Changing roles of women in the workplace/family in Japan.

The traditional role of women underscores the deeply-rooted nature of inequality in the gender roles and relationships in Japan. However, in today’s Japan, such traditional attitudes are changing, as illustrated by the emergence of a class of young, educated and professional women, who prefer to remain single, in order to preserve their freedom. Traditional gender roles in Japan are characterized by a strong sense of patriarchy in society, which account for the bifurcation of the productive and reproductive spheres, with a distinct separation of gender roles. In the family, this refers to the idea of the man as the primary breadwinner of the family, and the woman as the primary caregiver in the family. Women are also marrying later, with the average age of first marriage at 26.3 years in 1995, compared to 25.4 in 1983.

With the rising problems faced by the Japanese economy, there have been changes in the structured patterns of gender in both the family and the workplace. Economic recessions in the country have forced many women to enter the workforce in order to increase the level of income earned for the family. With an increasing number of women in the workforce, the existing gender ratios have been altered favoring increased gender equality in that women now have a greater say in the family, and also participate more in the workforce.

Gender inequality, however, continues in family life, the workplace, and popular values. The notion expressed in the proverbial phrase "good wife, wise mother," continues to influence beliefs about gender roles. Most women may not be able to realize that ideal, but many believe that it is in their own, their children's, and society's best interests that they stay home to devote themselves to their children, at least while the children were young. Many women find satisfaction in family life and in the accomplishments of their children, gaining a sense of fulfillment from doing good jobs as household managers and mothers. In most households, women are responsible for their family budgets and make independent decisions about the education, careers, and life-styles of their families. Women also take the social blame for problems of family members. Gender roles in the family bear a close relationship to the situation in the workforce, where there is a strong male dominance in the company hierarchy. Resultantly, males possess increased career opportunities, unlike females, who are marginalized in the workforce and are considered to be temporary labour, expected to resign upon marriage or childbirth. As can be seen, there is an intimate family-work relationship in Japanese society and this hinges on the traditional gender roles within society.

Women's educational opportunities have increased in the twentieth century. Among new workers in 1989, 37 % of women had received education beyond upper-secondary school, compared with 43 % of men, but most women had received their postsecondary education in junior colleges and technical schools rather than in universities and graduate schools.

After World War II, the fixed image of the Japanese woman has been that of the office lady, who becomes a housewife after marriage. But a new generation of educated women is emerging, that is seeking a career as a working woman. Japanese women are joining the labour force in unprecedented numbers. In 1987 there were 24.3 million working women (40% of the labor force), and they accounted for 59% of the increase in employment from 1975 to 1987. The participation rate for women in the labour force rose from 45.7% in 1975 to 50.6% in 1991.

In 1990 approximately 50 % of all women over fifteen years of age participated in the paid labor force. At that time, two major changes in the female work force were under way. The first was a move away from household-based employment. Peasant women and those from merchant and artisan families had always worked. With self-employment becoming less common, though, the more usual pattern was separation of home and workplace, creating new problems of child care, care of the elderly, and housekeeping responsibilities. The second major change was the increased participation of married women in the labor force. In the 1950s, most women employees were young and single; 62 % of the female labor force in 1960 had never been married. In 1987 about 66 % of the female labor force was married, and only 23 % was made up women who had never married. Some women continued working after marriage, most often in professional and government jobs, but their numbers were small. Others started their own businesses or took over family businesses. More commonly, women left paid labor after marriage, and then returned after their youngest children were in school. These middle-age recruits generally took low-paying, part-time service or factory jobs. They continued to have nearly total responsibility for home and children and often justified their employment as an extension of their responsibilities for the care of their families. Despite legal support for equality and some improvement in their status, married women understood that their husbands' jobs demanded long hours and extreme commitment. Because women earned an average of only 60 % as much as men, most did not find it advantageous to take full-time, responsible jobs after marriage, if doing so left no one to manage the household and care for children.

Yet women's status in the labor force was changing in the late 1980s, most likely as a result of changes brought about by the aging of the population. Longer life expectancies, smaller families and bunched births, and lowered expectations of being cared for in old age by their children have all led women to participate more fully in the labor force. At the same time, service job opportunities in the postindustrial economy expanded, and there were fewer new male graduates to fill them.

Done by: Ariel, Charissa, Isabel, Hui Si

Class: 10A02

Anime

Anime originated at about 1917. Due to the fact that Anime could be released in all types of new media platform, its ability to reach out to many people globally has allowed it to gain a lot of fans and support for it from all around the globe.

It all began with the Japanese experimenting with the animation techniques also established in leading animation producing countrie, namely France, Germany, the United States, and Russia. The oldest known anime in existence first screened in 1917. By the 1930s, animation became another platform of storytelling to the underachieving live-action industry in Japan. Artists were able to set their imagination run wild, enabling them to produce any characters and settings.

Manga, which was later mostly animated, increased in popularity by the 1970s. In the 1980s, anime became more accepted in the mainstream in Japan, and experienced a growth in production. Following a few successful adaptations of anime in overseas markets in the 1980s, anime gained increased recognition in those markets in the 1990s and even more at the turn of the 21st century.

Cosplay

Cosplay, short for costume play is a fan type of performance art in which participants put on costumes and accessories to embody a specific character or idea. Characters are often drawn from popular fiction in Japan. It is not unusual to see genders switched, with women playing male roles and vice versa.

Cosplay is one of Japan’s most popular forms of art and dressing. In fact, it’s popularity is not only growing in Japan but also in many other parts of the world, namely China and America. The costumes worn by the fans that participate in Cosplay are often handmade by themselves. In Japan, Cosplay goers come together to share experiences as well as to show off their creations.

The most renowned event attended by cosplayers thus far has to be the semiannual doujinshi market, Comiket. This event attracts thousands of people annually regardless of the unpredictable weather conditions they faced.

Cosplay though popular amongst many is found by others as a ridiculous form of Japanese behaviour. Furthermore, due to the negative sexual implication that comes with Cosplay, it made many find Cosplay to be reprehensible. In addition, North Americans who Cosplay often refer to themselves as "otaku", which is in actual fact the Japanese word for "geek", but mistakenly use this word in an effort to symbolize themselves in a sociological group that they can be proud of.

Despite that many negative views it has received, the popularity of Cosplay is still growing strong and it has even managed to reach many more places globally.

Manga---- The Japanese arts

Nowadays, the term “manga” is used worldwide to refer to Japanese cartoons, as distinct from American comics or French bandes dessinees. Likewise, the term “anime” refers to Japan-produced animation as opposed to Disney cartoons or animation produced elsewhere. The 1990s saw the Japanese animated films AKIRA and Ghost in the Shell become popular among young people in North America, Europe and Asia, but it was also a period during which children and young people began to perceive Japanese pop culture as “cool”. In 2003, Spirited Away, directed by Hayao Miyazaki, won an Academy Award for best animated feature film. Moreover, Pokemon, the animated TV programme immensely popular among children, was shown in over 68 countries around the world, further enhancing its appeal. In consequence, the Pokemon market grew to 3 trillion yen in size (about US$250 billion), of which 2 trillion yen was from overseas sales. The Japanese manufacturer Nintendo became a byword for home game machines, while shipments of the PlayStation and PS2, made by Sony Computer Entertainment, reached 100 million units each. Japanese pop culture, which includes manga, anime and games, and the market for them, clearly has the power to transcend national borders, languages and religious differences.


The foundations of modern Japanese manga and anime were first laid in 1959, with the simultaneous publication of such comics for young people as Shukan Shonen Magajin (Boys’ Weekly) and Shukan Shonen Sande (Boys’ Sunday Weekly) , and then in 1963 with the commencement of TV broadcasting of productions such as the animated series Tetsuwan Atom (Astro Boy) by the cartoonist Osamu Tezuka and Tetsujin 28-go (Gigantor), which was based on an original script by cartoonist Mitsuteru Yokoyama. Since then, the intimate relationship between manga and anime has continued, and even today over 60% of the animated cartoons produced are based on manga, with the cartoonists, manga publishers, animation production companies and the TV stations all in commercial partnership.

In the 1980s, adults started to show an interest in manga and anime, which until then had been for children, leading to the launch of manga magazines for male adults. Similarly, a number of women’s magazines were also launched in the 1970s and 1980s, adding to the series of girls’ comics such as Margaret and Shojo Komikku (Girls’ Comics). The market then underwent further subdivision into targeted categories, from infants to small children, girls, teenagers, businessmen, young women and housewives, each of them being offered a full line-up of magazines and products.



In the animation market, creations such as Space Battleship Yamato and Mobile Suit Gundam appeared in the 1970s and evolved into a variety of forms, from TV animation to film, music and character-based products. This then led to the establishment of a market for toys given away as “freebies” with candy and plastic versions of favourite characters. Then in 1983, with the coming to market of the first home game machines, games themselves started to generate their own manga, anime, card game and character-product spin-offs in a kind of media cross-fertilisation.

A classic example of this trend would be the Pokemon characters painted onto an aircraft fuselage. Visitors from all over the world started flocking to Akihabara in Tokyo to visit this shrine to the Japanese pop culture market. The Tokyo International Anime Fair, which is held there every March, sees 100,000 visitors annually including overseas business customers.

Japanese domestic manga account for 28% of the total number of magazines published domestically, or 18% of sales. Revenues that the Japanese anime industry receives from TV, film, DVD and Internet media run to about 250 billion yen annually. In addition, the retail market for character goods based on the characters in manga and anime has reached 1.61 trillion yen. The ripple effect it has caused is enormous: it is said that 60% of animation broadcast on TV worldwide is Japanese. Meanwhile, the domestic hardware and software home game market combined totals 400 billion yen, while about 1 trillion yen in games are exported.

Jujutsu ----the martial art of Japan

Jujutsu (柔術:じゅうじゅつ jūjutsu?), literally translates to "art of pliance". More accurately, however, it means the art of using indirect force, such as joint locks or throwing techniques, to defeat an opponent, as opposed to direct force such as a punch or a kick. This is not to imply that jujutsu does not teach or employ strikes, but rather that the art's aim is the ability to use an attacker's force against him or her, and counter-attack where they are weakest or least defended.
Methods of combat included striking (kicking, punching), throwing (body throws, joint-lock throws, unbalance throws), restraining (pinning, strangulating, grappling, wrestling) and weaponry. Defensive tactics included blocking, evading, off balancing, blending and escaping. Minor weapons such as the tantō (dagger), ryufundo kusari (weighted chain), jutte (helmet smasher), and kakushi buki (secret or disguised weapons) were almost always included in koryū jujutsu.
Most of these were battlefield-based systems to be practiced as companion arts to the more common and vital weapon systems. At the time, these fighting arts went by many different names, including kogusoku, yawara, kumiuchi, and hakuda. In reality, these grappling systems were not really unarmed systems of combat, but are more accurately described as means whereby an unarmed or lightly armed warrior could defeat a heavily armed and armored enemy on the battlefield. Ideally, the samurai would be armed and would not need to rely on such techniques.
In later times, other koryū developed into systems more familiar to the practitioners of the jujutsu commonly seen today. These systems are generally designed to deal with opponents neither wearing armor nor in a battlefield environment. For this reason, they include extensive use of atemi waza (vital-striking technique). These tactics would be of little use against an armored opponent on a battlefield. They would, however, be quite valuable to anyone confronting an enemy or opponent during peacetime dressed in normal street attire. Occasionally, inconspicuous weapons such as knives or tessen (iron fans) were included in the curriculum.
Today, jujutsu is practiced in many forms, both ancient and modern. Various methods of jujutsu have been incorporated or synthesized into judo and aikido, as well as being exported throughout the world and transformed into sport wrestling systems, adopted in whole or part by schools of karate or other unrelated martial arts, still practiced as they were centuries ago, or all of the above.

Ikebana--- the Japanese art of flower arrangement

Ikebana (生け花?, "arranged flower) is the Japanese art of flower arrangement, also known as kadō (華道?, the "way of flowers").
More than simply putting flowers in a container, ikebana is a disciplined art form in which nature and humanity are brought together. Contrary to the idea of floral arrangement as a collection of particolored or multicolored arrangement of blooms, ikebana often emphasizes other areas of the plant, such as its stems and leaves, and draws emphasis towards shape, line, form. Though ikebana is a creative expression, it has certain rules governing its form. The main(?) rule is that all the elements used in construction must be organic, be they branches, leaves, grasses, or flowers. The artist's intention behind each arrangement is shown through a piece's color combinations, natural shapes, graceful lines, and the usually implied meaning of the arrangement.
Another aspect present in ikebana is its employment of minimalism. That is, an arrangement may consist of only a minimal number of blooms interspersed among stalks and leaves. The structure of a Japanese flower arrangement is based on a scalene triangle delineated by three main points, usually twigs, considered in some schools to symbolize heaven, earth, and man and in others sun, moon, love & earth. The container is also a key element of the composition, and various styles of pottery may be used in their construction.

The history of Ikebana dates back to approximately 500 years ago and the History of Ikenobo--the oldest school of Ikebana. The school dates its beginnings from a priest of the Rokkakudo Temple --official name is Shiun-ji (Purple Cloud Temple ) in Kyoto who was so skilled in flower arrangement that other priests sought him out for instruction. As he lived by the side of a lake, for which the Japanese word is Ikenobo, the name Ikenobo became attached to the priests there who specialized in these altar arrangements.
The Rokkakudo temple was erected in 587 by Prince Shotoku . It is said that Prince Shotoku was searching for materials to build the Shitenno Temple . During his search, one day he went to bathe in a pond, where he hung a Buddhist amulet over a nearby tree. After his bath, he tried to remove the amulet, but he was unable to do so. That same night, the Prince saw the Buddha in his dream. The Buddha instructed him to erect a temple near the pond at the cedar tree under a purple cloud. From that cedar wood Rokkakudo temple was built to house a Kannon (Quan-Yin) Goddess statue.
The spiritual aspect of Ikebana is considered very important to its practitioners. Silence is a must during practices of Ikebana. It is a time to appreciate things in nature that people often overlook because of their busy lives. One becomes more patient and tolerant of differences, not only in nature, but also in general. Ikebana can inspire to identify with beauty in all art forms. This is also the time when one feels closeness to nature which provides relaxation for the mind, body, and soul.
In the 20th century, with the advent of modernism, the three schools of Ikebana partially gave way to what is commonly known in Japan as Free Style.
Moribana (upright style)– it is considered as the most basic structure in Ikebana. Moribana literally means “piled-up flowers” which are arranged in a shallow vase or suiban, compote, or basket. Moribana is secured on kenzan or needle point holders, also known as metal frogs.
Moribana (slanting style)- reversed arranging style that can also be used depending on the placement of the display or shapes of the branches. Branches which look beautiful when slanted are mostly chosen for this arrangement. This style gives a softer impression than the upright style.
Nagaire (upright style)- arranged in a narrow-mouthed, tall container without using kenzan or needle point holders. This is a simple arrangement that can contain even just one flower which does not use frogs to hold the flower(s).
Nagaire (slanted style)- this arrangement presents a gentle touch and flexibility. It is ideal for Ikebana beginners.
Nagaire (cascading style)- this arrangement has the main stem hang lower than the rim of the vase. Choose a flexible material that will create beautiful lines balancing with flowers.
Ikebana remains one of the most distinct arts in Japanese culture. It is shown on television, taught in schools, and admired daily. An example of a television show that involves Ikebana is Seikei Bijin (Artificial Beauty). The story incorporates the importance of natural beauty.