published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Comparative Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of women in the Japanese workplace. Data obtained from in-depth interviews and questionnaires, shows that the Japanese workplace is in a state of change moving toward a higher level of opportunity for female workers. While similar to the circumstances experienced by Western women, the changes which Japanese women are experiencing have their own history and thus are analyzed from a non-Western perspective. Some key aspects of the analysis include: training, separate positions for men and women, tasks, and perceptions of gender discrimination. For men and women who held the same jobs it was found that the majority of training experiences were gender neutral. This is consistent with the fact that Japanese companies must make training equal as mandated by the 1985 Equal Employment Opportunity Law. In the workplace, however, discrimination has taken the form of separate positions for men and women. While there were informants who were both supportive and un-supportive of job separation, it was clear that this practice resulted in lower salaries and fewer high level positions for women. When males and females held the same positions, 17% of women were given different duties. These duties included serving tea, cleaning, and hostessing, all of which are tasks generally done by a wife for her husband. Thus in some instances domestic roles determine tasks assigned in the workplace. From the informants' responses a Japanese definition of gender discrimination was formulated. Culturally, gender discrimination was noted in terms of treating women differently than men, but also included improper sexual advances. A full 80% of the study's informants acknowledged the existence of gender discrimination in the Japanese workplace. Finally, from this sample it was determined that cultural relativism, internal labor market theory, and human capital theory are all compatible tools for analysis of the Japanese labor market. / Graduation date: 1998

This study focuses on the decade of 1921-31 in the career of social activist-historian Takamure Itsue (1894-1964). It is important to examine the concepts which developed early in her career as they formed the foundation of her later research on Japanese marriage and women's history. Takamure emerged as a poet and a theorist for the Japanese women's movement in the 1920s amidst the growing labour, agrarian, and feminist movements fueled by the turbulent economic change experienced nationally and internationally. It is essential to understand the pivotal themes which emerged in Itsue's work and to place these concepts within the context of the contributions made by other female activists in the late-Taisho to early Showa period and moreover, within the context of the leftist movement in general. During the first half of the 1920s Takamure had gained recognition as a poet and developed her four-stage theory of women's movements. In her poetry and articles she expressed her views on such matters as love, nature, and freedom. By the mid-1920s, Takamure had rejected the Western stage of women's movements and advocated a Japanese model of "New Feminism" which emphasized freedom, especially for women. She advocated the elimination of political and social authoritarianism which was controlled by the male-centred bureaucracy. She urged a shift towards an Asian society of agrarian self-government which emphasized harmony with nature, freedom from bureaucratic oppression, and women and men sharing in the production of the essentials of life. Through several debates in the late 1920s, including one with Marxist Yamakawa Kikue, Itsue further developed her views of anarchism. The publication of her women's anarchistic magazine, Fujin sensen (Women's front; March 1930-June 1931) allowed Itsue to focus her talents and express her position on issues such as urban versus rural economics and the feminist movement. Involvement with Fujin sensen also gave Takamure the opportunity to broaden her contacts with other anarchists, both male and female, and to expand her knowledge of farmers' issues. When the periodical ceased publication, Itsue, at the age of thirty-seven, embarked on a research plan which would take the rest of her life. Intrigued by the work of the eighteenth-century scholar Motoori Norinaga, she decided first to investigate the history of marriage, which she felt played a major role in the long chronicle of women's oppression. Itsue1s decision resulted from a gradual process strengthened by her activities in the 1920s. Some writers disagree with this statement and argue that Takamure's real contributions to Japanese history were made in the latter half of her life. Others contend that to ignore or negate the activities of the first half of her life presents an imbalanced view of her career. This thesis therefore uses a variety of "re-discovered" primary sources, including scholarly articles, periodicals and books to raise several historiographical issues related to the above two streams of thought. They include the role of Itsue's husband, Kenzo, in the virtual elimination of her anarchistic thought and views on the wartime period from her collected works. Further, Takamure1s intellectual development is discussed with respect to the following issues: (1) her alleged "ideological conversion" in 1940, (2) her agrarian concepts of the 1920s compared with those of the agrarian movement in the 1930s, and (3) her concepts of the Emperor and especially Shinto thought. / Arts, Faculty of / Asian Studies, Department of / Graduate

published_or_final_version / Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / Japanese Studies / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Comparative Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts