Japan: The Childless Society?

Chap 1. Young Mother's Dilemma

Jolivet, Muriel. 1997.

The Anguish of Ordinary Women (Asahi Shimbun, 9/13/89)

• "I can't bear it when they won't leave me alone to read the paper"• "No one ever disturbs men when they're working, everyone

presumes that mothers 'are enjoying themselves'..."• ..."when we apply ourselves solely to caring for our children, we still

do sometimes regard them as a nuisance..."• This mother is in a dilemma

– can't rid herself of the notion that she is the only one capable of looking after her children

– it's difficult for her to forgive herself for 'abandoning' her children to her husband on Sunday to have time to herself

– unthinkable to leave them at a daycare center or with a babysitter

Picture credits: http://gse.berkeley.edu/admin/publications/termpaper/fall01/holloway.html

Problems1. Housework unfulfilling2. Time raising kids seems to be lost time in life3. Today being a housewife is alienating4. Today mothers have become 'educational'

providers to their kids not 'productive' members of a larger family (note the continuing myth of the non-nuclear family in the 'glorious' past)

Okaasan Gambareron ("Keep Going Mother")

Collection of entreaties from other mothers reaffirming traditions with slight modern twist

1) None suggest a job as a way out2) Modern women are seen as unwilling to

sacrifice3) By fully devoting ourselves we can fulfill our

"Duty" this is how one attains contentment

On Jan. 27 Japan's Health Minister Hakuo Yanagisawa gave a speech on the country's shrinking population in which he referred to Japanese women of childbearing age as "baby-making machines." He went onto explain that arresting population decline was difficult "because the number of baby-making machines and devices is fixed [in the population]; all we can do is ask them to do their best per head."

http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2014/05/04/japans-baby-drought/

Oketani School of Breastfeeding

• Two or three years of breastfeeding is nothing given current life expectancy

• Okatani School http://www.oketani-kensankai.jp/html/eng.html

http://www.issj.org/images/family3.gif

GAMBATTE keep on!Total isolation the

Malaise of new residential developments

1. Isolation: The feeling of being isolated and trapped among thousands of others in sterile new high-rises with NO FRIENDS; note how best Friends are made in high school or college years, only!

GAMBATTE keep on!

2. Marginalized: Stay on schedule, even more isolating is marrying too young or waiting until too old don't be marginalized, then you will have nothing in common with friends

http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/culture/marriage_history.html

GAMBATTE keep on!

3. Inadequacy: Small families, strict privacy and, the pressures of strict scheduling (both schooling and working) in Japanese lives means little opportunity to be with kids before the baby arrives "children have a special way of crying that makes you want to runaway"

Japan: The Ukita family of Kodaira City Food expenditure for one week: 37,699 Yen or $317.25 http://triciawang.vox.com/library/posts/2007/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE2VCwYDjx0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQSfYikUnP4