Postwar Images of Japanese Women

Occupation Period

• 1945-1952– Nominally “Allied” – Primarily American– Large numbers

• 465,000 at start of occupation• 128,000 in 1948• Up with Korean war• Never below 50,000• 2.5 million men with Japan contact in 40 years from

1945

Occupation

• Even low ranking military men in positions of authority vis a vis Japanese

• Even low pay with great purchasing power relative to Japanese– 360 yen/dollar until 1971

• Sexual contact– Japanese run brothels (“Willow Run” in Funabashi) – e

xtension of “comfort women” system ( 従軍慰安婦 )

– “VD” 　 as synonym for “US”

Occupation

• “Fraternization” ( 交流、交際）　discouraged

• Marriage initially prohibited– Suicide of couple

theme of film based on novel James Michener

– American racism

Miscegenation

• Miscegenation 異種族混交 , 雑婚– 1948 – 48 states with such laws– 1967 – struck down by US Supreme Court

• 16 states with such laws at time of decision

War Brides

• War brides 戦争花嫁– US policy relaxed

– 20,000 during occupation

– 1500 per year subsequent

• International marriage– (Image) European (American) male, Japanese female

who move to husband’s country

– (Reality) Japanese males who marry foreign females primarily of Philippine, Chinese, or Korean nationality.

Submissive Japanese Women

• Submissive ( 柔順な )– Image since Meiji– Major theme in Sayonara

• Michener actually married to Japanese-American

– Clavell, Shogun • “May I wash your back”

Match Making Sites

• Show need to counter Occupation era image– Not looking for economic gain – living

standard higher than in many foreign countries– Not “submissive” – often highly educated,

career oriented– Why foreign men?

• Looking for respect

• Equality

Match Making Sites

• TMA's Japanese women clients are among the most beautiful women on earth, both in appearance and in their supportive attitudes towards men. However, they are not "mail order brides." A Japanese woman cannot be bought "off the shelf" – she needs to be attracted to a man for his own merits, not for his money or the country he lives in.

Match Making Sites

• TMA's Japanese lady clients are gentle, kind, well-educated, clean, slim, modern, and sincerely seeking lifetime partners. Many of them are willing to move overseas if they find the right man. On the other hand, some of them would prefer the man to come and live in Japan

Match Making Sites

• Japan is one of the world's most economically advanced countries, so our women clients are not economic refugees such as you might find in the countries of the former Soviet Union or in such underdeveloped countries like Thailand or the Philippines. Japan itself is a very safe country with a high standard of living, so our Japanese women clients aren't seeking marriage simply to escape Japan and get a visa to enter the U.S. or some other country.

“What Japanese Women Want?”

• The Japanese government wants women like Taeko Mizuguchi to get married and start doing something about the nation's plunging birthrate. But she's not interested.

• At least, not if her prospective husband is Japanese.• A growing number of Japanese women are giving up on their male co

unterparts, and taking a gamble that looking abroad for love will bring them the qualities in a partner that seem rare at home. Mr. Right, as the hope goes, is often an American or European, a man appreciative of a wife's career and more of a partner in daily tasks.

• "They treat you like equals, and they don't hesitate to express mutual feelings of respect - I think Western men are more adept [at such things] than Japanese men," says the 36-year-old Ms. Mizuguchi, who works at a top trading firm. "They don't act like women are maids - I think they view women as individuals."

What American Readers Want

• Articles like this do not inform American readers about Japan

• They validate the “superiority” of “American ways”

• “Western” or “European” actually means “American”– Americans typically do not know Europe– “Western” gives greater validity to claim than saying

“American”– Similar pattern in Japanese writing

What American Readers Want

• A U.N. study released last year said Japan ranked behind all other industrialized nations in terms of empowerment of women, with 10.7 percent of senior corporate and political positions held by women, compared with 42 percent in the United States.

• No comparison of US with northern European countries– Americans want to feel superior to Japan– Americans do not want to feel inferior to Europe

What American Readers Are Not Told

• Many different rankings available– Inherently subjective– Specious accuracy xx.xx– Numerical ranking built from subjective criteria– Some put Japan above the US

• http://hdr.undp.org/en/media/HDR_2011_EN_Table4.pdf

What American Readers Are Not Told

• Seats in national parliament– Norway 39.6% US 16.8% Japan 13.6%

• Maternal mortality ratio– Norway 7 US 24 Japan 6

• Adolescent fertility rate– Norway 9 US 41 Japan 5

• Overall rank “gender equality index”– Norway 6 US 47 Japan 14

What American Readers Want?

• In Japan, women on average earn 44 percent of what men earn — the widest income gap between sexes in the developed world.

• Questions to ask– How is this gap calculated

• Women with same jobs, same work as men?• Earnings/women compared to earnings/men?

– What is the US gap?• If national comparisons are important and the US is the

“model,” why are we not told where the US stands?

What Americans Are Not Told

What Americans Are Not Told

• American gender gap – Is slightly worse than OECD average– Much larger than most equalitarian countries

What Americans Are Not Told

• Managerial positions– What is a manager?– How to compare within a country?– How to compare among countries?– Managerial titles used to circumvent labor laws

• Japan なばかり管理職• US no common term but practice in some industries

– Cases now before US Supreme Court

What Americans Are Not Told

• What is a manager?• In business leadership in 2009, women held 49%

of the jobs in the U.S. and 50% of all managerial positions.

• In 2010 only 2.4% of the U.S. Fortune 500 chief executives were female. – (http://www.forbes.com/2011/02/18/women-business-

management-forbes-woman-leadership-corporate-boards.html)

Exotic Japan

• Life Magazine 1964– Rehabilitated Japan

• 国際社会に復帰した日本

– “Geisha” with modern tastes

– Japan, where the ancient and modern exist side by side

• More true of Britain than Japan

“Geisha”

• Americans, Europeans vastly more interested in “geisha” than Japanese

• Film Sayuri– Semi-historical– Chinese actresses playing “geisha” speaking En

glish with a faux Japanese accent

• ITV series with Kelly Osborne

Trade Friction Years

• Trade friction ( 貿易摩擦 )• Little about women

– Continuation of earlier images

• Concentration on men– “corporate samurai” married to companies– Unattractive to women– Lusting after foreign women

• Michael Cricton The Rising Sun

Bubble Years

• Bubble Economy ( バブル 景気）– 1985-1989 (1995)– Primary emphasis on Japanese economic power

• Women as consumers– “Brand consciousness” ブランド意識

• Often belittled• Something unnatural about Asian women with

money• Still strong current

Beyond Prada and Gucchi

Beyond Prada and Gucchi

• Why are young Japanese women, who as recently as a decade ago were sometimes turning to prostitution to finance their Louis Vuitton habits, losing their lust for foreign luxury brands?

• In the bubble years of the 1980s and early 1990s, many Japanese aspired to own the same Western brands—not to stand out, but rather to fit in. Some 40 percent of Japanese consumers reportedly own a product from Louis Vuitton, whose parent company derives almost 10 percent of its revenue from Japan.

1990s – Nicholas Kristof

• NYT Tokyo Bureau Chief in 90s– Loveless marriages

– “Rapeman” comics 　（ THE レイプマン ）

– “compensated dating” ( 援助交際 )

– Groping on trains 　（痴漢）

• Writings led to protest– Japan Made in the USA

Japan Made in The USA

Rape Fantasy Comics　（女性向き強姦・レイプ漫画）

• So what's in the women's comics? • Sexual violence, particularly rape. The December issue of Amour, for

example, has 316 pages of comics. Of them, 90 contain rape scenes -- though it is a bit difficult to count, because usually a woman is depicted eventually enjoying what starts out as a rape.

• "Men read these kinds of comic books, so why shouldn't women as well?" asked Yayoi Watanabe, a demurely dressed woman who draws the comics. "Women seem to be starting to say, 'Hey, we lust, too,' and 'We're also thinking of porn and promiscuity.' "

• Yet to American sensibilities, the magazines are not erotic, just sick. The drawings focus on pain and violence and, by American standards, could scarcely be more offensive. What is most unsettling about the "ladies' comics" -- as they are known in Japanese -- is that they seem to glorify rape.

Loveless Marriage

• Yuri Uemura sat on the straw tatami mat of her living room and chatted cheerfully about her 40-year marriage to a man whom, she mused, she never particularly liked.

• "There was never any love between me and my husband." she said blithely, recalling how he used to beat her. "But, well, we survived."

• A 72-year old midwife, her face as weathered as an old baseball and etched with a thousand seams, Mrs. Uemura said that her husband had never told her that he liked her, never complimented her on a meal, never told her "thank you," never held her hand, never given her a present, never shown her affection in any way. He never calls her by her name, but summons her with the equivalent of a grunt or a "Hey, you."

Justin McCurry

• British– LSE

– SOAS

– Taught English in Osaka

– English edition of Yomiuri

Justin McCurry

• He deplores “wacky Japan” stories, and is an unlikely defender of the reputation of Shinzo Abe. (http://www.fccj.or.jp/number-1-shimbun/item/331-profile-justin-mccurry/331-profile-justin-mccurry.html)

• Japanese court endorses adultery for business purposes, experts say (12 June 2015)

• Famous Japanese hot spring closed after string of orgies revealed (3 June 2015)

• In ageing Japanese village, dolls take place of dwindling population (7 January 2015)

Rent A Guests

• Lonely Japanese find solace in 'rent a friend' agencies (Guardian 2009:09:20)– The number of rent-a-friend agencies in Japan has doubled to

about 10 in the past eight years. The best known, Office Agent, has 1,000 people on its books.

– The rise of the phony friend is a symptom of social and economic changes, combined with a deep-seated cultural aversion to giving personal and professional problems a public airing.

– In recent months demand has surged for bogus bosses among men who have lost their jobs; for colleagues among contract employees who never stay in the same job long enough to make friends, and from divorcees and lovelorn singletons.

The Guardian

• Center-left British daily founded 1831 as Manchester Guardian

• Print circulation less than 200,000

• On-line edition free, popular, readership in millions

• Unprofitable, owned by a trust

The Guardian

• Information for advertisers stresses that readers have high education and high incomes

• Why have young people in Japan stopped having sex? (20 October 2013)

• No sex, thank you ... we're Japanese (30 March 2008)

• Japan leads the way in sexless love (27 December 2011)

Worming

• How many students have heard of “worming”?

• What is it?

Worming in The Guardian

• “Eyeball-licking: the fetish that is making Japanese teenagers sick" (14 June 2013)

Worming in The Guardian

Worming in The Guardian

• Detailed debunking by Mark Schreiber in Number 1 Shimbun (FCCJ)

• Obvious hoax to anyone who knows Japan– Eyepatches– Ages for school children– Single source– No stories about conjunctivitis 結膜炎 in Japanese pre

ss– No reports of conjunctivitis epidemic on government m

edical web pages

Worming in The Guardian

• Only some media that had run with the story retracted, major US/UK media did not retract

• Guardian took months to respond• “Why Have Young People in Japan Stopped

Having Sex?” (20 October 2013) also shown to be largely bogus

• “Suspension of disbelief” or “suspension of skepticism” common with Japan stories, especially those involving sex

• Not limited to people with limited education

More Contemporary Images

• Exploited Ols 　お茶組み• Women on a womb strike 　子宮ストライ

キ• Parasite singles 　パラサイト・シングル• Cosplay girls 　コスプレ• “Killer women”

• Yamanba - Ganguro

Kill Bill

Ageless Women

• Japanese food fad

Obesity

• Class image taken as national image– No shortage of seriously fat

women in shitamachi 下町 areas of Tokyo

• Urban (Tokyo) image taken as national image– No shortage of seriously fat

women (and men) in rural areas where people use automobiles and do little walking

Junk Food in Japan

• No mainstream news media coverage

• Bloggers in Japan cover, collect photos

• Megaburgers, gigaburgers– Promoted just as gover

nment was introducing anti-obesity program

Yamanba - Ganguro

• Ganguro ( 顔黒 "Black Face") is an alternative fashion trend of blonde or orange hair and tanned skin among young Japanese women that peaked in popularity around the year 2000. The Shibuya and Ikebukuro districts of Tokyo were the centers of ganguro fashion.

Yamanba - Ganguro

• Foreign treatment– Presented as current as late as 2007 in BBC

documentary– Presented as “Japanese” when in fact largely

limited to two areas in Tokyo

• Osaka, Nagoya, other urban centers ignored– Tokyo == Japan– Foreign or domestic writers would not equate

New York with the US, London with Britain

名古屋嬢 (Nagoyajo)

名古屋嬢 (Nagoyajo)

Current Situation

• Mix of images– Geisha, submissive image lives on

• Age division– Young know pop culture

– Older know 1990s or earlier

– Contemporary serious press• UK – The Guardian, The Times of London

• US – The New York Times, The Washington Post

• Heavy on the bizarre, exploited Japanese women

Fearing Crime, Japanese Wear the Hiding Place

By MARTIN FACKLERDeftly, Ms. Tsukioka, a 29-year-ol

d experimental fashion designer, lifted a flap on her skirt to reveal a large sheet of cloth printed in bright red with a soft drink logo partly visible. By holding the sheet open and stepping to the side of the road, she showed how a woman walking alone could elude pursuers — by disguising herself as a vending machine.

Lonely Japanese find solace in 'rent a friend'

agencies• The number of rent-a-friend agencies in Japan has doubled

to about 10 in the past eight years. The best known, Office Agent, has 1,000 people on its books.

• The rise of the phony friend is a symptom of social and economic changes, combined with a deep-seated cultural aversion to giving personal and professional problems a public airing.

• In recent months demand has surged for bogus bosses among men who have lost their jobs; for colleagues among contract employees who never stay in the same job long enough to make friends, and from divorcees and lovelorn singletons.

Google Images

• Predominantly young women– No middle-aged– Few in kimono– No women in occupational role

• No “office ladies”

• No shop clerks

• No “professional women”

Japanese Men (Historical)

• Sumo wrestlers

• “Samurai warriors”

• Fanatical killers

• Yakuza

• Corporate warriors ( サラリーマン )

Japanese Men (Contemporary)

• Sumo wrestlers• Baseball players

Japanese Men (Contemporary)

• Japan's 'grass eaters' turn their backs on macho ways

• He is a soshokukei danshi – herbivorous boy –

• Sometimes referred to as ojo-men (ladylike men), they are mounting a counter-attack against the baby-boomer generation, whose lives revolved around company, colleagues and, a distant third, their wives and children.

Japanese Men (Contemporary)

Japanese Men (Contemporary)

• Grass eaters

• Bra for boys

Middle Aged Male Virgins

• As many as one in four unmarried Japanese men aged 30 and over were virgins, according to the latest statistics compiled in 2010 by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research. – Why 2010 numbers now?– “As many as”?– Unmarried men over 30, not Japanese men?

Middle Aged Male Virgins

Middle Aged Male Virgins

• Even if survey is accurate, need comparative data

• Sex surveys tend to be inaccurate– People do not like to talk about sex– People who like to talk about sex are not

representative

• Why is (alleged) decline in Japan world news but not for Britain

That’s All Folks!

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