly to the dis-
bor force and women'splace in it. Any considerationof this complex issue
must begin with a discussion of two critical matters.The first, of course, is
the natureof Japaneseemploymentpractices, the structureof wages and
salaries, and the characterof the labor market. The second matter,by far
the more importantof the two in my view, is the currentstatusof the fam-
ily-and by extension the related issues of marriage, divorce, child-
rearing,and above all the tendencyof the Japaneseto divide the world into
two domains, that of women on the one hand and men on the other.
Japanesewomen, althoughprotectedby quite advancedlegislation, en-
ter the labormarketundermassive handicaps.They are so greatthatit is no
exaggerationto say that while most women at one time or anotherin their
lives hold down a job, it is still exceedingly rarefor a woman to pursue a
career outside the home. It is only slightly less rarefor a woman to find a
rewardingor challengingjob, and for the work they do, they receive some-
what less than60 per cent of a man'sincome, just as in the United States.23
Still, more than half of all Japanesewomen above the age of 15 work
outside the home today. Typically they enter the labor marketupon com-
pleting high school, junior-college, or university. Until recently they
tended to work for a few years-in effect, until they marriedat age 24 or
25. In 1980, however, 12.6 per cent of women between the ages of 25 and
39 had not yet married;24nevertheless, the employer typically expects a
woman to resign her position when she marries, or when she has her first
child, or at age 30, whetheror not she is planningto marry.There are sev-
eral advantagesto this system. The most obvious is that the employercan
keep takingon young female school graduatesat low wages, advancethem
slowly if at all, and ease them out withoutfurthercommitmentto them. For
theirpart, women save from their wages and salariesso that they can bring
some personalassets to theirmarriage-often referredto as a woman'strue
career. The beginnings of change can be seen in the tendency of women,
advantageof women, is my own. Bryant discusses the complexities of the situation in ex-
haustive detail.
23. For a stimulatinganalysis of the situationin the United States, see Victor R. Fuchs,
"Sex Differences in Economic Well-Being," Science, Vol. 232 (1986), pp. 459-64. His
major finding of interest in this context is that the economic well-being of American white
women did not improvebetween 1959 and 1983 despite all the positive changes in the labor
market and labor legislation, principally because they still bear primary responsibility for
raising children. The situationamong black women is even more bleak.
24. See Yoko Sato, "Workand Life of Single Women of the Post-WarGeneration"in
YasukoMuramatsu,ed., Proceedings of '83 TokyoSymposiumon Women:Womenand Work
(Tokyo: InternationalGroupfor the Study on Women and Kuala Lumpur:Asian and Pacific
DevelopmentCenter, 1983), pp. 199-216. For statisticson per cent of women marriedby age
cohort, see Statistical Bureau, Prime Minister'sOffice, 1980 Population Census of Japan,
Vol. 2, Table5, p. 80.
especially in the last decade, to stay on the job longer, even afterthey have
marriedand have children.
For women and their work prospects, probablythe most importantfea-
ture of the Japanese employment system is the nenko-seido, the age-
seniority system. Firms with more than 300 employees usually have this
system which, put simply, bases a worker'sincome on his chronological
age and years of service to the company. It offers the workers something
close to permanentjob security if they will be patientabout advancement,
predictablepay increases on which to base their plans for the future, and
company housing and several kinds of fringe benefits, all in returnfor the
worker'sloyalty and commitmentto stay with the companyuntil he retires.
Insofaras this system applies to anyone in the Japaneselabor force, it ap-
plies to the so-called regularworkers, almost all of whom are male, and
with whom the unions are almost exclusively concerned.
There are also temporaryand part-time workers. The nenko system
does not apply to them, nor are the unions interestedin them. Because the
temporaries,women and men alike, can be cut loose at any time, they are
not expected to demonstratesuch profounddegrees of loyalty to the firm as
are the regulars. When they resign their relationshipwith the company is
completely severed. Should a woman returnto work even at the same firm
after a lapse of ten or fifteen years, as many in their forties and fifties are
doing, with rareexceptions she will startat the beginning, for there is no
accrualof time spent in previous service, which means that her wages and
job responsibilityalike are held to a minimum. The distinctionbetween a
woman'sjob and a man'scareercould hardlybe drawnmore sharply.
It is often remarkedthatfar more women betweenthe ages of 35 and 54
are now in the labor force than ever before. That is true of the absolute
numbers, for the Japanesepopulationhas aged very rapidly and there is
a greatly expanded pool of women in that age range compared to the
past. However, the participationrate of women in the labor force has not
changed all that dramaticallybetween 1960, when it was 59 per cent, and
1983 when it reached 63.9. In 1984 over 60 per cent of women in their
thirtiesand two-thirdsof those in their forties were working (their average
age was 41.8), one of the highest rates of female labor-forceparticipation
in the capitalistworld.25Indeed, the percentageof women over forty who
are working is almost as high as that for not-yet-marriedwomen, and it is
theirentry into the labormarketthathas produceda steady rise in the num-
ber of women in temporary(pdto) jobs. In 1984, 90 per cent of all such
workerswere housewives.26
25. LaborForce Survey(Tokyo:PrimeMinister'sOffice, 1984).

26. JapaneseMinistryof Labor, Basic StatisticalSurvey of the Wage Structure(Tokyo,
Several factors accountfor the change in the labor marketfor women.

The first is the shortageof young labor that occurredin the 1970s, the re-
sult of the sharpdropin the birthratefollowing the passage of the law legal-
izing abortionand the increasedrates of attendanceof the young through
high school. Employerswere forced to turnto older women who could be
hiredon an equivalentlylow pay-scale. The second factor is the combined
effect of the consumer boom and an ever-increasingpush toward higher
levels of educationfor one's children.Most marriedwomen who have been
propelled into the labor marketto supplementfamily income tend to seek
jobs convenient to home so they can continue to dischargetheir domestic
duties as well. Because theirrole as wife and motherremainsundiminished
in importance,they are concerned to find employmentthat offers conve-
nient hours and is located close to home. Work is not an alternativeto
homemaking;it is an extension of the domestic role.
The Ministry of Labor, throughits Bureauof Women and Minors (it
goes without saying there is no Bureauof Men), has tried to enforce com-
pliance with the law, particularlythatprovisionguaranteeingequal pay for
men and women doing the same work. It has had some success, for today
the starting salaries of men and women are nearly the same. They soon
diverge, however, as the mechanismof nenko comes to affect the young
men but not their female counterparts.27
Employers, who have a ready rationale for their treatmentof female
workers,offer five majordefenses of their policies:
1. Womenhave less physical strength, less intelligence, and less com-
mitmentto work.
2. Marriedwomen carry the burdenof housework,and thereforehave
less energy to devote to theirjobs.
3. Women'sshortworkinglife makes it uneconomicalfor employersto
invest in their training.
1984). Pato are definedas workerswhose hoursdo not exceed 35 per week. Of the women in
the paid non-agriculturalworkforce,only 22.1 per cent are pdto; however, 95 per cent of all
pato are women.
27. In 1983, in the age group20-24, women'searningswere 87.7 per cent of men's.The
comparablefigure for those aged 40-44 was 50.4 per cent. However, a note of caution is
requiredin interpretingthese figures, for the educationallevel of young women today is far
higher than that of their counterpartstwenty years ago. But see the detailed data in Shino-
tsuka Eiko, Nihon no joshi rodod(Japan'swomen workers)(Tokyo:Tokyo-keizai shinpo sha,
1982), p. 186, which shows nevertheless that at every level of educationalattainmentand
numberof yearsof service to the company,the income of female employees is lower thanthat
of males. The New YorkTimes (April 8, 1984) reportson a study by the InternationalLabor
Organizationthat reveals that in the decade ending in 1983 Japanwas the only advancedna-
tion where the wage gap between male and female industrialworkershad widened, largely
because of growth in the service industryand because Japan'sbooming electronics and semi-
conductorfactoriesemploy women almost exclusively.
4. College graduatesare the worst risk because they enter the firm at
abouttwenty-twoand leave it in three or four years to get married.
5. Since women are not trained, they cannot rise in the wage scale by
taking on more demandingtasks.28
A common expectationof the young women hiredby a firm is that they
will provide tea for everyone (in additionto performingother duties) and
maintaina demureand pleasantmannertowardall. Preferencein hiring is
given to those who may be describedas suitablyornamental.In a recently
uncoveredpersonneldepartmentmemorandum,a majorJapanesefirm was
found to recommendagainsthiring severalcategoriesof female applicants.
The long list, which speaks volumes for an attitudestill very prevalentin
the white-collar and service sectors, includes the following: Be wary of
young women who wear glasses, are very short, speak in loud voices, have
been divorced, or are daughtersof college professors. It would be a serious
error,however,to imagine that such factors are nevertaken into accountin
the assessment of male job candidates and employees. In discussing the
situationin large companies, Jolivet29says that the qualities sought in the
hiring process are those that also determine chances for promotion after
the first ten years with a firm: "charactertraits were all-important-so-
ciability, dynamism, obedience, adaptability,the ability to inspire confi-
dence, tenacity, leadershipcapacity." She observes that male employees
"must also live morally upright lives, not tainted by scandal, and make
a good marriage." When a choice had to be made between candidates
equally qualified otherwise, some of the factors weighing against promo-
tion were taking all the vacationtime to which one is entitled, having "an
aggressive, gloomy or soft nature,"or taking "a too academic approach."
Let us turn now to the second and more importantof the two issues in
the postwarperiod thatI have alreadyreferredto-the Japanesefamily and
the ways it has changed-and focus on only some of its aspects that are
relevantto the topic at hand. One of the most fundamentaldistinctions in
Japanis that drawn between uchi and soto. Uchi is that which is within,
inside, private, "ours." Soto is the outside, public world. The prime ex-
ample of uchi is of course the family unit. Indeed, the word itself is often
used to mean exactly what Americansmean when they say "family." Uchi
no hito is a person of our family. Uchi is the house itself. It is, above all,
the domestic domainthoughtproperlyto be controlledby women, who are
responsible for its day-to-dayoperation, the care of its children, and the
managementof its budget. The domain of men is outside in the world of
28. Alice H. Cook and Hiroko Hayashi, WorkingWomenin Japan: Discrimination,Re-

sistance, and Reform(Ithaca:New YorkState School of Industrialand LaborRelations, Cor-
nell University, 1980), p. 28.
29. Jolivet, "Impact,"pp. 4 and 5.
work and public affairs. Typically, it is said, the woman rules the home,
while the man is the breadwinner.
It is this distinction that has had such a profoundeffect on the pres-
ent position and futureprospectsof women in the labor market. Suzanne
Vogel3( has describedwhat she calls the role of the professionalhousewife:
When a woman marries, she takes on a fulltime lifelong commitmentto a
job, specifically the job of taking care of her husband,their children, and
often other kin as well. And though some women attemptto combine the
career of housewife with a career outside the home, the difficulties they
encounteronly serve to underscorethe fact thatthe overwhelmingmajority
of women still adhereto the basic and traditionalidea of the good wife and
wise mother,and considertheirfamily responsibilitiesto be theirlife-work
and their profession. In contrast to that of the American housewife, the
Japanesewife's job is more clearly focused and does not include a good
many of the roles an Americanhousewife plays, such as hostess, conversa-
tionalist, entertainer,wage earner,keeperof worldlywisdom, nor even sex
object or lover. ...
In short, the marriedwoman'sduties and responsibilitiesare clearly set
out and as clearly delimited. It is the far more diffuse characterof the du-
ties of the Americanwife thatoften causes Japanesemarriedwomen newly
arrivedin the UnitedStates to express pity for Americanwomen, of whom
they feel too much is expected. Needless to say, however, feminists have
arguedthatVogel'sview of the housewife'scareeris identicalto thatheld by
Japanesemen, but not by women, who wantmore freedom. Yetit would be
unwise to overlook that most signal of virtues traditionallyascribedto the
Japanesewoman, one in which she is trainedby her motherfrom an early
age. That is the virtue of making the best of what life gives. Endurance,
forebearance,and developmentwithinthe constraintsimposedby one's life
are also expected of men-how much more so for women. My own guess
is thatVogel is right in thinkingthatthe majorityof women still adhereto a
conservativeview of properconjugal roles.
What kind of authoritydo women exercise in the domestic realm? In
many ways it is considerable, for to an extent unfamiliarto most Ameri-
cans the roles of husbandand wife are remarkablycomplementary-sepa-
rate, but each highly dependenton the other. Husbandsexpect to accord
their wives a greatdeal of power and autonomywithin the domestic realm.
Although the patternis said to be less common than it was only ten years
ago, a white-collarworkeror professional is quite likely to turn over his
30. Suzanne H. Vogel, "The ProfessionalHousewife," in Merry I. White and Barbara

Molony, eds., Proceedings of the TokyoSymposiumon Women(Tokyo:InternationalGroup
for the Study of Women, 1978), p. 150.
entire salary to his wife. I know men in their40s and 50s who do not even
know how much they make, for they have asked their employer to deposit
their checks directly to the family bank account, which is managedby the
wife. She is responsible, then, for budgeting and saving-up to and in-
cluding providing a generous spending allowance for her husband. This
practice is said by some to be eroding slowly, but the evidence is incon-
clusive.3' Whateverthe degree of its currentprevalence, Lebraremindsus
that it is incorrectto say that even the emblematicrole of wife-as-money-
manageris in fact gender-determined.The two financialresponsibilitiesof
earning and managing are clearly distinguishedand the latter is normally
assigned to the wife. But in the rare case where the husbandis incapaci-
tated and thereforehouseboundand the wife works outside, it is he who
manages the domestic finances.32
It is importantnot to overlook one of the majorreasonsthat women are
accorded such a degree of authorityand responsibilityin the home. It is
because men do not wish to be concerned with what is defined as the
woman'sworld, and wives commonly discouragetheir husbandsfrom ex-
pressing too much interestin such matters. Thirty years ago I knew many
older Japanese men who did not carry money or wear a watch and who
subsequentlynever bothered to learn to drive an automobile. It was the
wife's duty to pay, keep track of the time, and serve as chauffeur. What
must not be lost sight of is that this dependencyof the husbandon the wife
is the outcome of two very different,again complementaryperceptionsand
strategies. Women know that their greatest security lies in renderingthe
husbandas dependenton his wife as can possibly be managed. Japanese
women are extremely adept at this tactic. The man who cannot care for
himself must look to his wife to do so for him. This situationgoes a long
way towardexplainingthe low ratesof divorce, for marriage,which occurs
very late, is seen as a mutualcommitmentmade by two people of comple-
mentarycompetence. The man commits himself to providingfor his fam-
ily, the women to maintaininga comfortablehome for all. But, be it noted,
when push comes to shove, the power of the male proves infinitely greater
than that of the female. The brutalfact is that should a husbanddecide to
withdrawfinancial support, the carefully crafted career and vaunted do-
mestic authorityof the professionalhousewife will fall in ruins. The auton-
omy of the marriedwoman is wholly contingent. What has been said for
31. In an interview with Sahashi Kei, presidentof an all-female marketingconsulting
firm, for example, we are told that 74 per cent of all Japanesehusbandsstill hand over pay-
checks to their wives, but in the same article it is reportedthat surveys conductedin 1973 and
1982 showed a decline in this practicefrom 67 per cent to 55 per cent. See KittredgeCherry,
"BreakingNew Ground,"PHP (February1984), pp. 10-11.
32. Lebra, Japanese Women,p. 135.
the United States is perhapseven truerfor Japan:most women are only one
man away from poverty.
We are brought,then, to the final-one might say the ultimate-issue,
thatof the characterof conjugalrelations. It is a subjecton which the out-
sider comments diffidentlyand in full recognitionthat he may have got it
all wrong. Modesty is requiredof the analyst of this matter in any so-
ciety-how much more so when dealing with the Japanese,who are a very
privatepeople. Let me start at the beginning. Do the Japanesemarryfor
love? Some do. It may well be that an increasingproportionof first mar-
riages are based at least in parton love. Yeta significantpercentageof mar-
riages are still arranged,so difficult is it for young unmarriedwomen and
men to socialize casually with one anotheronce they are out of school.
Does Japanesemarriagelead to love? Indeed it may. After all, the prime
symbol of conjugal felicity is the elderly couple whose mutual affection
has grown thoughouttheir marriedlife together. It is commonly remarked
that after the children are marriedand gone from home comes the time
when a husbandand wife may enter into a period of genuinely compan-
ionate marriage, based on mutual affection, respect, and understanding.
Not all couples are so fortunate;in this Japanis very like many other so-
cieties, perhaps.Indeed, the numberof divorces soughtby women over the
age of thirty-fivehas risen steadily since the end of WorldWarII.33Thereis
little chance that they could remarryeven if they wished to do so. And
widows, who are more likely thandivorcees to be able to remarrysuccess-
fully if they choose to do so, generally do not. One reason for remaining
unmarriedafter being widowed is summarizedin the pithy phrase zenkon
de korita, best loosely renderedas "I had it with my firstmarriage."
In Japan,casual association with membersof the opposite sex was not
easy for members of my generationand no period of courtshippreceded
marriage.The psychological unease that seemed so much a featureof in-
teractionbetweenthe sexes has diminished,apparently,amongthe younger
generations,but an appositestory is told by Angela Carter,a Britishnovel-
ist who lived in Japanin the 1960s. She introducesit by saying that Japa-
nese men seem to find women who cannot be categorized easily as either
wives or motherssomethingof a threat, and continues:
A foreign girlfriendof mine once had an affairwith a Japaneseman. They
had a rathertormentedfirst five months when he would do no more than
occasionally touch her foot underthe table and then retreat.And then, fi-
nally, he told her he haddreamedof her, he haddreamedthey had gone to a
33. Yuzawa Yasuhiko, "Sengo kazoku hendo no tokeiteki kansatsu" in Fukushima

Masao, ed., Kazoku:seisaku to ho: 3. Sengo nihon kazokudo doko (Tokyo: University of
Tokyo Press, 1977), p. 38.
beach at sunset, and they had made love, and then he had cut off her head
and swum out to sea holding it and drownedhimself. She said to me, "You
know, that'sthe firsttime I realized he was really interestedin me."34
In a recent book, the only genuinely informativeone in English on the
subject, Coleman deals with the complicatedmatterof family planning in
Japanesesociety.35His discussion centers on the relationshipbetween hus-
band and wife and its effect on such mattersas opting for abortion, choice
of contraceptivedevice, and sexual activity. His conclusions are sobering:
The aggregateeffects of women'sstatuson Japan'sfamily planningscene are
minimal . . . because Japanese women have a much lower status in their
society thando women in the West. Education,for example, has less over-
all impact simply because the proportionof women in Japan enjoying a
highereducationalbackgroundis much smaller than in the West.36
Coleman furtherfinds extremely high degrees of passivity and compliance
among Japanesemarriedwomen, despite the bravetalk about a new gener-
ation of New Women, and a markedtendencyon the partof young married
women to see in motherhoodthe ultimate legitimater of marital sexual
activity.37
The women interviewedby Coleman were well aware of all this, and
what is importantfor our purposes, they wished it were otherwise. They
spoke of a desire for display of greaterempathy on the part of their hus-
bands;they wantedto share more activities and decisions; they gave every
indication of wishing that their marriageswere precisely what they were
not-companionate unions of equal partners.Among these younger mar-
ried women there was no trace of that sentimentembodied in the durable
Japanesesaying that the best husbandis jobu de rusu-healthy and out of
the house.
It is clear enough that the legal basis for gender inequalitiesof an ear-
lier day has been eradicatedand that other kinds of inequalities are much
reduced. But the position of women in any society, I need hardly remind
my readers, does not necessarily reflect their own perceptions of what it
ought to be nor is their standingin the law necessarily an accurateguide to
the treatmentthey receive. The position of women in any society is in large
34. From an interview in Ronald Bell, ed., The Japanese Experience (New York and
Tokyo:Weatherhill,1973), p. 31.
35. SamuelColeman, FamilyPlanning in Japanese Society: TraditionalBirth Controlin
a Modern Urban Culture(Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress, 1983).
36. Ibid., pp. 149-50.
37. For strong supportof Coleman'sposition, see MasakoTanaka, "MaternalAuthority
in the JapaneseFamily," in George DeVos andTakaoSofue, eds., Religion and Family in East
Asia, Senri EthnologicalStudies No. 11 (1984), pp. 227-36.
partthe resultof the attitudesof men towardthem, and hereinlies the crux
of the matter.It is no secret thatthe foundationsof gender identityare laid
early in life. Nor is thereany doubtthatin the contemporaryJapanesefam-
ily it is the young motherwho bears almost sole responsibilityfor the rear-
ing and trainingof the children. Directly, then, and indirectlythroughher
outwarddemeanortowardher husbandand other men, as well as toward
other women, she communicates a set of dispositions to her sons and
daughtersalike.38
Sometimes an event highlightswith awful clarity attitudesso basic that
they are seldom openly expressed. Not long ago the wife of a young Japa-
nese colleague of mine at Cornellgave birthto theirfirstchild. She was 26,
he about 30. When he went to her hospital room for the first time she
looked up at him, eyes filled with tears, and said, "Yurushitekudasai. For-
give me," and showedhim the face of theirbaby daughter.He told me they
really had neverdiscussed the matter,but thatshe hadjust known he would
have preferreda son. For their part, mothersroutinely say that daughters
are easier to raise than sons, for they can be trainedearly in obedience and
compliance as a boy cannot, lest it unfit for him for the struggle and com-
petitivenessof laterlife. Girls trainedotherwiserunthe risk of not settling
down into the patternsof behaviorthat will recommendthem as prospec-
tive brides. When asked to choose the characteristicsmost desirable in a
marriagepartner,unmarriedwomen overwhelminglychoose sincerity(sei-
jitsusa), dependability(tayori ni naru dansei), and intelligence (rikai no
aru dansei), assigning almost no importance to physical attractiveness
(bidan gata). Fortheirpartmen seek gentle (yasashii), charming(kawaii),
and staunch, competent (shikkarishita josei) wives. Indeed, in one 1978
survey men split almost evenly among three revealing options offered by
the interviewer:
sewa nyobo gata (housewife type-a close 24.6%
approximationof the good
wife and wise mother)
jobu de nagamochigata (healthy and durable) 26.1%
yasashii taipu (gentle) 27.0%
The fourthoption, bijo gata (beautiful)was chosen by only 3.7 per cent.39
It follows that the ideal wife is thoughtto be ill-equippedtemperamentally
38. Writing from a reformistperspective, Higuchi Keiko deals with this complex issue
in an engaging book entitled Onnano ko no sodatekata(Tokyo:Bunkashuppankyoku, 1978).
It has been translatedby Tomii Akiko as Bringing Up Girls (Kyoto: Shokado Booksellers
PrivateCompany, 1985); despite the title one of the book's four chaptersconcerns the rearing
of boys.
39. Two such surveys are reported in Seron chosa nenkan (Tokyo: Sorifu, 1979),
for the struggle of serious employmentin eitherjobs or careers. What will

fit her for one ideal role by definitionunfits her for the other.
If furtherchange is on the way, it is with respect to attitudestoward
marriageand the family that it will have to begin. Until very recently it
could fairly be said thatin Japanalmost everyonemarriedand thatvirtually
all married women bore children. A change of potential importance is
foreshadowedin the results of some surveys conducted in the late 1970s.
Between 25 and 30 per cent of the unmarriedwomen interviewedagreed
with the statement "You don't have to get marriedjust because you're a
woman."40What surveys never tell us, alas, is whetheror not the respon-
dents ever act on their opinions. Nevertheless, there is good evidence for
the observationthat young women who do express doubts about marrying
at all see in marriagea profoundcommitmentto home and family thatpre-
cludes pursuitof a career. That most women do in fact marryis partly at-
tributableto their realizationthat as the system is structuredtoday taking
any alternativepath into adulthoodis very risky.
Thus, the complementarityof the roles of wife and husbandremains
very much a featureof the family, despite all the contextualshifts that have
occurred.It has been remarkedthatas a consequenceof the increasingten-
dency to live as conjugal families rather than in the older style multi-
generationalhouseholds, Japanesewomen appearto have taken on an even
more demandingdomestic role than they played in the past. The young
wife, as we have seen, is the caretakerof the children, for day-carecenters
are few in numberand quite costly, and husbandsare only marginallymore
involved in the task of child-caretoday than they have ever been. The ma-
ture wife has become the caretakerof the elderly, eitherher husband'spar-
ents or her own. There have been some changes in this area as well. In
1980, 69 per cent of those 65 and older lived with a marriedor unmarried
child, down from 87 per cent in 1960. However, the overwhelmingchoice
remainscoresidence with one's eldest son (73 per cent in 1983) and, con-
trary to much press speculation, the long-establishedpattern for parent-
child coresidenceto begin before or at the time of the child's marriagestill
holds (82 per cent in 1983).41That is, it is not yet usual for parentsto live
pp. 563-64 and 590, and anotherin the 1980 edition of the annual, on page 121. I am in-
debted to WalterD. Edwardsfor his assistance in locating them.
40. The 25 per cent figureis from a Public OpinionSurveyon Womenin 1979 conducted
by the Prime Minister'sOffice; the 30 per cent result was obtained in a small survey of an
unspecifiedsamplein 1976. See Sato, "Workand Life of Single Women," p. 212, andCherry,
"BreakingNew Ground,"p. 10, respectively.
41. Takeji Kamiko and Michihiko Noguchi, "On the Coresidence of Parentsand Mar-
ried Child," in Kiyomi Morioka,ed., Familyand Life Course of Middle-AgedMen (No place:
The Family and Life Course Study Group, 1985), pp. 163-87. As for those cases where a
separatelyfor a time and only later move in with a child in their old age-
coresidence is a much longer-termaffair than that. The governmentof
Japanhas been able to provide such meager social services as it does at
both ends of the life cycle largely because of the time and energy Japanese
women devote to the care of the very young and the very old membersof
that society. It is an additionalburdenborne with remarkableequanimity
by women who increasinglyhold down jobs outside the home as well.42
Where, then, are we left? In some ways the position of women in Japa-
nese society can be said to have improved immeasurablyinsofar as in-
equalitiesbased solely on gender have been reduced. A bit of evidence to
back up this claim comes from surveys that ask women and men whether
they would preferto have been born as a memberof the opposite sex. Be-
tween 1958 and 1980 the percentageof women replyingthat they are con-
tent to have been born female has risen from 27 to 67. For men who say
they are content to have been born male, the percentagehas held steady at
about 90.43These results may mean that today's women have more to be
content with; it may also mean that they have come to see that the lot of
men is less enviable than their predecessorsthought.
Nonetheless, I think it would be a grave errorto overestimatethe de-
gree of improvementin the lot of women; at the very least the survey re-
sults show that it has not been sufficientlydramaticto persuademen that
they would have been betteroff had they been bornfemale. The reasonsfor
what I see as the slow pace of change in so many areasof genderinequality
are not far to seek. Most Japanesestill regardthe family as the fundamental
unit of society on which the future of the nation depends. The family is
wife does assume responsibilityfor the care of her own parents, Kamiko and Noguchi offer
the following observationbased on their study of ShizuokaCity from 1981 to 1984: "coresi-
dence of parentsand their marrieddaughtermore often occurs when parentshave no sons or
when their son(s) lives at a great distance from them . . . parentsare more likely to live to-
gether with their marrieddaughterwhen her husbandis not the eldest son of his parents. . .
when parentscoreside with their marrieddaughter,her husbandis more likely to change his
family name for hers. In short, the coresidence of parentsand their marrieddaughtersdoes
not contravenethatsocial normof the coresidenceof parentswith the eldest son. It is merely a
minoritypatternresortedto only in case the majoritypatternis not feasible" (p. 175).
42. What is the source of this equanimity?An intriguinganswer is providedin Masako
Tanaka,"MaternalAuthority,"p. 236. She points out thatthe moralauthorityof the Japanese
wife-and-motheris far higherthan one might expect from her low jural statusand customary
usages. She is both life-giver and care-giverwithout whom life is impossible. Her moral au-
thority, then, is "relatedto the structuralposition she occupies in the household connecting
the past and future, by taking care of aged parentsand ancestorsand by bearing and raising
the children."
43. NKH Hoso Seron Ch6sajo, ed., Nihonjin to Amerikajin(Tokyo: Nihon hoso shup-
pan kyokai, 1982), p. 73.
seen ultimatelyas the productof the wife's investmentof her adult life in
her husbandand their children. The concern felt by many Japaneseabout
the changes that are occurring may easily be inferred. Should women be
encouragedor permittedto stand on an equal footing with men, they be-
lieve, the result would be destructivecompetition between the sexes, the
breakup of the family with attendantrises in rates of divorce and re-
marriage, a growth in the number of single-parentfamilies and juvenile
delinquency,and a host of other social ills. As a young Japanesefriend of
mine said, "We are desperatelytrying to avoid catchingthe Americandis-
ease. Womenare importanthere, for it is they who will make or breakour
society-and they will do it as the motherswho raise our childrenand the
wives who supportus in our effort not to fall behind." In his view, clearly,
for women that is reward enough; certainly his father and grandfather
would have agreedwholeheartedly.It remainsto be seen whetheror not his
daughterand granddaughterwill see it thatway, for in all the polls44I know
of, from two-thirdsto three-quartersof women surveyedsay they are rea-
sonably or very satisfied with their lives.
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
44. MargaretLock has generously shared the preliminaryanalysis of the results of a

lengthy questionnaireshe administeredto 1,500 women between the ages of 45 and 55 (in-
clusive), in Kyoto and its environs in 1984. She asked the question, "All things considered,
which of the following best describes your present situation?" ("iro iro na koto o kangae
awasetechikagorono anatano jotai wa tsugi no dore ni gaito suru to omoimasu ka"). Of the
1,321 usable responses the results were as follows: very happy (taihen shiawase da), 17 per
cent; fairly happy (mama no tokoro da), 73 per cent; not particularlyhappy (amari shiawase
de wa nai), 7 per cent; unhappy(fuko da), 1 per cent. The Asahi EveningNews, January,16,
1986, carrieda reporton a survey of 3,000 wives of wage-earnersin Tokyo and Yokohama
conductedby a researchgroup at Seijo Universitywhich found that "about 80 percentof the
respondentsare content with their home life, husbands, and children." It may be that both
resultsreflectreluctanceon the partof women to admitto being unhappy,but the percentages
of those claiming to be content, happy, or satisfied are large enough to command our
attention.

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The Society for Japanese Studies

Gender Inequality in Contemporary Japan

Journalof JapaneseStudies, 13:1

tremelyhigh positionmightbe used by a womanin talkingto a casual

given a hypotheticalencounterbetween a man and woman, any Japanese

10. See J. E. de Becker, AnnotatedCivil Code of Japan, Volume III (Yokohama:Kelly

a diary kept by his mother.The year is 1910.11In the introductionhe writes

11. NakanoTakashi,Meiji yonjusannenKyoto:aru shoka no wakazumano nikki(Tokyo:

Ourfemale education,then, is based on the assumptionthatwomen marry,

Lest the reader imagine this statement represents a hopelessly outdated

Thinkingof Japan'spast, when we ask who was greater,men or women, it

14. DairokuKikuchi, Japanese Education(London:John Murray,1909), p. 266.

thoughtso necessary in the trainingof a young wife was administeredal-

17. These Ministryof Educationstatistics appearin Reporton WorkingWomen(Tokyo:

Let me now turn to the two most fundamentalchanges of the postwar

19. Masu Okamura,ChangingJapan: Women'sStatus (Tokyo:InternationalSociety for

may renouncehis or her share in favor of anotherclaimant. The recordsof

20. Joy LarsenPaulson, "Family Law Reform in PostwarJapan:Succession and Adop-

25. LaborForce Survey(Tokyo:PrimeMinister'sOffice, 1984).

Several factors accountfor the change in the labor marketfor women.

28. Alice H. Cook and Hiroko Hayashi, WorkingWomenin Japan: Discrimination,Re-

30. Suzanne H. Vogel, "The ProfessionalHousewife," in Merry I. White and Barbara

33. Yuzawa Yasuhiko, "Sengo kazoku hendo no tokeiteki kansatsu" in Fukushima

for the struggle of serious employmentin eitherjobs or careers. What will

44. MargaretLock has generously shared the preliminaryanalysis of the results of a

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