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Japanese Feminist Debates: A Century of Contention on Sex, Love, and Labor
Recent years have seen a surge of interest in Japanese feminism and gender history. This new volume brings to light Japan's feminist public sphere, a discursive space in which academic, journalistic, and political voices have long met and sparred over issues that remain controversial to the present prostitution, pornography, reproductive rights, the balance between motherhood and paid work, relationships between individual, family, and state. Japanese Feminist A Century of Contention on Sex, Love, and Labor contributes to this discussion in a number of unique ways.
The book is organized around intellectually and politically charged debates, including important recent developments in state feminism and the conservative backlash against it, spearheaded by the current prime minister, Abe Shinzō. Focusing on essential questions that have yet to be resolved, Ayako Kano traces the emergence and development of these controversies in relation to social, cultural, intellectual, and political history. Her focus on the " rondan "―the Japanese intellectual public sphere―allows her to show how disputes taking place therein interacted with both popular culture and policy making. Kano argues that these feminist debates explain an important why Japan is such a highly developed modern nation yet ranks dismally low in gender equality. Part of the answer lies in the contested definitions of gender equality and women's liberation, and this book traces these contentions over the course of modern Japanese history. It also situates these debates in relation to modern Japanese social policy and comparative discussions about welfare regimes.
By covering an entire century, Japanese Feminist Debates is able to trace the origins and development of feminist consciousness from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Based on over a decade of research, this wide-ranging, lively, up-to-date book will both spark discussion among specialists grappling with long-enduring subjects of intellectual debate and animate undergraduate and graduate classrooms on modern Japanese women's history and gender studies.
The book is organized around intellectually and politically charged debates, including important recent developments in state feminism and the conservative backlash against it, spearheaded by the current prime minister, Abe Shinzō. Focusing on essential questions that have yet to be resolved, Ayako Kano traces the emergence and development of these controversies in relation to social, cultural, intellectual, and political history. Her focus on the " rondan "―the Japanese intellectual public sphere―allows her to show how disputes taking place therein interacted with both popular culture and policy making. Kano argues that these feminist debates explain an important why Japan is such a highly developed modern nation yet ranks dismally low in gender equality. Part of the answer lies in the contested definitions of gender equality and women's liberation, and this book traces these contentions over the course of modern Japanese history. It also situates these debates in relation to modern Japanese social policy and comparative discussions about welfare regimes.
By covering an entire century, Japanese Feminist Debates is able to trace the origins and development of feminist consciousness from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Based on over a decade of research, this wide-ranging, lively, up-to-date book will both spark discussion among specialists grappling with long-enduring subjects of intellectual debate and animate undergraduate and graduate classrooms on modern Japanese women's history and gender studies.
332 pages, Hardcover
Published May 31, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 29, 2020
This is one of my favorite books about feminism in Japan, so it's a shame it's quite expensive.
It has been difficult to find materials about Japanese feminism topic in English, there's not a great deal available, what with the difficult and time-consuming translation necessary. As someone who is studying Japanese at the moment, I can understand how difficult it is attempting to closely convey what the original text was intending to say, whilst keeping the English readable. It's clear that a considerable amount of work went into this book.
Some key points:
"The basis of social policy in modern Japan is the assumption that all women are potential wives and mothers (and that all men are potential breadwinners and heads of households)."
Japan's social and welfare policies enforce these gender norms, for instance through tax cuts for wives who work part-time, incentivising a shift from full-time employment to part-time work once women get married."
Japanese policy also stresses support for “productive” members of society - which means full-time employees, assumed to be men - whose work should not be interrupted by childcare or housework:
"Feminist economist Ōsawa Mari has described this as the “male-breadwinner model” for livelihood security, contrasting it with the “work life balance model” typical of Scandinavian countries, and the “market oriented model” of the Anglo-Saxon countries, including the United States."
Rather than promote ideas of "Gender equality" in Japanese, conservative politicians use the term “danjo kyōdō sankaku” (male-female joint planning and co-participation), which is more vague and avoids using the word 平等 (byōdō), meaning “equality.”
"In Japan, there continues to exist a greater degree to which a woman is confronted with sexualized imagery in public, even when she does not want to see it—in newspaper advertisements, in magazine ads displayed prominently inside trains, on television, and on the Internet. Due to a combination of factors, it may be easier for feminists in the United States—especially feminist academics—to regard porn as something we choose to see, rather than something we are being forced to see."
From 1995 to 2005, a wave of "gender free" ideas gained popularity and became a hotly contested term in Japanese political discourse. "Gender free" meant a "society free of gendered expectations", but conservatives argued that "gender free" meant the elimination of gender. The backlash peaked in 2005, spearheaded by Shinzo Abe, shortly before he became prime minister.
It has been difficult to find materials about Japanese feminism topic in English, there's not a great deal available, what with the difficult and time-consuming translation necessary. As someone who is studying Japanese at the moment, I can understand how difficult it is attempting to closely convey what the original text was intending to say, whilst keeping the English readable. It's clear that a considerable amount of work went into this book.
Some key points:
"The basis of social policy in modern Japan is the assumption that all women are potential wives and mothers (and that all men are potential breadwinners and heads of households)."
Japan's social and welfare policies enforce these gender norms, for instance through tax cuts for wives who work part-time, incentivising a shift from full-time employment to part-time work once women get married."
Japanese policy also stresses support for “productive” members of society - which means full-time employees, assumed to be men - whose work should not be interrupted by childcare or housework:
"Feminist economist Ōsawa Mari has described this as the “male-breadwinner model” for livelihood security, contrasting it with the “work life balance model” typical of Scandinavian countries, and the “market oriented model” of the Anglo-Saxon countries, including the United States."
Rather than promote ideas of "Gender equality" in Japanese, conservative politicians use the term “danjo kyōdō sankaku” (male-female joint planning and co-participation), which is more vague and avoids using the word 平等 (byōdō), meaning “equality.”
"In Japan, there continues to exist a greater degree to which a woman is confronted with sexualized imagery in public, even when she does not want to see it—in newspaper advertisements, in magazine ads displayed prominently inside trains, on television, and on the Internet. Due to a combination of factors, it may be easier for feminists in the United States—especially feminist academics—to regard porn as something we choose to see, rather than something we are being forced to see."
From 1995 to 2005, a wave of "gender free" ideas gained popularity and became a hotly contested term in Japanese political discourse. "Gender free" meant a "society free of gendered expectations", but conservatives argued that "gender free" meant the elimination of gender. The backlash peaked in 2005, spearheaded by Shinzo Abe, shortly before he became prime minister.
January 1, 2020
Unfortunately, I don't know of a better book on the topic to recommend instead of this, but I hope people are out there doing the research to write one, because I don't think this book did justice to the topic.
I don't think it is a bad book in any way. Just think it is too incomplete. It would be relatively fine if the book instead of being extensive, went for a deep dive into each chapter instead, but they also feel more descriptive than analytical. I really miss other feminist currents and their debates going on in this book, specially radical currents and autonomist currents.
I guess this book can still be recommended for lack of a better work doing the same job, but take it as an initial point for more needed research.
I don't think it is a bad book in any way. Just think it is too incomplete. It would be relatively fine if the book instead of being extensive, went for a deep dive into each chapter instead, but they also feel more descriptive than analytical. I really miss other feminist currents and their debates going on in this book, specially radical currents and autonomist currents.
I guess this book can still be recommended for lack of a better work doing the same job, but take it as an initial point for more needed research.
August 9, 2020
An insightful look into what makes Japanese women "happy" (or any woman for that matter) and what feminists and their detractors have been saying on the subject for over a century. Topics include welfare, sexual freedom and commodification, abortion, sexual divisions of labor/value of women's work, an examination of Japanese state feminist policy, and a look to the future of women's happiness in Japan. Time period is about from 1900-2013.
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February 2, 2018305.42095 K1651 2016
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews