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Japanese and South Korean Approaches to Overcoming Gender Inequality: a Comparative Analysis

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Japanese and South Korean Approaches to Overcoming Gender Inequality: a Comparative Analysis 22th BORDEAUX-FRANCE Int'l Conference on Humanities, Social Sciences & Interdisciplinary Studies (HSSIS-19) Sept. 4-5, 2019 Bordeaux (France) Japanese and South Korean Approaches to Overcoming Gender Inequality: A Comparative Analysis Andreeva Anastasiia processes of the government and society. Abstract—Despite common historical background and The study is based on qualitative content analysis. The texts similarities in cultural values, movement for gender equality is materials were taken from primary sources such as mass media occurring differently in Japan and The Republic of Korea: it is (to obtain information on recent situation) as well as from being treated as a side effect of Abe’s womenomics in the first case and has a solid base of social initiative that fills in the gaps of the secondary sources (to investigate the current state of knowledge governmental policy in the second one. The paper suggests that and researchers‟ approaches to the topic). The data from aside from the civil activity level, there is another key reason for national surveys and statistic bases were also incorporated to the difference in approaches which is the attitude to the “comfort reinforce theoretical conceptions. In order to achieve a complex women” problem. comprehension of the issue, we critically analyzed texts by Japanese and South Korean authors, written in Japanese and Keywords—comfort women, gender hierarchy, social Korean, as well as by international scholars. Performing cross movement, womenomics. national comparative research, we used culture-free and I. INTRODUCTION culture-bound approaches as complimentary tools, which allowed us to get both highly specific conclusions within the Despite being labelled as developed societies, for which context frame and universal ones with a high degree of gender equality is named a necessity, Japan and The Republic of abstraction. Korea rank low (110th and 115th, respectively) in 2018 The Global Gender Gap Index by World Economic Forum [1]. II. COMMON BACKGROUND AND THE STARTING POINT OF THE However, there are positive dynamics, and the reason for that DISCREPANCY is a movement for gender equality, which exists in both Having been included into sinosphere for the most part of countries, but has different impulses and methods of realization. their history, both Japan and Korea incorporated various In Korea, a grass-roots social initiative serves as an impulse for elements of Chinese culture into their own ones. Confucian gender equality movement whereas in Japan the movement is principles in particular formed the basis for social order. mostly stimulated by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe‟s government Confucianism introduces a rigid hierarchy for all areas of life within the framework of the womenomics policy. and makes a strict distinction between male and female gender Japan and The Republic of Korea are neighboring countries roles. According to Confucian postulates, men and women are sharing common historic background and a long history of inherently unequal for the reason of masculine principle being mutual influence. Given these factors, it was not illogical to the embodiment of positive creative energy and feminine assume that social transformations of the XXI century would principle, on the contrary, being the one of negative passive also occur in a similar way. However, the reality provides no energy. Consequently, public sphere has become a domain of such evidence, and we intend to determine why. male authority while women have been locked in private sphere. The aim of the study is to investigate the difference in 三従 Japanese and South Korean mechanisms for achieving gender Confucianism enforces a system of three obediences ( equality. Following research objectives would facilitate the sanjyū in Japanese) which implies obedience to the father before achievement of the aim: examining historical and cultural marriage, obedience to the husband during marriage, and background of the issue in both countries; determining the obedience to the son in old age, thus establishing women‟s starting point of the discrepancy between Japanese and South subordinate status in the society. Religion (Buddhism in both Korean approaches to gender policy in their shared history; countries, Christianity in Korea) has contributed to unequal establishing matters of foreign and domestic policy which distribution of power, justifying it by primordial moral triggered the abovementioned discrepancy; describing, superiority of men. Geographical isolation of Japan and Korea analyzing and comparing current mechanisms of power has led to ethic and cultural homogeneity, thereby further structure reshaping and gender hierarchy revision in Japan and exacerbating strict hierarchy of the societies. The Republic of Korea; investigating involvement in the Japanese and South Korean historical paths of development are also closely connected. There was a period of self-imposed national isolation in both Japanese and Korean history, but Anastasiia Andreeva is with the National Research University Higher Japan managed to conduct a large-scale modernization in the School of Economics, Russian Federation. face of the rising threat from the West and Korea did not. https://doi.org/10.17758/URUAE6.UH09194013 9 22th BORDEAUX-FRANCE Int'l Conference on Humanities, Social Sciences & Interdisciplinary Studies (HSSIS-19) Sept. 4-5, 2019 Bordeaux (France) Consequently, it became Japan‟s colony and was remaining economic growth after the Second World War, started retarding under political, economic and cultural domination of Japan further development in the 1990s. The reason for that is the since 1910 to 1945. Having started the Second World War as a Asian economic crisis of 1997, which triggered processes that metropole and a colony, after the end of it Japan and Korea reshape the current power structure and gender hierarchy in appeared to be in a similar condition. Japan and the Republic of Japanese and South Korean societies. Financial capacity of a Korea also chose the same tactic for overcoming post-war man was no longer sustainable enough to provide proper devastation and soon earned themselves a name of developed support to a non-working wife and child, which led to increasing countries. entry into the labor market of women, erosion of the traditional For the first time in the history of Japan and the Republic of family, redefinition of masculinity and femininity concepts, and Korea gender equality was institutionalized in the national overall progress towards gender equality. The nineties were also constitutions adopted following the Second World War under the time when Japan and Korea joined the international trend on American influence. However, formal implementation of promoting gender equality: Japan‟s Basic Law for a Gender Western liberal democracy did not mark the end for Confucian Equal Society and South Korea‟s Women‟s Development Act norms being regulators of the society. The driving force for the were implemented in 1999 and 1995, respectively. For the economic miracle was collectivist allegiance to the state. For Republic of Korea, there was another major event that created men, it translated into lifelong work for a firm to boost national an environment for the abovementioned progress. Transition in economy (for the Republic of Korea, given the constant threat of 1987 to the Sixth Republic, which was more liberal and an armed conflict with Democratic People's Republic of Korea, democratic than the authoritarian Fifth Republic, improved a military service was also of great importance). For women, it political climate in the country. By virtue of this political turn, took the form of unpaid domestic work (the key point being the problem of “comfort women” was finally brought to light, upbringing of children) so that their husbands and fathers could when Yun Chung-Ok presented her research on the issue at a dedicate themselves fully to their duties towards the state. conference organized by the Korean Church Women United on Women‟s lives were centered around family to an extent sex tourism in 1988 [4]. The fact that the 1990s became a major where they could not exist outside of male-dominated turning point in terms of gender equality for both Japan and household, which was guaranteed by a paternalist family Korea can be demonstrated by the figures of the Gender registers system. Family registers, known as koseki (戸籍) in Inequality Index: the index value dropped from 0.156 in 1995 to Japan and hojeok (호적) in Korea were introduced in 1872 and 0.103 in 2017 for Japan and from 0.277 to 0.063 for the 1909, respectively, to control the population dynamics. Hojeok Republic of Korea [5]. were abolished in 2007 by decision of the Constitutional Court The most essential consequence of the economic crisis was for the reason of hoju system (호주, male head of the family erosion of the traditional family. In the new realities women no system) violating the right to gender equality [2]. Koseki longer could live relying solely on a husband‟s financial remains the legal basis of Japanese society structure. Such capacity so they were more likely to pursue a long-term career document contains information about names, births, marriages, and less likely to get married and have children. The newfound adoptions, deaths of all the members of a nuclear family. Each financial autonomy opened for them pathway into a life where family-household must have a head, as a general rule, a male they could manage their time and intellectual potential for one. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and motives of their own. Marriage with the subsequent childbirth Communications of Japan, the household head status is stopped being perceived as an inevitable life scenario [6]. transmitted from a father to the first son, then to the second son, Instead, it started seeming to be a hindrance in a way of career and the only way for a woman to become a head is to generate building and realization of the personal potential. Since income while her husband does not have one [3].
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