Gender Roles in Japan's Bestseller Films 1998-2018
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STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY Department of Asian, Middle Eastern and Turkish Studies Do Women Shine at Work? : Gender Roles in Japan’s Bestseller Films 1998-2018 Bachelor Thesis in Japanese Language and Culture Spring 2019 Author: Sandra Helander Supervisor: Dr. Ewa Machotka Sammanfattning Denna avhandling undersöker könsrollerna på arbetsplatsen i de utvalda japanska bästsäljande filmerna som producerades under de senaste tre decennierna, vilket upplevde införandet av politiska åtgärder som avser att förbättra jämställdheten på arbetsplatsen. Studien hävdar att trots de samhälleliga och politiska förändringarna i Japan under de senaste trettio åren har bästsäljande filmer behållit traditionella könsrollsskildringar. Förklaringen kan vara att det är mycket lättare att ändra regler och lagstiftningar än uppfattningen om könsroller, som länge har existerat i samhället. Abstract This thesis examines the gender roles in the workplace featured in the selected Japanese best- seller films produced in the last three decades, which saw the introduction of policies aimed at improving gender equality in the workplace. The study argues that despite societal and political changes in Japan in the last thirty years bestseller films have perpetuated traditional portrayal of gender roles. The explanation could be that it is much easier to change rules and legislations, than the perception on gender roles, which have existed in the society for a long time. Keywords Gender Roles, Japan, Gender Traits, Bestseller films, Japanese Cinema, Womenomics, Equal Employment Opportunity Law, Women in the Workforce Acknowledgements I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Ewa Machotka for all her valuable input, advice and encouragement. I would also like to thank the department of Asian, Middle Eastern and Turkish studies for their assistance. Conventions In this essay all written names will be written in the order First Name - Last Name. All Japanese words and concepts will be italicized, and as plural is not used in the Japanese language no differentiation will be made between singular and plural words. The traditional and modified version of the Hepburn romanization system will be used for the romanization of Japanese. Long vowels are written with macrons, ā, ī, ū, ē and ō. Unless otherwise stated, all Japanese text is translated by me. Table of Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 5 2. Literature Review ...................................................................................................................... 9 2.1 What is Gender? ................................................................................................................................ 9 2.2 Gender Studies and Media ............................................................................................................. 10 2.3 Gender and Media in Japan ........................................................................................................... 14 2.4 Women and Workplaces in Japan ................................................................................................. 16 3. Research Method and Material .............................................................................................. 20 3.1 Method .............................................................................................................................................. 20 3.2 Material ............................................................................................................................................ 23 4. Analysis of Gender Roles ........................................................................................................ 26 4.1 Films from 1998 ................................................................................................................................ 26 4.2 Films from 2008 ................................................................................................................................ 30 4.3 Films from 2018 ................................................................................................................................ 34 5. Results of Analysis ................................................................................................................... 40 6. Discussion ................................................................................................................................. 42 7. Conclusions ............................................................................................................................... 44 8. Bibliography ............................................................................................................................. 46 9. Appendix ................................................................................................................................... 51 Table 3.1 – Age and Employment of Characters in 1998 .................................................................. 51 Table 3.2 – Age and Employment of Characters in 2008 .................................................................. 51 Table 3.3 – Age and Employment of Characters in 2018 .................................................................. 52 Table 4.1 – The “Feminine” Traits of Characters in 1998 ................................................................ 53 Table 4.2 – The “Masculine” Traits of Characters in 1998 ............................................................... 54 Table 5.1 – The “Feminine” Traits of Characters in 2008 ................................................................. 55 Table 5.2 – The “Masculine” Traits of Characters in 2008 ............................................................... 56 Table 6.1 – The “Feminine” Traits of Male Characters in 2018 ....................................................... 57 Table 6.2 – The “Feminine” Traits of Female Characters in 2018 ................................................... 58 Table 6.3 – The “Masculine” Traits of Male Characters in 2018 ..................................................... 59 Table 6.4 – The “Masculine” Traits of Female Characters in 2018 .................................................. 60 1. Introduction In 2013 Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzō Abe announced Womenomics, a set of measures aimed at the promotion of economic empowerment for women expected to boost Japanese workforce and economy. This initiative was launched as a response to the serious labour crisis the country faces, which poses a major threat to the future of the Japanese economy. However, Womenomics also brought attention once again to the roles of women in the Japanese society and the changing attitudes towards gender structure in the society.1 One way to see gender is as a social construction, and separating it from a person’s sex.2 This is why gender identities are complex; while one’s sex could be female the gender identity could be different.3 The implementation of a gender identity, the act of behaving in a certain way because of one’s sex and expectations, creates gender roles. These roles are not fixed and vary with time and place.4 In the last years the media consumption in the world has risen exceptionally quickly. In today’s modern societies each week numerous hours are spent on television, smartphones, magazines and other publications. Films are part of this structure scheme and aimed at a broad audience. Not surprisingly, gender roles in films have been investigated with the development of the feminist film theory in the 1970s5 after the discontent over the sex-stereotypes in media,6 with the main approach being psychoanalysis.7 These stereotypes showed men as strong and intelligent and women as beautiful, emotional and timid.8 Scholars observe similar tendencies in Japanese films, which depict males as strong and women as weak,9 prefer male characters to female characters, whose youth was of the most value to their character.10 These characteristics are commonly 1 Emma Dalton, “Womenomics, ‘Equality’ and Abe’s Neo-liberal Strategy to Make Japanese Women Shine,” Social Science Japan Journal 20, no. 1, (2017): 96- 98, 102. 2 Cynthia Carter and Linda Steiner, eds. Critical Readings: Media and Gender. (Maidenhead: Open University Press, 2004), 3. 3 Robert J. Stoller, Sex and Gender: The Development of Masculinity and Femininity, (London: Karnac Books, 1984), 10. 4 Chantal Cornut-Gentille D’arcy and José Ángel García Landa, Gender, I-deology Essays on Theory, Fiction and Film (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996), 16. 5 Rosemarie Buikema and Iris van der Tuin, Doing Gender in Media, Art and Culture (London: Routledge, 2009), 179-180. 6 Carter and Steiner, Critical Readings: Media and Gender, 2. 7 Buikema and Tuin, Doing Gender in Media, Art and Culture, 179-180. 8 Carter and Steiner, Critical Readings: Media and Gender, 13. 9 David R Rolandelli, “Gender Role Portrayal Analysis of Children’s Programming in Japan,” Human Relations 44, no. 12 (1991): 1273. 10 Atsuko Nishibeppu 西別府厚子 and Sumiko Iwao 岩男壽美子, Terebidorma no shakaishinrigakuteki kenkyū: naiyōbunseki wo chūshintoshite テレビドラマの社会心理学的 研究：内容分析を中心として[Social Psychology explained in relation to the dominant Japanese family model consisting of two genus-specific heterosexual roles: the male wageworker and female housewife.11 But the question is if these traditional gendered stereotypes perpetuated by films have changed in the last few decades, especially in the context