The Development of Womens Culture and Media in Japan

Throughout Japanese history, the gender role attributed to women has been rather

dynamic. Especially beginning in the Meiji period, the roles of women has shifted from mother

and wife to protestor to consumer in a matter of decades. The majority of these shifts in a

Japanese womans status can be attributed to a combination of significant historical events and

the rise of various cultures including: shojo culture, kawaii, culture, and consumer culture.

The phrase good wife, wise mother summarized the general social position of women

within Japan until it was questioned during the Meiji Period (Sato 5). It was specifically during

this period that the image of women began to change as it was a dynamic time for the blooming

country. With the door to the east open, Japan began a mass borrowing campaign from the

West. It was in the 1870s that the social, technological, and scientific successes of the West were

adopted to create a more modern societyoften termed as the Enlightenment Movement (Lowry

3). Though this time was a great push forward in equal rights for men and women, in the late

1880s Japan suffered from a backlash as the government tried to reel in the constant borrowing

from the West and return to pure Japanese ideas. The Shinto religion as well as Confucian

ideology was stressed during the late Meiji period. Because of this regression to hierarchal

emphasis, the Meiji government passed a series of laws that reduced the rights of women. The

most significant law was the Decree for Girls Middle School passed in 1900 (Lowry 4). This

decree emphasized the good wife, wise mother ideology in school to instill a practical

education in young girls in preparation for adulthood and the responsibilities that lie ahead

(Ibid.). It is because of this that the shojo manga culture developed. These girls magazines were

designed originally for girls to read the re-enforced the values necessary for a stable society.

However, it eventually developed into much more than a mere leaning tool. The creation of

manga, specifically shojo manga, is not dated as a modern development in Japan. It was, in fact,

largely based off of wood-block prints that were common during the Edo Period (1600-1800)

and are still considered an art form. Even as early as the 10th Century, after Lady Murasaki wrote

The Tale of Genji, the literary master piece was illustrated with a shojo manga-esque feel

(Schodt 94). These examples of early shojo manga were not as popularized as the current manga

obsession; however they illustrate the long history and development of shojo manga. The values

represented in shojo include the ideas of love and destiny that emphasize the passive and dream-

like state girls are to remain in as included in the ideology of the Decree for Girls Middle

Schools. It can be argued though, that the sheer structure of the shojo manga is meant to allow

women to be free and flowing in a gypsy-like manner (Honda, 1988). Unlike the hierarchal

structure of male magna, a female (or shojo) manga has a horizontal flow to it with overlapping

pictures and multidimensional views of a character (see FIG 1). This further emphasizes the lack

of vertical rise a woman can make in society. While men can think vertically and move up the

corporate ladder, per se, the women in Japanese society are expected to stay in the same state.

Couple with this idea is the realization that girls are, in dream-like manner, allowed to live

fantasies through shojo manga. These fantasies include the themes of love and destiny but also

go as far as to westernize the characters. While the illustration of The Tale of Genji and

woodblock prints depict the women in a Japanese fashion with traditional clothes and almond

eyes, the manga arising after Westernization have characters with large blue eyes and flowing

blonde hair. This fascination with the Western image shows a shift in the Japanese understanding

of beauty. The beauty and romance of the West is best represented in the manga The Rose of

Versailles (1972-1974). With the complex fashion and flowing nature of the characters, the

Japanese phrase hirahira comes to mind (Honda 30). This again is reminiscent of the dream-like

state that shojo manga provides for girls and the unstructured setting of the manga itself which

further provides a lack of responsibility on the females of Japan. While The Rose of Versailles

sexual intrigues and fashion prevail, which is a far cry from the manga of Sazae-san, it is

obvious the manga industry has itself modernized as become more open about once taboo topics.

However it is good to note here that the popularity of Sazae-san has a specific meaning to the

development of women in Japan. Though it is a manga, and so a form of media, it was less

focused on the show of shojo manga, and more concerned about the Japanese woman. These two

manga, however, are difficult to compare as they derive from two drastically different time

periods. The reason Sazae-san is mentioned here is the manga itself continues to promote ideas

of good wives, wise mothers. The entire manga is centered on the main female character as she

grows from a child to an adult from World War II to modern times. Often it is comical and so

lacks the frill associated with pure shojo manga, but the images of women are distinct as she

develops along with women in modern times. Sazae-san can then be referred to as the ideal New

Womanshe is independent as she carries out her life, but still respectful of social obligations

and norms (Schodt 96). The New Woman movement spawned directly from the lineation of

rights that occurred with the Civil Code of 1989 (Sato 21). This code was related to the return of

hierarchical social order and the Confucian principles. Because of the limitation forced upon the

women of Japan, many became rebellious and, by borrowing the phrase New Women being used

in the West, sought equal rights and political participation that was denied to them. Although

some members of Japans intelligentsia celebrated the New Woman, other disparaged her as an

active, vocal, degenerate woman who was out to destroy traditional society (Lowry 9). In

1911, though, the Japanese New Woman founded Seitoushi and officially arrived in Japan (Ibid.).

Sazae-san was not as proactive as these women in Japanese life, but did push the boundaries for

the time it was written in. Though she did marry and have children, she continued her

independent life and was able to be an individual, which is an ideal for many young Japanese

women in modern times. The shojo manga, though it may at times be an escapist tool, it does

represent a step forward for women as the Japanese begin to express themselves and question the

society in which they live. In stark contrast to the political rhetoric and social dramas had by the

New Women in the Taisho Period, the development of kawaii culture seems to reverse all the

steps forward made by these brave women.

The use of shojo manga has added to the success of kawaii culture as the media form has

been very successes especially since the 1960s. The onomatopoeic word hirahira also attaches

itself to the kawaii culture that has been so mainstreamed in present years. Essentially kawaii, as

a word, was first noted in a Japanese dictionary as kawayushi during the Taisho Era (1912-1926).

This word, along with its shortening to kawayui in the Meiji Period, means shy or embarrassed,

but can also be used for small, vulnerable darling. When used in the grammatical Japanese:

kawaisou is means pitiable or pathetic (Honda). And it is within this definition that the major

criticisms arise from kawaii culture. It is within the so called economic miracle for Japan (1960s

1970s) that the shirake (or disillusioned calm) took effect. This disillusioned calm came shortly

after the various student riots in 1971 that shook the nation and provided zeal for the young

generation. However, after the riots had no major effect for change, the young population

became dejected and sought a means to express themselves (Lecture). From this came the kawaii

sub-culture (which later became very mainstream). An important aspect of the kawaii culture is

appearancea kind of fashion celebrating the very light pastel colors, and very fluffy clothing,

being very childish. The attempt to derive from the norm actually made little effect on the

Japanese society (though some argue it has feminized Japan), but made the Japanese female ideal

a kawaii image that is infantilizing women. By reverting back to childhood through clothing and

attitude, it creates a society that is purely girlish in nature with no adult women possessing

responsibility. It can be argued, then, that kawaii culture could be a response to the social

pressures a woman must go through including a tumultuous teenage life common in Japan and

then marriage and children to dictate their lives as they age. This comes full circle then as we see

this relapse to childhood could have been building since the Meiji Period after the Civil Code

reduced a womans position to be lower than family, husband, and then male offspringas a

reaction to lack of freedom. So, kawaii culture may allow for a lack of responsibility in society,

but it makes woman appear childish. This is further engrained into the media of Japan, not only

through shojo, but also through the newspapers that reported a created writing language. Another

way to live out this kawaii attitude was to alter the way of writing. Teenagers spontaneous

invented a new style of writing, in which they could express the cuteness in a very child-like, but

still beautiful manner (Skov 222). This was started in the 1970s together with the early

emergence of the kawaii culture. The special of this new way of writing was the very childish

and soft characters. It was written horizontally, with cartoon pictures in between the text, and

also contained a lot of katakana (as well as using English). This kind of writing is known as

burikko handwriting. It was often non-sensical words and irrelevant pictures added to notes (FIG

2), which only added to the childish nature of the system. Across Japan, the general reaction to

burikko was negative across and at some school, discipline was taken at time against this hand-

writing illustrating the fact that it was seem as subversive activities. Though this may have been

the desired result, it further harmed the image of Japanese women as press spread this fake-child-

writing (literal translation) and infantilized women along with the kawaii culture. The amazing

thing about burikko was that it was not just used by teenage girls; many adult women used this

invented writing system as they too attempted to revert to childhood and mirror the kawaii

culture. But it must be stated that the burikko use was not the only fake invention of kawaii

culture. A new language use also became popularized by Noripee and is often called Noripee-go

after the idol that developed in the 1980s (Skov 235). This young-adult singer replaced certain

sounds from the Japanese syllabri and included a more kawaii pronunciation. It is also called

baby-talk as this is the mistake infants make as they learn Japanese growing up. However, with

the intentional use of the language to appear even more dedicated to kawaii culture, the Japanese

women who used it were actually often assumed to be uneducated and childish. It seems, though

that is can be argued burikko did receive a positive reaction with punishment; however Noripee-

go was developed at the height of kawaii culture (in the 1980s). Therefore the now main-

streamed idea of kawaii culture has lost all of its rebellious nature, and now just continues to

alter the image of Japanese women throughout Japan. Because Noripee was Japanese idol, much

of her language was heard on television throughout Japan in the 1980s, so the mass media

associated with her success, did play a part in the continued infantilization of Japanese women. It

must be noted though that this is not the first language developed for women by women. From

1887 through World War I, many school-age boys remarked about an unpleasant sound

coming from their female counterparts. New verb ending such as teyo, dawa, and noyo were

created by school-age girls and is often called the teyo-dawa language by male-scholars at the

time. This language form derives directly from the good wives, wise mother teaching enforced

upon Japanese women beginning in the Meiji period. The sexual segregation allowed the female

population to develop into its own sub-culture during this time. In modern days, some of this

language is still used and constitutes feminine language (Echoes of Modernity 157).

Therefore, though a language was developed specifically by women prior to the 1980s, the

Noripee-go is not socially accepted and therefore, continues to demean Japanese women who use

it and further harms their present image in media as childlike. Out of the kawaii culture, too the

consumer culture derives. Though it has no single root, the various economic and social factors

contributed to the rise of the Japanese woman as a mass consumer market.

It did not take long for the business world to capitalize the new kawaii culture, and soon

it became an important part of the culture with its inventions of cutie items, greeting cards, and

cartoon plush dolls. As mentioned, the consumer culture has no single roots, but did begin far

before the kawaii culture took hold in Japan. The catchphrase, Today the Imperial Theatre,

tomorrow, Mitsukoshi resonated throughout the years of 1910-1919 (Sato 27). The catchphrase

was coined in 1911 by Japans first department store, Mitsukoshi. Looking back, it is that phrase

that summarizing a decade of spending and consumerism. In the Taisho Period, after the end of

World War I, Japan experienced an economic boom that raised the standard of living to the

playing field of the West and also marked the reference to Japan as the economic miracle. With

this extra disposable income many families had at this time, shopping and department store

(which offered far more than goods) was commonplace. While the 1918 Rice Riots stand out as

a sign of womens frustration and rage in economic and political realms, capitalism, which made

great leaps and bounds during the war, changed the face of urban life (Sato 30). But it was

not until the Great Earthquake, that consumerism became a means of representing and judging

the new-urban centered culture (Sato 32). This even was a catalyst for the adoptions of new

custom in the ruined Toyko are, namely American consumer culture which was popularized by

mass womens magazines. Because the connection between middle-class women and

consumerism was based off of media outlets such as these mass magazines, it became the main

link to rising trend and fashions in modern societies like Europe and America. And to illustrate

the success of the mass magazine effort after the Great Earthquake, some companies boasted a

readership exceeding 100,000 women by the mid-1920s. In the midst of this affront on Japanese

women, the media began to see successes through fashion alterations in the young women of

Japan. In the early years of the 1920s, the modern girls became a common site in department

stores that advertised for the bobbed hair-cut and trendy fashions (Sato 83). Japanese young

women were an untapped market until the 1920s, where after catalytic events, the womens

magazines began to cater to middle-class women and even to an extent lower-middle-class

women. Through these magazines, women in small villages were able to follow the trends and

changing styles of the modern world from her home, without having to travel to Tokyo (Sato 81).

The fact that the mass media efforts through womens magazines combined ideas of the new and

the old cannot be denied. While the articles and pictures showed modern women and Western

fashion, still others emphasized being a good wife. In almost every issue of Shufu no tomo,

articles such as Rules a Housewife Must Know (March 1917), Suitable Sidework Even for

Girls (March 1917), and Readers Recommendations for Becoming a Model Wife (January

1926) existed (Sato). The diversification of the reading population means some women preferred

these newer articles, while others still enjoyed the older style articles that pushed domestication.

The resurgence of conservative thought in the 1880s produced the phrase used earlier in this

paper, good wife and wise mother. The editorials and articles carried in mass womens

magazines corroborate the fact that many parents, and also the general public, supported

education modification by this philosophy, not solely because of its intrinsic value but also

because it was familiar (Sato 86). The intellectual community dislike for the policies was

further annoyed by the mere apathy at which women accepted the status quo. Now this same

acceptance of the status quo can be seen in the new media forms used in more current times. The

television, in 1975, became such a popularized and lucrative business, that is became a part of

the family in Japanese households. The Japanese father worked increasing long hours since the

1960s during the major economic boom, so the new companion to the mother and eventually

children because the television. And so the television became part of the everyday environment

as its constant presence usually included little conscious interaction with it. Specifically for

women, the use of television because, like the mass womens magazines, a form of mass media

to tap into the consumer market. The majority of the daytime shows offered for the Japanese

household, emphasize the same ideas about women as the magazines as most of the broadcast

time is taken up by dramatic scenarios, fashion tips, promotions (Fujimura 76). The next most

frequently viewed items include personal items that can be purchased through TV shopping and

offers for free gifts. Therefore it can be seen that watching television in the average Japanese

household is watching a series of commercials and advertisements for differing products. This

problem is exacerbated by the fact that the population of women who view these programs do so

without questions or without thought. The interesting adoption of mass media such as the

magazine and television has been used to create a consumer culture that focuses on women as

wives and mothers (Ibid.). However, by specifically looking at the kawaii culture, not just the

media, it is easy to see how these can be detrimental to womens status in society. Whereas the

mass media tends to look at women with a status quo perspective, it is in the kawaii culture that

women are actually brought back to an infantile state and regressing any progress made during

the centuries. The cute clothing fashion was specifically created with the intention of making the

wearer appear child-like and demure (Skov 229). The clothes had frills and often a doll-like feel

to the outfit with puffed leaved and ribbonoften referred to as the fancy style. These clothes,

part of the distinct kawaii culture, combine with items like cute foods and cute accessories to

create and ideal kawaii girl or woman. The consumption of kawaii goods is also directly related

to the mass media, but more popularized through shojo manga, as mentioned above (though now

it is more mainstream). The unending consumption associated with the kawaii culture is still

hurtful to the image of woman. In the section above on kawaii the infantalization of women is

mentioned which is further exacerbated by the unquestioning and relentless buying the useless

goods in an effort to appear child-like.

One can conclude that the changes in the female role and attitudes occurred due to the

large changes in the surrounding society and history, in order define new roles in a new cultural

environment. The new male roles of long working-hours, and dedication to developing the

existence of Japan, has forced the Japanese women into developing on a parallel with the men

and defining their new roles in order to stay feminine as individuals in the new environment,

with the new expectations. The readership of shojo manga, heavily influenced by popularized

kawaii culture, allows woman to stay outside of society and maintain a horizontal status. This

can be seen in other media types such as mass magazines and television which are aimed at the

average housewife. The maintaining of status quo with these images directly undermines the

attempts New Women took to improve the status of women. In the same time period as

consumerism took told in the 1920s (Taisho Era), New Woman were arguing for equal political

and social rights. But still, as many intellectuals observed, the Japanese women seemed

complacent with status quo. However the more recent developments of kawaii culture in the

1980s, at its peak, illustrates a regression to child-like state for women even lower than the wife

and mother level previously occupied. The dynamic nature of women in Japan is largely affected

by social and historical events, though many of these movements (even if not positive in the end)

were grass-roots and began based out of women. Therefore it can be argued that while Japanese

women seem to have come full circle in life, they continue to preserve and thrive with their own

cultures.

FIG 1 (Stov)

FIG 2 (Honda)

Works Cited

Fujimura-Fanselow, Kumiko, and Atsuko Kameda. Japanese Women: New Feminist

Perspectives on the Past, Present, and Future. New York: Feminist at the City University

of New York, 1995. Print.

Honda, Masuko. The Geneology of Hirahira: Liminality and the Girl. Print.

Lowy, Dina. The Japanese "New Woman": Images of Gender and Modernity. New

Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 2007. Print.

Sato, Barbara. The New Japanese Woman: Modernity, Media, and Women in Interwar Japan.

London: Duke UP, 2003. Print.

"Echoes of Modernity: Nationalism and the Enigma of "Women's Language" in Late Nineteenth

Century Japan." Words, Worlds, and Material Girls: Language, Gender, Globalization.

Ed. Bonnie McElhinny. 2007. 157-59. Print.

Schodt, Frederik L. "Flowers and Dreams." Manga! Manga!: the World of Japanese Comics.

New York: Kodansha America, 1986. 88-105. Print.

Skov, Lisa, and Brain Moeran, eds. Women, Media and Consumption in Japan. Surrey: Curzon,

1995. PDF.