THE JAPANESE FAMILY FACES TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY CHALLENGES.

Family-related issues are at the forefront of social challenges facing Japan as it enters the twenty first century: women are postponing marriage, the birth rate is falling, the divorce rate rising,teenage girls are dating middle-aged men to earn money to buy luxury goods, young men are finding it difficult to attract wives, and the percentage of the elderly is growing rapidly and their care is a major social problem. Japanese leaders are lamenting the breakdown of the Japanese family system or seeking to develop policies to shore up that system.

The low position of Japanese women was among the various criteria the West used to declare Japan a backward society. Women’s roles were debated by Japanese reformers, and the Meiji state (1868–1912) developed an ideology centered on the importance of educating women to be good wives and wise mothers. The main elements of the Meiji family system as defined in law continued until the Post World War II Allied Occupation. The system was based on the assumption that marriage was for the family rather than for individual love.

To perpetuate this system, children were raised according to their roles. Eldest sons were treated as future heads of family, served after their father and before their younger brothers; daughters were last because they would one day marry out of the family. The bride’s position was very lowest of all. If she bore a son, one day she might become a mother-in-law to whom her son’s bride owed strict obedience. After the war, during the occupation, laws concerning marriage changed. Under the new law, marriage became a union between two consenting adults and did not require approval of the household head. Inheritance and responsibility for caring for parents was to be divided equally among all children.

As Japan moved into the 1960s and its period of double-digit economic growth, new family forms developed. In spite of the legal changes, daughters did not expect equal inheritance or equal responsibility for care of their parents. At marriage, they signed documents stating they had received their inheritance as their dowry and expected their eldest brother (and his

wife) to look after their parents; daughters, in turn, might look after their husband’s parents.

Economic growth and industrial development produced salaried workers, a minority of whom had “permanent” (until retirement) jobs. The salaryman’s wife was an important part of corporate Japan; as wife, her duty

was to manage the household and its finances so that her husband could come home and relax to be energized for the next day’s work. As mother, her duty increasingly focused on getting her children through the education system, and the phenomenon of the “education mother” was born. Education became increasingly important for women who wanted to attract a salaryman husband. Once married, women were available to do piece work in the home, and their cheap labor provided the foundation for Japan’s industrial development.

As this hard-working salaryman family moved into the second generation, a variation appeared that was called the new family in Japan. This new family was based on the belief that husband sand wives should be companions and have shared interests. Another difference was the increase in employment opportunities

for married women outside the home. They could work in a growing range of occupations including newly developing neighborhood supermarkets, fast food restaurants and the like, participate in PTA and other child related organizations, join or found a community related group, and/or pursue personal education

through courses offered at community centers and women’s centers. To comply with the principle of this law, companies created a two-track system and women were employed in virtually every field. One track (sougoushoku) leads to possible managerial positions, the other track (ippanshoku) to routine work with limited promotion potential. In theory, men and women have equal opportunity in both tracks. Hiring decisions should be made by educational and other work-related criteria, not gender. In practice, the majority of women are in routine work and virtually all

men are on the sougoushoku track.

By the late 1980s and early 1990s a number of trends became noticeable: women were marrying later and later; the birth rate was falling; Japanese men were increasingly seen as undesirable husbands and as problems when they grew older. Throughout this period, as Japan became increasingly aware that its society was rapidly aging, the government called on women to carry out three key missions: to bear children, care for the aged, and fill the needs of the shrinking labor force. Unsurprisingly, women resisted the government’s urgings, not with protests and marches, but by changing their behavior or quiet noncompliance.

One of the most striking behavior changes reflects the fact that marriage is becoming less and less attractive to Japanese women. Sexual mores are also changing. One example is young girls dating older men for money. In fact, pregnancy seems to have become a recognized catalyst for marriage. While the age of marriage is rising, the birth rate is falling. Why is marriage so unattractive to Japanese women? One reason is that women have another option for economic security: employment. Another is the difficulty of combining family and career in Japan today because of the Japanese employment system and the expectation of total commitment of worker to company. Yet another important reason is the legacy of the Japanese family system, including care for the aged.

More interesting than increase in the divorce rate is the growing number of divorces after 20 years of marriage. In 1999 the average length of marriage at divorce was 10.3 years. This phenomenon reflects women “exiting the system.” Once their children are raised, these women want to retire, just as their husbands are retiring. They, however, want to retire from housekeeping, caring for their husband, caring for his aged parents, and someday

caring for him. They thus reject many of what were considered women’s most important roles.

A growing form of exiting the system is represented by the “Freeters,” young women and men who “choose”17 to work in temporary positions rather than seek a more permanent career track. This phenomenon is viewed with concern by social analysts who worry both about the values of these young people and whether the Freeters will ever be able to earn enough to live independently of their parents, purchase homes, and provide for their own old age.

As in other countries, the single stereotype of the fragile elderly has been replaced with the recognition that there are a range of types, including people who are physically active (traveling, engaging in sports) and those learning

new skills (the Internet). Regardless of type, the goal of care for the aged is related to one’s social responsibility to be an active, contributing member of society by taking care of physical and mental health, avoiding situations that burden others, and to returning the obligations one incurs through relationships of interdependence with others.

Ecological issues.

Date: 2015-12-18; view: 617