Many of the cultural influences on Japanese women pertaining to status, self-image, and sense of identity are taken for granted in descriptions of the Japanese national character. Ideological explanations of the roles and functions of women in the social world correspond to an idealized description of women as passive agents of social change. Belief in women as active participants in the process of social change tends to be private, unpublicized, and only occasionally expressed in the media.
Women who hold views on public and controversial social matters tend to remain faceless, invisible, and vulnerable to the many pressures that bear on their social and legal existence. Moreover, when the assumptions about the "proper" and "legitimate" roles of women are discussed and questioned, as derivative of a particular cultural milieu, the issue is often raised by Japanese men who want to modify traditional aspects of the existing system.
In Japan, the women's liberation (ribu) movement, which might have been central in any public discussion on women's behavior and attitudes, has remained quiescent and marginal, cut off from a mass base and having limited support outside of a few cities. The ribu movement is of peripheral interest to women not directly concerned with it.
Within this context it becomes pertinent to examine some of the elements that have contributed to Japanese social organization, in which membership in a group means the containment of personal interests at the expense of the free expression of persons of both sexes undertaking joint responsibilities and common roles. It is equally useful to discuss the private expectations of Japanese women today as they enter the marketplace or adult life. One needs to keep in mind that in Japan, norms speak to the group rather than to the individual or a particular sex.
According to some historians, the feudal period in Japan was characterized by a dramatic lowering in status for Japanese women. Their general mobility and autonomy were severely circumscribed, and their power and sphere of private action were curtailed.
In that political atmosphere, legal codes and political restrictions were buttressed by a conservative Buddhist philosophy, clergy, and laity. Subsequently women became increasingly bound to multiple forms of submission--when young, to the father; after marriage, to the husband; when old, to the son. This patriarchal dimension was expressed and broadened in complicated entitlements, privileges, and responsibilities that devolved on men and women alike. Thus, in Japanese organizational and interpersonal histories, a process of differentiation between sexes was legitimized. Men and women were to function in a number of demarcated zones--more so among and between the upper classes than between commoners. A basic pattern of segregation and behavior was ritualized, and clear expectations of conduct among family members became routine. The ie (household) ideology and household decision-making, for example, were to be central to every aspect of a woman's life cycle, ranging from marriage relationships to involvement in public life.
After World War II, the legal status of women underwent considerable change. Laws designed to stress the democratic values of the occupying powers, with much emphasis on "rights" and "equality," were meant to enhance the autonomy and
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