00 Prelims TL:Layout 1 8/5/07 16:20 Page i Identity, Gender, and Status in Japan 00 Prelims TL:Layout 1 8/5/07 16:20 Page ii Takie Lebra 00 Prelims TL:Layout 1 8/5/07 16:20 Page iii The Collected Papers of Twentieth-Century Japanese Writers on Japan VOLUME 2 Collected Papers of TAKIE LEBRA Identity, Gender, and Status in Japan GLOBAL ORIENTAL 00 Prelims TL:Layout 1 8/5/07 16:20 Page iv Series: COLLECTED PAPERS OF TWENTIETH-CENTURY JAPANESE WRITERS ON JAPAN Volume 2 Takie Lebra: Identity, Gender, and Status in Japan First published in 2007 by GLOBAL ORIENTAL LTD PO Box 219 Folkestone Kent CT20 2WP UK www.globaloriental.co.uk © Takie Lebra 2007 ISBN 978-1-905246-17-5 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A CIP catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library Set in Plantin 10.5 on 11.5 point by Mark Heslington, Scarborough, North Yorkshire Printed and Bound in England by Antony Rowe Ltd, Chippenham, Wilts 00 Prelims TL:Layout 1 8/5/07 16:20 Page v Contents Introduction vii PART 1: SELF, IDENTITY, AND INTERACTION 1. The Logic of Salvation: The Case of a Japanese Sect in Hawaii (1969–70) 3 2. The Social Mechanism of Guilt and Shame: The Japanese Case (1971) 13 3. Acculturation Dilemma: The Function of Japanese Moral Values for Americanization (1972d) 24 4. Religious Conversion and Elimination of the Sick Role: A Japanese Sect in Hawaii (1972b) 38 5. Reciprocity-based Moral Sanctions and Messianic Salvation (1972c) 48 6. The Interactional Perspective of Suffering and Curing in a Japanese Cult (1974) 69 7. Taking the Role of Supernatural ‘Other’: Spirit Possession in a Japanese Healing Cult (1976c) 77 8. Ancestral Influence on the Suffering of Descendants in a Japanese Cult (1976b) 90 9. Non-confrontational Strategies for Management of Interpersonal Conflicts (1984a) 99 10. The Cultural Significance of Silence in Japanese Communication (1987) 115 11. Migawari: The Cultural Idiom of Self-Other Exchange in Japan (1994c) 127 PART 2: GENDER 12. Sex Equality for Japanese Women (1976a) 143 13. The Dilemma and Strategies of Aging Among Contemporary Japanese Women (1979b) 153 14. Autonomy through Interdependence: The Housewives Labor Bank (1980) 168 15. Japanese Women in Male-dominant Careers: Cultural Barriers and Accommodations for Sex-role Transcendence (1981a) 177 16. Gender and Culture in the Japanese Political Economy: Self- portrayals of Prominent Businesswomen (1992a) 197 v 00 Prelims TL:Layout 1 8/5/07 16:20 Page vi CONTENTS 17. Confucian Gender Role and Personal Fulfillment for Japanese Women (1998) 248 18. Non-Western Reactions to Western Feminism: The Case of Japanese Career Women (1999a) 264 PART 3: STATUS 19. Adoption Among the Hereditary Elite of Japan: Status Preservation through Mobility (1989) 283 20. The Socialization of Aristocratic Children by Commoners: Recalled Experiences of the Hereditary Elite in Modern Japan (1990) 317 21. Resurrecting Ancestral Charisma: Aristocratic Descendants in Contemporary Japan (1991) 339 22. The Spatial Layout of Hierarchy: Residential Style of the Modern Japanese Nobility (1992c) 357 23. Skipped and Postponed Adolescence of Aristocratic Women in Japan: Resurrecting the Culture/Nature Issue (1995a) 379 24. Fractionated Motherhood: Gender and the Elite Status in Japan (1999b) 397 Bibliography (Writings of Takie Lebra) 418 Index of Names 427 General Index 428 vi 00 Prelims TL:Layout 1 8/5/07 16:20 Page vii Introduction hy do we study any culture or society other than our own? We come to Wknow what is X by finding what is not X. We develop insight to our own culture by finding the difference between ourselves and ‘Other,’ between the North American and another culture, between X and Y. Why Japan, then? In my discipline of anthropology, it used to be that the more alien the other cul- ture is, the more worthwhile to study. Since anthropology was centered in Western Europe, the ideal alien culture was an isolated community in Africa or in Oceania – ideally the places yet untouched by the West. For this reason Japan was not a legitimate or attractive area since it was neither isolated nor untouched. This colonial viewpoint no longer holds, because the world does not con- tain totally isolated tribal societies. Accordingly, Japan has risen to an anthropologically, let alone politically, more respectable ‘other.’ More visi- tors, including many non-professionals, not just diplomats, from the West began to study and report on Japan. No doubt, certain similarities have been observed. It might be argued that since we are all human beings there is no real difference between societies, particularly between the West and the more or less Westernized Japan. Basically, I agree with this claim on human univer- sals, without which it would be impossible to reach ‘cross-cultural’ understanding to begin with. With a sociology degree I am all the more sym- pathetic with a universalistic viewpoint. Furthermore, our post-internet revolution makes us aware of the ever-expanding cyber-space tempting us to speculate on the eventual erasure of cultural or national boundaries, assuming that the so-called cultural differences will be reduced to remnants of the past which would vanish as all societies catch up. The enormous speed of change, taking place every moment in Japan today like everywhere else, inclines us to give up on speculating on the survival of national cultures. This simple and perhaps optimistic conclusion does not measure up at least as observed today. One visitor after another to Japan, equipped with sophisticated, instantaneous recorders, keeps releasing ‘astonishing’ revela- tions from Japan – often in ambivalence with disapproval and praise. I suspect that both claims to similarities and to differences are selective and thus exag- gerated, whereas in reality there is a wide range of variation between similarity and difference. It would be audacious, therefore, to make a simple either-or judgment over ‘whether’ Japan is similar to ‘or’ different from the US-centered West. I think the significance of studying Japan derives precisely from the two-sided relationship: similarity and difference, closeness and distance. vii 00 Prelims TL:Layout 1 8/5/07 16:20 Page viii INTRODUCTION The present volume is meant to reveal those aspects of Japanese feeling, thinking, and acting which I have singled out possibly as significant messages for Western and Japanese readers. I will be making cross-cultural compar- isons often in reference to the US or Western culture, only concerning the particular issues raised in particular contexts of given articles. Occasionally, I may speculate on universalistic, intercultural similarities or differences, but the main point of these writings leans more modestly towards empirical observations. The above statement reflects my academic background with a sociology doctorate and the post-doctoral anthropology career. As will be revealed toward the end of this essay, I was hired as an anthropology instructor to teach Japan to American students, which eventually turned me into a full- time faculty member at the Anthropology Department, University of Hawaii. The present collection is primarily of academic articles and essays which I have published throughout my postgraduate career and which could have been buried without this wonderful opportunity to bring them back to light. Articles revived here reflect a variety of my research topics, mostly presented first at academic meetings and later published in professional journals and occasionally as book chapters over the years. These reproduced articles con- stitute the bulk of the present book. The subject matters reflect my obsessions ever since 1958 when I landed on this alien continent of North America – obsessions over who and what I was. Some mini-evolution has also taken place over the years as I have engaged in teaching, researching, presenting, and writing since 1969. My purpose is to characterize the Japanese as I have observed and under- stood them, while refraining from value judgments either positively or negatively. It was this principle of objectivity that I came to absorb through graduate training in the United States, which made me renounce my earlier naïve ‘mission to save the world (!).’ Max Weber, with his difficult and sober writing, awakened me to my spiritual or intellectual backbone for adherence to value neutrality. I am aware that Weberian objectivity may be out of date in the contemporary, more impatient academic climate which urges us to take sides over controversial issues. But I adhere as much as possible to the old- fashioned scholarly standard of objectivity and value-neutrality instead of joining the crowd demanding for or against one urgent political agenda or another. This commitment to value-neutrality is necessary because we tend to change value standards from time to time, often in opposite directions, without knowing it. This work stems from my enduring interest in what has become profes- sionally known as ‘Psychological Anthropology,’ a subfield of cultural anthropology, which has turned out to be the area of my specialization. ARTICLES SELECTED FOR THIS VOLUME The present volume consists of a set of printed articles selected from my entire publications list, which is to be found in the Bibliography. More than forty arti- cles have been published over time, and twenty-four of them have been viii 00 Prelims TL:Layout 1 8/5/07 16:20 Page ix INTRODUCTION selected for this collection. The selection was determined partly because of space limitations, and partly because not all the articles fit into the threefold categories of subject, namely, ‘Self,’ ‘Gender,’ and ‘Status’ for the present volume, as will be clarified below.