Yuri Kochiyama
For my senior thesis, I am preparing to write a paper on the roles of women as portrayed by popular Japanese authors, both female and male. Reading the biography of one famous literary author, Tanizaki Junichiro, I was a little disturbed to read this passage from one of his essays:
One of the things I am currently interested in doing is to delineate the psychology of a Japanese woman of the feudal period, without giving it a modern interpretation and yet with such verisimilitude as to appeal to the modern reader’s emotions and understanding. I want to draw a truly lifelike portrait of a woman who believed in the neo-Confucian moral codes and who was therefore bound by them–a woman of bygone days who was reserved in all things, who was taught to suppress her feelings on all occasions, and who seldom showed her face to any person of the opposite sex except her husband. Yet it would not be easy to portray the hypersensitive workings of such a woman’s mind. Despite her wholly virtuous appearance, she could have been harboring thoughts of an illicit love that had not yet taken definite form. Jealousy, hatred, cruelty, and other dark emotions may have cast their dim shadows on her mind time and again without ever floating to the surface. It would be difficult, indeed, to create a vivid portrait of a woman of this type, a woman whose entire life was confined to her inner world.
(Emphasis mine.)
It’s nothing new for (obviously scorned) men to look down on women in such a manner, but Tanizaki actually claimed that he was a feminist, and even compared his degree of feminism to other authors. This is the same man that coerced his wife to destroy their unborn baby because he was afraid it would ruin his image of her as a symbol of “old Japan” (in other words, being completely devoted to him.)
Luckily, Tanizaki was just one jaded exception. Asian feminists do exist, although people might not think of Asian women (and men!) when they hear the word “feminist.” I happened to come across this list of Asian feminists who have done extensive society-changing work in America. The list led me to this other list of inspirational Asian women, which consequently made this entry take a lot longer to write than originally planned.
So what about Japan? Japanese feminists are hard to spot since the word is fairly taboo in Japan (Wikipedia only lists 13 women, somehow omitting Yuri Kochiyama who is pictured above), but signs that changes are a-comin’ can definitely be seen. Take, for example, one of the little girls I teach English to: she speaks in the most masculine form of Japanese, using “ore” instead of the gender-neutral “watashi” or “atashi,” which is reserved for girls and gay men. Also, bands who consist of all women or headed by a woman seem to have an easier time breaking into the major music industry than in America, where bands are usually reserved for men. I already mentioned that comediennes in mainstream media in Japan seem to outnumber those in America. Gender roles are slowly reversing among young men and women, where men want to be with women who are stronger than them.
Mizuho Fukushima, the leader of Japan’s opposition Democratic Party, is just one of an increasing number of women who are revolutionizing women’s rights in Japan:
[Fukushima] is the author of such books as What Happens When A Woman Becomes A Politician and Never Get Married To A Man Like This.
She wants to give women the right to keep their maiden name, an uphill struggle that has so far seen a bill rejected 10 times, and is an advocate of the rights of children born out of wedlock, which negatively affects their inheritance. Ms Fukushima, 52, has kept her maiden name and has not married her partner with whom she has a child.
She also campaigns against sexual harassment, domestic violence and for improved maternity leave and child care. When she was elected to the Upper House, 10 years ago, she had to share the male lavatories. Now she and her female colleagues have separate loos.
Despite these trends, Japan is still painfully behind in sexual equality. Women have a harder time moving up in the business world and are expected to quit after they get married/have kids (and are often harassed or threatened if they don’t.) Asian women in general are looked down upon by men of all races as subservient and aiming to please.
I don’t think I make it apparent enough on this blog how important women’s issues are to me, even though I have spent the last year and half of my school career researching and writing on women in Japan. Hopefully that will change, as I continue to research women’s issues in Asia and Japan in particular.
Sources:
- Asian/ APIA Feminism/ Women’s History Month - WOC PhD
- Inspirational Asian/APIA Women - Reappropriate
- English Wikipedia’s page on Japanese Feminists
- Japanese Wikiepedia’s page onf Feminism in Japan
- Japan’s gender inequality puts it to shame in world rankings - Japan Times
- Japan’s concrete ceiling - The Independent
Related Posts:
