Japanese Society Midterm 2 Lecture 1 10 07 13 Introduction Question Sexuality and Gender Relations in Contemporary Japan o How gender and sexuality organized social experience and define one s status and place in society o Ruth Benedict national subjectivity male and national character studies Dominate Life Course for Women Middle Class Women their children Housewife o Expected to give up their career upon marriage and devote themselves to raise o A positive role model until the mid 1990s o Women were happy to quit the male oriented world of work Women and Work in the Postwar Period Not all Japanese women become full time housewives Gender served as a crucial criterion to supply flexible and inexpensive labor Women s participation in the labor force is high but o Women are more likely to work part time or for family businesses o White collar jobs tend to be male blue collar jobs tend to be female o The male female wage gap is high in Japan The Parasite Single Phenomenon Women are expected to get married by age 25 and quit their work Recently women started postponing marriage Yamada Masahiro Parasite Singles o 80 of unmarried women in their twenties and 70 of single women in their early thirties live with their parents Office Ladies and Internationalism Japanese women construct the West as a site of emancipation Women use narrative of internationalism to protest against gender stratified institutional structures Exodus of professional women from Japan Female students are among Japan s most popular export items o 80 of all Japanese studying abroad are women Japanese women in the West are facing Orientalizing they are expected to be exotic and submissive Karen Kelsky Flirting with the Foreign Kelsky analyzes how the so called yellow cab phenomenon is discussed in the media Japanese Society Midterm 2 Argument the discourse on the yellow cab phenomenon functions to negotiate resist or reinforce cultural norms of gender race and sexuality in Japan Office Lady OL Culture office ladies often find work unrewarding so they have constructed a vibrant subculture of their own The Characteristics of Office Lady Subculture o Sophisticated aesthetics of consumption They consume the goods and services of the entire globe o Young Japanese women are the new global cosmopolitans They have high disposable incomes o Women can travel abroad because they are marginalized professionally The gaijin lover is the final frontier to consume but Japanese women prefer to marry How is the yellow cab phenomenon discussed in the media o Male journalists find the image of the sexually aggressive Japanese woman Japanese men disturbing o Women writers write about having foreign lovers to criticize patriarchy in Japan What do Japanese women say about Japanese and foreign men o Japanese men are the opposite of the Japanese GNP they are the most miserable in the world saitei o By contrast foreign men are kind yasashii Conclusion o Japanese women attribute positive traits to foreign men for rhetorical purposes o The yellow cab phenomenon becomes a locus of negotiations between men and women over gender relations in Japan o And it is precisely because they enjoy an intimate association with the foreign global that women gain discursive leverage in their domestic gender struggles and in their local dialogues with Japanese men Anne Allison Nightwork Why do sarariman visit hostess clubs It is for business Allison examines what that business is and how hostesses become indispensible in facilitating it What is happening in hostess clubs o Men become closer as a result of going out together o They relax and release tension o Women facilitate this male bonding o Sexuality real and imagined is the most liberating about what goes on in hostess clubs Argument o Corporations cover the expenses of entertainment in hostess clubs for their interest is to shape the identity of their male employees in a particularly male way o Corporate money endorses a male way of bonding that takes place in the hostess club o Hostesses are indispensible to facilitate this bonding Japanese Society Midterm 2 Emile Durkheim social groups need symbols and rituals to preserve themselves Critique o Rituals do not simply reflect social relationships but also construct them o Rituals do not emerge consensually and don t function to preserve a group in a way that is agreeable to all members of the group Argument mothers o In the hostess club maleness is made to be ritualistic o Women signify a particular femaleness they act like mothers but they are not o Men pay for avoiding the possibility of being rejected what men seek in hostess clubs is to be made to feel good about themselves Sex talk degrades the woman thus it emphasizes gender imbalance that gives a man the pleasure of dominating And for all the work she does to make each and every man feel good the mizu shoubai woman is degraded put in place of subordination and emptied of any identity other than that of reflecting a man in his Japanese Society Midterm 2 Lecture 2 10 21 13 Family and Family Games Family in Historical Perspective The Japanese family today looks much like the American family o Nuclear family usually includes one child in big cities The present forms have developed out of the traditional Japanese family the ie Traditional Family Ie Extended family three or four generations that would live together Patrilineal system Only one child inherits property Second and Third Children in the Patrilineal System Second and third daughters and sons are married out o Daughters arranged marriages as an economic transaction Adopted sons in law o Will marry the oldest daughter and he will inherit Family and Industrialization Industrialization with little social turbulence Excess children go to the cities to work without undermining the stability of rural life Roles in the Family Women Middle class women do not work outside the home Women give up their career upon marriage o Goes to women s college usually 2 3 years that teaches economics and feminine things like piano Women are responsible for o Education of their children o Managing the household o Caring for aging parents Roles in the Family Men For men there is a separation between work and home except home based business o Spends most of their time at work commute long hours socializing Fathers are often removed from their children s lives A good husband is healthy and is not home Family Intimacies Borovoy Women cultivate their chief intimacies with