Organizer and Chair: James E. Roberson, Sugiyama Jogakuen University
Discussant: Kimio Ito, Osaka University
The purpose of this panel is to offer a variety of gender sensitive views of the diversity of identities (and the politics thereof) that may be found in the everyday experiences of men in contemporary Japan. Over the past two decades, Western representations of Japanese women have enriched our understandings of the range of cultural, social and economic contexts in which women act and through which they constitute their identities, inside and outside of the "traditional" domestic sphere. Contrary to this, our images of Japanese men remain limited, despite the increasing number of studies of men as gendered beings in other cultures. Images of Japanese men continue to focus primarily on men as employees and on work or corporate contexts. Western representations remain closely related to, and may sometimes be seen to reproduce, Japanese ideological constructions of masculinity as idealized by the "salaryman," for whom company and work are the sole bases of identity.
In this panel, we hope to expand our fields of knowledge about Japanese men, going beyond the image of the urban salaryman in corporate related contexts. We view men not just as workers but as gendered individuals constructing a diverse range of identities and so, sometimes actively, creating a plurality of masculine identities and masculinities. The papers represent heterogeneous perspectives and positions, being written by both Japanese and American men and women. All of the panel participants are academics, but included are two Japanese men who are also concurrently involved in identity politics of various sorts, attempting to create social and ideological space in Japan to allow men to find and accept "alternative" ways of being men.
Nobue Suzuki, University of Hawaii, Manoa
During the past decade, the number of intermarriages in Japan has increased significantly. Of these, Filipina-Japanese (FJ) marriages have become one of the most common. Also, divorce rates among FJ couples have been statistically lower than among Japanese-Japanese marriages. Despite the nature of marriage as involving both women and men, few writers have focused on men in the marriage market, especially in urban Japan. In this paper, I explore the images of Japanese men in FJ intermarriages and the related masculinity politics in contemporary Japan.
Though changing, marriage in Japan has traditionally been the gate to full-fledged adulthood, and "good" marriages have been important in enhancing one’s social status. Intermarriages, furthermore, have often had a cosmopolitan aura. However, men in FJ marriages have been characterized as farmers, yakuza gangsters, chauvinists, wife abusers, and social outcasts, in sharp contrast to Japan’s hegemonic masculine model of the urban, white-collar salaryman. Images of Filipino women in Japan have also largely been as "subservient brides" and as sexualized "entertainers" from the Third World.
Such negative stereotypes of FJ couples as occupying socioeconomic margins mask the many positive aspects of their experiences and the presence of socially more empowered FJ couples. The absence of middle-class salarymen from discourses about FJ marriages places the sanctioned model man and struggles of masculinity in Japan’s gender cartography in inverse relief.
Laura Miller, Loyola University of Chicago
Previous generations of (heterosexual) Japanese men were evaluated primarily on the basis of character, social standing, earning capacity, lineage, and other social criteria. These days young men are increasingly concerned with their status as objects of aesthetic appraisal. A trend towards externalization of masculine identity is manifested in new businesses which sell body aesthetics or esute to individuals interested in changing or upgrading their appearance, particularly those college-aged or younger. This paper will examine some contemporary body modification practices, consumer products and media engaged in creating male physical identities.
In some cases men’s esute resembles similar phenomena for women, while elsewhere it is targeted specifically to males. Salons for men which offer facials, electrolysis treatments, weight-loss programs, or other beauty services are a growing industry. Plastic surgery clinics provide specialized or exclusive procedures, including cosmetic circumcision, penile implants, and male-only staff and clientele to protect "male pride." Also available are leg straightening or height enhancing technologies, aromatherapy, and kits for constructing the perfect eyebrow. A separate market for men’s cosmetics has given birth to the Nudy line of hair coloring, Gatsby nose packs, Zero Factor depilatory cremes, and Mandom’s internet advice website for skin care and hair-styling tips.
These new types of men’s esute may be linked to a variety of social issues, including sexual selection resulting from social and demographic transformations, media normalization processes, and changing attitudes about the malleability of the self.
Gordon Mathews, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Japan’s male-centered culture has lately been criticized in Japanese mass media as being the cause of "Japan’s decline": "men’s culture is lost and confused." In this paper, based on interviews with thirty men of different ages, educational levels, and social classes, I attempt to understand what this statement means through the lens of ikigai ("that which most makes life worth living).
The Japanese stereotype is of men living for their companies and finding their masculinity accordingly. Few Japanese men actually claim to live for work, but work may so dominate their lives that it is difficult for them to pursue ikigai elsewhere. Some men live for their personal dreams, but may sense that the demands of work and family make those dreams unattainable. Others, increasingly, say they live for their families, but this is still widely criticized as memeshii, "effeminate." Several men secretively and ruefully told me that they wished they were women, and had the freedom not to be shackled to companies they hated but could not quit.
In short, as I will discuss in this paper, despite hopeful exceptions, it remains difficult for many Japanese men to live for their families or their dreams rather than their jobs, given the gendered structuring of Japanese capitalism and men’s own cornered senses of masculine pride.
Tadashi Nakamura, Ritsumeikan University, Japan
Japanese men have recently become confronted with a variety of serious problems, including death from overwork, sexual confusion, inability to share emotions, and failed relations at home. I have been trying to rethink these issues from a gender perspective.
It is important to understand men’s situation by focusing on how men internalize the masculine ideals of toughness and of competition in the company. Men are expected to be patient and to be strong at every stage of their life course. Men are also expected to be the family breadwinner, and to take personal responsibility for and the social role of making their families happy. However, because of such expectations men are suffering from a society which in many ways constrains and depresses their lives.
Male roles are based on all kinds of institutional settings such as family relations, the welfare system, the educational system, the company system, and so on. These institutions are instrumental in the transformation of boys into adult men. In other words, this is a process of transforming boys into adult men according to the ideal masculine image. I will examine this process in contemporary Japanese society.
Additionally, as a sociologist I am trying to help organize a men’s movement in Japan. I am co-founder of the Men’s Center Japan, which was established in 1995, one year after the world women’s conference in Beijing. Japanese men need to discover our individuality and to rethink our lifestyle. I will report on how Japanese men are changing and why we need men’s studies and men’s centers.