CULTURE | ASIA | ECONOMY
The Impact of Marriage on Gender Roles in Japan
WORDS BY RICCARDO CHIARAMONDIA | R.CHIARA@THEIWI.ORG | 24 SEPTEMBER 2024
The marriage institution in Japan has undergone a conspicuous amount of social and cultural mutation since the end of World War II, the extent of which - still partially debated - has left contradictory effects. Between 1947 and 2021 there has been a decline from an annual crude marriage rate(i) of 12 to one of 4.1(ii). Although the number of marriages has been steadily decreasing and, as we shall see, the structuring of the family has changed, the related norms have remained anchored in an ancient value system, especially with regard to the status of women.
From Ie to nuclear family
The traditional Japanese family system was the Ie, which remained in effect until its abolition in 1947. It represented not only a value system, but a rigid legal complex regulating family aspects in a patrilineal and patrilocal manner. The eldest son - or, if there were no sons, the first son-in-law - was designated as the sole heir, and upon receipt of property from the father, he became responsible for the care of the entire family. The second sons, while remaining hierarchically bound to the paternal household, once married were free to leave it, while the first son was to remain living in it, administer it and provide for his parents' maintenance. Women's futures, on the other hand, depended on their husbands: they, in fact, once married had to leave their home of origin and, if married to a firstborn, move in with him and his parents. Once the marriage was contracted, the responsibilities of the spouses were also regulated, with the man responsible for the financial maintenance of the home and the woman responsible for the care of the elderly and children. This strict division of gender roles implied two major imbalances, one of economic dependence and one of social exclusion. The second, though less obvious, turned out to be equally crippling: if the woman's life was completely relegated to the care of the home, the possibility of contact with reality outside of the home was greatly reduced, if not absent. The role of caretaker of the husband's parents as a requirement to be welcomed into the home also placed the woman in a subordinate role not only to her spouse, but also to her in-laws(iii). Finally, with the Ie, the use of arranged marriages to ensure economic stability for the family and to protect the respectability of families was widespread. With the abolition of the Ie in 1947 and the changing social environment following World War II, such family dynamic ceased to be the family paradigm in Japan. Increasing industrialization led to more children leaving the home to work in the cities, and this independence, combined with the absorption of Western customs – given that between 1945 and 1952 Japan suffered U.S. occupation - led to the spread of the nuclear type family(iv). In this type of union, often based on the romantic encounter of spouses, it is only the couple and any children who live together.
Unequal weight of parenthood
As seen, in the extended family the woman was relegated to a secondary position and often excluded from sociality. With nuclearization and the increased urbanization associated with industrialization it has been possible for married women to gain more independence within the home: even if they have become less controlled by their in-laws and husbands, this does not necessarily imply greater freedom in the social sphere or greater opportunity for self-determination. Indeed, access to wage labor remains unequal with women consistently under-employed compared to men(v). What is especially significant, however, is the decrease in female workers in the age group coinciding with the period of first maternity – an age that has increased over the decades and now settled between 29 and 39 - and the partial regrowth of employment between ages 40 and 50(vi). The absence of this decline for men, whose presence in the labor market remains stable, indicates how in Japanese society motherhood and work are still difficult to reconcile. Comparing the data inherent to the Women's Labor Force Participation Rate, it is possible to observe that between 1975 and 2023 the decline during maternal ages, while remaining significant, has decreased from close to 25 percent to 10 percent(vii). These data indicate an improvement, aided in part by the reinforcement of equal employment opportunity legislation(viii), but it is possible to downplay the magnitude considering the already presented decline in marriages and the plummeting birth rate. In fact, by disaggregating the Labor Force Participation Rate data by gender and marital status, it is possible to see that for never-married women the percentage figure remains constant over the years, decreasing physiologically with advancing age.
The work situation just presented brings back, as seen in the Ie family analysis, a tendency for women within marriage to be identified with the role of caretaker of children. The isolation of the woman-mother, moreover, is accentuated by the absence of the husbands due to their rigid work schedules and the isolated life in commuter towns or huge housing estates, often far from the economic center of the city. In this context, the negative stereotype of the Kyōiku mama is created, that is, the mother who is so demanding in education that she erodes her children's well-being. Over the years, this figure has been fostered in the media as necessary and, at the same time, demonized - one example is the spread of fake stories about mothers using sex to increase children's concentration(ix) - fueling the pressures and stigmatization of mother’s roles.
Being unmarried
On the other hand, it should also be noted that women who decide to prioritize their careers instead of starting a family are stigmatized and identified with pejorative terms, such as otsubone, which can be translated as Ms. Bossy Pants(x). It has also been shown that the number of marriages is continuously decreasing but the social consideration of unmarried women is highly stigmatizing. One of the main discriminating factors related to marriage is age. In Japan, the idea that there is an ideal age by which to marry is still entrenched, for women identified it stands at 31, whereas until the mid-1990s it was set at 25. Should a woman remain unmarried beyond this threshold, she is apostrophized as toshikoshi soba, a typical New Year's food destined to be thrown away after the 31st of January; with the same meaning, the term kurisumasu kēki, a Christmas dessert, was previously used(xi). These terms imply the concept of the rottenness of women, a stigmatizing concept compounded by the fact that there is no male counterpart(xii). This illustrates how stigmatization of women is not related solely their occupation, whether in the home or in employment, but to the condition of being a women itself.
i.Crude marriage rate is the number of new marriages per 1,000 people.
ii.National Institute of Population and Social Security Research. (n.d.). Table 6.1 Marriages by Previous Marital Status of Bride and Groom, Percentage of First Marriages. https://www.ipss.go.jp/p-info/e/psj2023/PSJ2023-06.xls
iii.Imamura, A. E. (Ed.). (1996). Re-imaging Japanese women. Univ of California Press.
iv.Kazue, M., & Gregory, M. S. (1994). Images of the Family in Meiji Periodicals: The Paradox Underlying the Emergence of the “Home.” U.S.-Japan Women’s Journal. English Supplement, 7.
v.Data of Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications as reported in Saito, J. (2024). Has the Female Labour Force Participation Rate in Japan Reached Its Maximum?. Japan Center for Economic Research.
vi.Ibid.
vii.Ibid.; Data of Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Labour Force Survey as reported by The Japan Institute for Labour Policy and Training. https://www.jil.go.jp/english/jwl/2012-2013/02/p.17_2-8.pdf
viii.Equal Employment Opportunity Law, 1985 and Parental Leave/ Child Care Leave Law, 1992.
ix.Thorsten, M. (2012). Superhuman Japan: Knowledge, Nation and Culture in US-Japan Relations. Routledge.
x.Coto Academy. (2015). Japanese slang: Otsubone. https://cotoacademy.com/otsubone/
xi.Scrolavezza, P. (2015). Kirino Natsuo, the grotesque double life of a business woman. Proceedings of the Association for Japanese Literary Studies, 13.
xii.Takemaru, N. (2010). Women in the language and society of Japan: the linguistic roots of bias. McFarland.