3 Annotated Bibliography
Borovoy, Amy and Ghodesee, Kristen. “Decentering Agency in Feminist Theory: Recuperating the Family as a Social Project.” Women’s Studies International Forum. 21 April 2012. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2012.03.003
The authors of this article explore feminist theory and the significance of motherhood, and how important it is to women in Japanese culture. They address two case studies on how women have conceptualized feminism and women’s welfare in terms of the social good rather than in terms of individual autonomy by looking into the roles women play in domesticity and childbearing. They also dig into the debate of abortion and how one engages in family planning. By addressing the history of feminism they are able to see distinct broadness between “first world” and “third world” feminism.
Having this sort of historical context is important when reading stories such as The Paper Artist because it can give us more context of the historical struggles Japanese women face in their culture. Being able to read about ethnographic research in Japan can allow a reader to have more information on what women experience in Japan while reading The Paper Artist, especially if an individual does not come from a Japanese background. After reading, it is shown how gender roles are rejected in Ota’s work, and there is an artistic freedom in the work that uses feminism to shape a character’s transformation.
Engels, Friedrich. The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State. Trans. Ernest Untermann. Project Gutenberg, 1884, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33111.
Friedrich Engels’ The Origin of the Family is recognized as one of the most fundamental works of Marxist theory due to how it breaks down modern views of “the family” as a social, cultural, and economic institution. Perhaps the most important aspect of the text that readers can take away is Engels’ assertion that the family unit and labor production fundamentally cannot be separated. Marriage and the forming of the family, he argues, is a way to ensure hereditary systems of wealth and property accumulation, as well as ensuring a consistent workforce. I really find the part where Engels explains his view that the “purchase marriage” common under feudalism, wherein a daughter would be married off based on the wealth of her family, has not entirely disappeared but instead been transformed throughout the development of capitalism in the west. In fact, he argues that the economics of marriage have only been strengthened compared to its feudalist counterpoint, as a woman’s husband is also judged based on his material wealth, namely property.
As I’m applying Marxist theory to my analysis of Ota’s story, I thought it was appropriate to directly draw from Marxist works, especially to make up for some of the shortcomings of my other sources in that regard. Engels’ Origin of the Family made a lot of sense to apply to my argument given Ota’s focus on familial relations, patriarchal rule, and the concept of cross-class marriage throughout her story. Though Engels’ book is generally focused on the development of marriage as a concept throughout Western Europe, especially in Protestant and Catholic states, I think his overall analysis that capitalist societies shape notions of marriage and family suits Ota’s story. Though the more theoretical angle concerning wealth and property is not explored in such a material analysis in Ota’s story, I see the overall desire for Mana to marry into a respectable family largely as a reflection of that same concept. Overall, I think that directly drawing from Engels will help me make the Marxian aspect of my argument clearer, while my other sources concerned with Japanese socioeconomics will help me translate this piece to a more modern, Eastern example.
Filion, P. (2013, November 15). Fading Resilience? Creative Destruction, Neoliberalism and Mounting… S.A.P.I.EN.S. Surveys and Perspectives Integrating Environment and Society. https://journals.openedition.org/sapiens/1523.
Neoliberalism plays a huge role in Ota’s The Paper Artist and Filion’s article helps us understand a little more just how important it is. Not only does Filion give us a brief history and explanation of what neoliberalism is, he also shows its global effect not just in literature but in cultures. The Paper Artist has a portrayal of the artist’s work that navigates the success and failures of an artist and how success can rely on someone’s class. This article can be tied toThe Paper Artist for its distinguishing unique on neoliberalism, and while The Paper Artist isn’t necessarily a queer story, both it and the article depict self-transformation through gender and the importance of individualism, which plays into gender theory in a major way. Much of The Paper Artist’s main focus is agency and creativity, which can then tie into many other themes and struggles that people, especially women, face in their societies.
Gagne, Nana Okura. “‘Correcting Capitalism’: Changing Metrics and Meanings of Work Among Japanese Employees.” Journal of Contemporary Asia, vol. 48, no. 1, Mar. 2018, pp. 67–87. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.cwi.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/00472336.2017.1381984.
Gagne’s article explores the course of Japan’s economic policies in the aftermath of World War II and how the country was elevated to a global capitalist power. There is particular emphasis placed on the nation’s increased turn towards neoliberalism after economic trouble of the late 80s and 90s and its ramping up during the start of the 21st century under former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Gagne also argues that the turn to neoliberalism in Japan has been an attempt to appease both nationalist and moderate groups in the Japanese government and culture. The core argument of the paper also builds upon the Marxist critique of neoliberalism as a means of preserving global capitalism at home and abroad. As neoliberalism and capitalist policy is allowed to shift policy labor policy in Japan, workers face greater disparity and Japanese society is further divided along socioeconomic lines.
I think Gagne’s article serves as a great source when applying a Marxist lens to “The Paper Artist”, as it helps provide important historical context for the modern class conditions we see in Japan and reflected in Ota’s story. For example, I think someone who lacks a lot of understanding about the class and cultural dynamics present in Japan may not exactly understand the significance of Muneo’s distaste for his daughter marrying a foreigner from an inadequate class background. This is also echoed when Muneo’s own father, a famous surgeon, feeling ashamed of his son becoming an artist. Furthermore, I also like how the paper gives examples of how a lot of Japan’s neoliberal turn was a response to the post-bubble economy of the 1990s, which gives more context for the story, such as how the mother is aware that one’s position in society is not always secure.
Goldstein, Gidoni, Ofra. “‘Working Fathers’ in Japan: Leading a Change in Gender Relations?” Gender, Work & Organization, vol. 27, no. 3, May 2020, pp. 362–78. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.cwi.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/gwao.12380.
This article by Ofra Goldstein-Gidoni discusses working fathers in modern Japanese culture and interprets qualitative data in order to examine the change. It makes a lot of points using significant campaigns of the past, such as Fathering Japan, and that, despite the small working father class (those who organize their work around their family life), they are making a change in cultural beliefs concerning this. This article applies to new historicism, as it discusses past Japanese father culture, and is an overall interesting article on the history of Japanese father culture and how the changing beliefs are leading to a change in gender relations.
Gutiérrez-Albilla, Julián. (2008). Abjection and the Politics of Feminist and Queer Subjectivities in Contemporary Art. Angelaki: journal of theoretical humanities. 13. 65-84. 10.1080/09697250802156075.
Art has always been a way used as a way to show a movement. It’s been a way to add more meaning to what’s happening around the world and can give it a deeper understanding, especially in the feminist movement. Gutiérrez-Albilla discusses this topic in his journal and also delves into race, and sex. This source was helpful in regard to The Paper Artist because of how intricately woven art is in E.K. Ota’s story, and can give a reader more context as to how art can give more voice to a story or movement in a way words cannot. It doesn’t just document the struggle for gender equality but can show how women are shaped and how they can reshape themselves. This source was inspiring and adds to a break in tradition, much like the end of The Paper Artist.
Hein, Laura E. “Free-Floating Anxieties on the Pacific: Japan and the West Revisited.” Diplomatic History, vol. 20, no. 3, Summer 1996, p. 411. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.cwi.idm.oclc.org/10.1111/j.1467-7709.1996.tb00273.x.
The main purpose of Hein’s piece is to understand class and ethnic tensions in Japan and draw parallels between Japan and the West through the kind of cultural and economic anxieties present in both societies. An interesting angle to her piece is her assertion that the governments of Japan and the United States often project their own contradictions onto other nations, including each other. Though attitudes of Japanese people and the perceptions imposed on them by Western nations have changed drastically since World War II, due to Japan’s collaboration with the United States in establishing the post-war capitalist order, there are still residual effects from those old hostilities that influence the cultural of Japan. There is also a focus placed on how the post-war economic development of Japan, heralded by the United States until it soon lead to trade tensions, is an example of how capitalism priorities a specific model of development at the expense of the working class.
While the exploration of parallels between Japan and the West is interesting, it is really Hein’s examination of Japanese economic anxieties in the aftermath of World War II that I find most applicable to my own research. Like my other sources, a lot of crucial context is given, but I also appreciate the specific exploration of how these contradictions influence Japan’s view of itself and other nations. I think this ties in well to the Marxist concept of material conditions being the main driver of social, political, and economic change. We also see in Ota’s story how Muneo thinks of foreigners like his son-in-law, but also how he thinks of himself in the context of visiting other counties to exhibit his art, with his façade of the silent, mysterious artist covering for his own insecurity regarding his skills in speaking English, which I think ties into the idea of “perception” presented in the article. Overall, I think that the article helps give me a lot of solid evidence to explore that angle of the story as an allegory for the marriage between economics and cultural creation in Japan specifically.
Hein, Laura. “The Cultural Career of the Japanese Economy: Developmental and Cultural Nationalisms in Historical Perspective.” Third World Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 3, Apr. 2008, pp. 447–65. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.cwi.idm.oclc.org/10.1080/01436590801931439.
This essay by Laura Hein explores how the Japanese economy has changed over the decades and how that historical context helps us understand the changing culture within Japanese nationalism. The author explains how deeply negative nationalism is within Japanese leaders and that it doesn’t benefit any sort of cultural or economic struggles within Japanese culture. This essay works well for new historicism as it uses historical context in order to describe the struggle and the change within many Japanese citizens’ deep-rooted nationalist beliefs.
Imamura, Makiko, et al. “Transmission of Gender Ideology through Family Discourse: Japanese Mothers and Their Career Choices.” Journal of Asian Pacific Communication (John Benjamins Publishing Co.), vol. 33, no. 1, Jan. 2023, pp. 12–37. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.cwi.idm.oclc.org/10.1075/japc.00077.ima.
This is a study article written by Makiko Imamura, Elizabeth Dow, and Naoko Uehara. The purpose of the article was to interview a handful of Japanese women born before the Equal Employment Law that was established in Japan in 1986. The goal was to understand how family and social discourse affected women’s motherhood and professional identities. The authors wanted to reveal how these roles changed historically and get a first-person account of what their relationships were like between working and traditional values. This article was good for reading about the first-hand experiences of Japanese women before the new laws that gave them more equality and gives some historical context to The Paper Artist for Mana and her mother.
Kaori, Okajima. “Dividing the Sexes: The Modern Evolution of Japanese Gender Roles in Marriage.” Nippon.com, Nippon Communications Foundation, 6 Dec. 2018, www.nippon.com/en/features/c05604/. Accessed 11 Nov. 2024.
Okajima’s article explores the history and evolution of Japan’s gender roles as defined by marriage. At the beginning it has a chart showing the evolution of marriage in Japan from ancient times to 2022. Okajima begins by discussing what marriage was like in ancient Japan, how in the eighth century the ritsuryō legal system helped built Japan’s patriarchal society, showing how warriors and merchants during feudal times would go through marriage so to ensure the continuation of their ancestry, and how entrenched patriarchy became by the Meiji era (1868-1912). In the section ‘From Farmer’s Brides to Stay-at-Home Wives,’ he points out how the Japanese Constitution of 1947 gave equality to both the husband and wife by making marriage become based on consent and shared cooperation. In “An Unfair Dichotomy: Work or Stay at Home,” Okajima informs that due to Japan’s economy taking a plunge in the 1990s, men were earning less from their jobs which caused the wives to work outside of the house to support themselves along now having to handle looking after their aging relatives while alongside their regular duties. In the final section “The Future of Marriage,” Okajima raises the question of how Japan will evolve their definition of marriage in the future and deal with the sexism that’s still rampant within its culture to this day.
This article from Nippon provides a cultural overview of how marriage in Japan works along with showing the effects it has on both men and women. The article also uses a historical lens based on how it’s organized in chronological order from ancient times to around our present day. This Nippon article demonstrates the inequality that the sexes face in Japan and how they created by the country’s traditional ideas and traditions around matrimony. Okajima does a good job writing and organizing his article along with using quotes from professional experts to help give it a weight and sense of authority and legitimacy. Okajima’s thesis about Japan needing to deal with the consequences from clinging to traditional gender roles for so long is quite well made and convincingly argues its case.
Kehrwieder, Sierra. “Japanese Women in the Workforce: Tradition versus Equality.” Scholar Works Seattle, 24, p. 27. Scholar Works Seattle, https://scholarworks.seattleu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001&context=etds-intl-std-theses.
Sierra Kehrwieder wrote her undergraduate thesis on Japanese women in the workforce. This article goes over all aspects of inequality within the workplace in Japan. Allowing for the reality of the situations of these women to be broadcasted with thorough research to back up the claims made within this article. This is a recent piece, being written less than four months ago. Throughout the article evidence is shown within the piece allowing for the claims provided to be justified. Kehrwieder goes over the reality that women are constantly facing gendered division of labor within their workplace. Along with how the office lady or ladies are being treated within their roles. The gender roles are stuck in the past, these women are constantly being discriminated against for being women.
Kehrwieder opens the eyes to the world of how backwards Japanese culture still conducts their work environments. This article touches base on more inequality than equality within the environments being provided to these young women. Not only does Kehrwieder touch on the bases of gender equality in the workplace, but she also touches on the aspect of women being in politics in Japan. Allowing readers to understand how unequal the Japanese culture can be for women. Giving view to the limited role women are allowed to have within their workplace. Kehrwieder is a writer to fulfill the research, time, and effort needed for this article.
Molony, Barbara. “Feminism in Japan.” Asian History, Oxford Research, 24 January 2018, https://oxfordre.com/asianhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277727.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277727-e-194.
This article was written by a woman named Barbara Molony. She thoroughly goes over all the aspects of feminism within Japanese culture. Molony goes over the first movement of civil rights within Japan. Writing about how few women took part within the movement. She then goes over the entire history of the women becoming seen as citizens of Japan. Mentioning a group from a Woman’s Christian Union fighting to stop things from human trafficking to prostitution. This article goes over the broad progress of what women went through to have rights within Japan. Molony writes passionately about the struggle that these women had to face in their everyday lives.
Not only does this article go over the aspects of the activism of the group, it goes over the geographical impacts as well. Allowing for the earthquakes to become part of these women’s story. Molony allows for politics and nature to coexist within her article. She allows there to be a story through the tragedy Japan has faced in the past to become part of their political movements. This article is a movement through time with all the aspects to be covered from the 17th century to modern day Japan. Molony does a beautiful job giving a timeline to the feminist movements within Japan.
Omori, Kikuko, and Hiroshi Ota. “Japan’s Struggle to Improve Gender Equality: Japanese Culture, Gender Role/Expectation through Family, Social Societal and Media Dialogues.” Journal of Asian Pacific Communication (John Benjamins Publishing Co.), vol. 33, no. 1, Jan. 2023, pp. 1–11. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.cwi.idm.oclc.org/10.1075/japc.00097.int.
This article by Kikuko Omori and Ota Hiroshi was about the struggle for gender equality in Japan and the expectations of culture between family, society, and media. The goal of the article was to explain the many challenges of Japanese women in their culture and overcoming the inequality they experience, especially in the workplace. The article provided a lot of interesting insight into the struggle of Japanese women trying to gain control over their lives and redefine their existence. This article was good for adding to the struggle of Japanese women over the years when it comes to the workforce, this added more to the narrative of Mana and her mother.
Omori, Kikuko, and Hiroshi Ota. “Japan’s Struggle to Improve Gender Equality: Japanese Culture, Gender Role/Expectation through Family, Social Societal and Media Dialogues.” Journal of Asian Pacific Communication (John Benjamins Publishing Co.), vol. 33, no. 1, Jan. 2023, pp. 1–11. EBSCOhost,https://doi.org/10.1075/japc.00097.int.
This paper begins its introduction by pointing out how according to the 2020 World Economic Forum ranking, Japan is ranked low in gender equality compared with other Asian Pacific nations. In the same paragraph discussing the 2020 World Economic Forum rankings, Japanese Olympic Chief Yoshiro Mori sexist remarks and the high number of sexual harassment cases in the country are mentioned. Omori and Ota use those observations to show Japan’s problem with maintaining gender equality across all aspects of life like culture, family, gender roles, and more. The section on Japanese gender roles alongside goes over how men and women use gender specific speech styles for certain situations, like with the emergence of herbivore masculinity for example, the link between the increase of many in Japan staying single and its decline in births, and how gender roles in Japan have still remain traditional to this day. Other factors in shaping gender roles and expectations that are brought up within this section are cultural pressures and social discourse. Omori and Ota discuss how gender is integrated through communication models within micro and macro-culture along with positing standpoint theory to explain how gendered power statuses are supported. In the final section “Future research,” Omori and Ota argued that Japan needs to undergo a paradigm shift on its perceptions and expectations of women so it can in the future transform from a masculine gendered society to an egalitarian society.
The article serves as a great introduction about Japan’s expectations and perceptions around gender and its current struggles with evolving past them so that it could become a gender egalitarian society. Omori and Ota do an excellent job explaining the definitions and theories behind gender roles and identity along with Japan’s own ideas about them as well. Both Omori and Ota use a cultural and feminist lens to analyze and critique Japan’s patriarchal system and how that has been challenged over the years. The sources used for this article are all credible sources along with being integrated and cited with skill throughout. Omori’s and Ota’s article gives a comprehensive overview of the many obstacles that Japan must recognize and solve so to ensure gender equality within the country.
Person, Fiona, & Graham. (2005, February 9). Japanese Company in Crisis: Fiona Graham: Taylor & Francis Ebooks, R. Taylor & Francis. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780203005705/japanese-company-crisis-fiona-graham?context=ubx&refId=75a879a8-a676-4b47-a90c-84f0ff34ed26
This was a PDF preview, but Graham provided much insight on the characterization of white-collar workers in Japan and just how much the workers are committed to their companies that they work for. The need for individualism in Japanese workplaces is based on a social divide in whatever field s/he works in to be able to promote their own personal goals. Graham took a very different approach in this book. She wanted to see how economic downturns affected the Japanese workers and focused more on statistics, and has a more Marxist approach which fits well with The Paper Artist because they both have a focus on economic struggles and class, as well as power structures. Just like in Ota’s The Paper Artist, Graham explores how economics influences the people /characters involved in both the article and the story. There is an alienation within the labor and an emphasis on how workers in societies can become isolated within their work environment, and even themselves. Which both the short story and the source do a fantastic job of touching on. The disconnect plays an important role of immersing the reader into the story and shows them the critiques of commercialization of labor, even if it is an artistic path like in the story.
Rich, Motoko. “Craving Freedom, Japan’s Women Opt Out of Marriage.” The New York Times, 3 Aug. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/08/03/world/asia/japan-single-women-marriage.html. Accessed 11 Nov. 2024.
Rich’s article talks about how women in Japan are forgoing marriage due to not wanting to become trapped as wives and mothers along with the economic conditions that favors them to be unwedded. Rich begins her piece by detailing Sanae Hanaoka’s marriage not to a husband but instead herself- a solo wedding celebrating her being single to a crowd of 30. For context, she talks about how a growing number of Japanese women are rejecting marriage due to wanting to focus more on their own careers thanks to newfound freedoms. Statistics are given on how many women in Japan are married with one in 20 having not been wedded before turning 50 during the mid-1990s while one from 2015 showed a drastic decline with one in seven women being unwedded. Mara Miura, a political science professor from Sophia University, is quoted saying that when women marry they are forced to give many of their freedoms in turn. Kumiko Nemoto, a sociology professor at Kyoto University, is quoted saying how difficult it is for women who have jobs to find a man who can look after the household along with how due to Japan’s consumption culture many Japanese women now no longer need husbands to keep themselves economically afloat. The effects of Japan’s marriage declines have left one in five men taking jobs that offer no financial stability, making them unable to be the breadwinners of their house. James Raymo, a sociology professor from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says that Japanese women are not avoiding marriage but instead are postponing it until the circumstances are right to do so.
Rich’s article does a stupendous job giving context over why women in Japan are preferring singlehood over marriage. By integrating interviews with Japanese women into her piece, Rich allows us to put ourselves into their shoes so to better understand why they choose to not get wedded. The use of academic authorities helps provide cultural context around Japan as a culture and its traditions around marriage. The use of photos of the Japanese women interviewed for this piece and in general helps visualize for the reader what daily life is like for them in Japan. Rich uses both a cultural and feminist lens to show how Japan’s economic decline over the years led to women rebelling against the country’s patriarchal system after being forced to work as housewives and mothers for so long. Rich’s writing is well written and professional along with easy for those who aren’t familiar with all things Japan to understand.
Roberts, Melinda R. “Japanese Gender Role Expectations and Attitudes: A Qualitative Analysis of Gender Inequality.” ProQuest, Journal of International Women’s Studies; Bridgewater, August 2019, https://www.proquest.com/docview/2292914119?sourcetype=Scholarly%20Journals.
Melinda Roberts goes through the roles that gender plays in modern Japan. Roberts provides the data she uses within her article to add to her credibility. She conducted interviews with people who reside in Japan to acquire all of her details. The article mainly focuses on the gender roles in which women play throughout the day in Japan. Having interviewed seven women in total, many of these women had different outlooks of their roles within the community they resided. Roberts goes on to thoroughly discuss the family dynamics and goals for the women she interviewed. This allows for a different view of how women see their lives being like in the future. Roberts talks about the way some women do not want families and others don’t wish to be married at all. This source allows for a different view to be spotlighted. It allows for the change of modern society to be shown from these women. Allowing for a better understanding of how times have changed within Japanese culture. Women no longer wish to be married and have families. Most modern women wish to have independent lives.
This source also focuses on the usual spotlight of what is expected of women. Roberts writes about the three women who were supposed to support their men no matter what. This source gives both ideas of how gender roles can be perceived. Even though times have changed some women are raised to have the same values of the people who have come before them. While others are raised to be independent. This article, written by Melinda Roberts, allows for both realities of gender roles to be shown.
