Reading 5 What do Young Japanese Womenthink of Marriage, Work and Career?

Bernard BernierCulture in the sense used in this

survey can be very broadly defined asthe way young women see the worldaround them and their place in it. Italso includes behavior, although thisaspect is not included in this part ofresearch. We tried to bring forth theviews young women have pertaining tothe labor market and to the family.

The “good wife, wise mother’’ ideologywas applied to full-time housewives,who had to deal with all householdchores and finances while theirhusbands might be able to devotethemselves totally to their jobs. Thisideology became a model to strive for,and to adopt if the husband had a highenough salary and could afford it. Itwas prevalent among employees oflarge companies, government officials,politicians and intellectuals. Thequestion arises as to whether the“good wife wise mother” is stillprevalent among women in the 21stcentury.

1. Research Design This research is qualitative and

exploratory. We have chosen depth overextension in order to delve deeper

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into young women’s views. Interviewshave lasted from one to three hours.In two cases, more than one interviewwas conducted for a total of fourhours. Such views are part of culturein the anthropological meaning of theterm.

We interviewed 20 young women inTokyo and 15 in Montreal, which isinsufficient for a quantitativeanalysis. But we feel that in-depthinterviews of 35 Japanese young womenbetween the ages of 20 and 35 in urbanareas can give us a very good idea ofthe range of opinions. We have usedthe snowball sampling method, startingwith young women we had contact withand then asking these women tointroduce us to other women they know.

Among the women of our sample,two, both living in Tokyo, weremarried. All but three (one in Japan,two in Montreal) had 4-year universitydegrees. Of the other three, two hadonly high school diploma and one had ajunior college degree. We didinterviews with 15 Japanese womenliving in Montreal, to see if theexperience of living in Canada had hadthe effect of generating differentviews from the ones of young womenliving in Tokyo. This research wasconducted sporadically from 2010 to2013.1

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The context in which the young womeninterviewed have lived has been markedby the peculiar situation followingthe bursting of the financial bubblein 1990, so the reader should bear inmind the socioeconomic consequences ofthe end of the bubble, especially theway the economic difficulties thathave marked the last twenty years haveaffected the employment situation. Theanalysis is in four sections :1) theopinions our respondents have aboutthe economic situation in Japan, 2),views on jobs and the labor market,3), views on marriage, children andfamily, and 4) views on combining workand family. We attempt to evaluate thechanges and continuities in the viewsour interviewees have in the contextof the “good wife, wise mother”ideology.1. Opinions on the economic situationMost young women interviewed wereaware that the economic circumstanceswere not as good as in the 1980s, but,as one said “that’s the only situationI have known”.  All but two of themwere hardly aware of what had gonewrong in the early 1990s. For them,when we asked questions about economicdifficulties, the answer was not aboutthe last twenty odd years, but aboutthe last crisis, which hit Japan in2008, following the subprime problem

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in the United States. For them, Japanwas not in a good situation before2008, but it is the conditions after2008 that they are mostly aware of.Only two mentioned the end of thebubble economy in the early 1990s. Oneof these two knew that the 1990 crisiswas caused by internal factors and the2008 one came from outside (Respondent2). Talking about the bubble of the1980s, another respondent said “Myparents’ generation wasstupid” (Respondent 4).

If some of our interviewees didnot have any opinion about the causesof the economic difficulties, othersfaulted the government for itsinability to generate growth.Respondent 2 said: “Japanesepoliticians do not manage the economywell”. Inefficiency, bickering amongpoliticians (“they criticize eachother, they do not do anything tochange the society”; Respondent 15),incapacity to find workable solutionswere mentioned in this context. Manyof the young women interviewed did nothave a higher opinion of bureaucrats.One interviewee mentioned thatJapanese did not manage money well(Respondent 5). Another one said that“Japan is not good with money, thereis too much waste in many sectors”(Respondent 14). But the majority said

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they would not know what to do to getJapan out of the current situation.

One informant faulted reforms ofthe school system and young people forthe current crisis. “School reformsin the 1990s had the effect ofreducing the school week by one day.Young people of this generation didnot learn how to work, they had toomuch free time to enjoy themselves,and this explains their attitudetoward work, they cannot tolerate workconstraints, they devote themselvesless to their company, and that is thereason why companies are lessinternationally competitive”(Respondent 5). But this is a minorityopinion, from someone who devotes herentire time to her career. Another onethought that the media wereexaggerating the situation and sawthem as the cause of the negativeattitude that is pervasive in Japanabout the economy (Respondent 8). All our respondents did not feelany responsibility for the economicdifficulty Japan faces now. They feelthat their personal importance in thedifficulties the country faces, aswell as in finding solutions, is low.So it seems that there is no influenceon their opinion of Yamada’s or otherauthors’ discourse about theresponsibility of the youth in Japan’s

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current crisis. One respondentnonetheless mentioned she felt goodabout paying taxes and making theeconomy work through her consumption(Respondent 1).

When asked about whether theyworked for themselves or for thecountry, all but one answered thatthey worked for themselves, about halfadding that they worked or would workin the future for their family. Onlyone mentioned her willingness ofmaking sacrifice for the country (butthis person lives in Canada, iswaiting for permanent resident statusand is considering living her life inCanada or in France; Respondent 10).So the idea of sacrifice for thecountry, which had been quite strongin Japan in previous decades, is weakamong the women in our sample.

2. Work and the job marketAll but four of our informants notedthe difficulty of finding a job inJapan right now, especially for women.Among the four women with dissentingopinions, three had career jobs inJapan and one did career-type work inMontreal. These four women said thatthere is always a way to find work,one saying that you could get a job ifyou were not too picky. All the othersmentioned the numerous résumés they

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had to write, with very few responses.Five insisted on the fact thatcompanies hire young graduates freshlyout of school, thus making itdifficult for people who graduated afew years before to find a good job.Moreover, as one noted, if you hadworked even for a few months, you werenot considered a new graduate, even byGovernment services that classifiedyou as a “worker with experience”, aless desirable category for largecompanies (Respondent 10). In thissituation, as the same respondentsaid, ‘’I am lost in society’’.Another one agreed with thisassessment: “In fact, in Japan, whatis important if you want a job is thatyou are a new graduate, whatever thesubject of your studies” (Respondent22).

Two of our respondents who werecompleting a B. Sc. in chemicalengineering said that they will haveto complete a M. Sc. in order to get ajob as researchers in their field(Respondents 3 and 4). As one said: “Ifind myself not trained enough to beactive in society, to find a job,especially if I want to have a job inresearch” (Respondent 3). Without a M.Sc., they would be hired as OfficeLadies to do menial clerical work.

More than half of our sample

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mentioned that there is discriminationagainst women in the workplace inJapan. One of the four women whothought you could find a job in Japanmentioned the different treatment ofmen and women in her profession(baker) in Japan. When she graduatedfrom Junior College with a degree inbakery (specializing in French-stylepatisserie), she found a job, but, whilea male entering the company withoutexperience was immediately assigned tothe baking process, she was first putat the cashier and later atdishwashing. She had the possibilityto really use her training only aftera few months. She is now working in apatisserie in Montreal, where there is nodifference in the treatment of men andwomen. The owner of the bakery whereshe works included her right away inthe production process. This womansaid that, in her profession in Japan,most shops do not hire you if you are30 years old or more, because theyconsider you too old to learn(Respondent 11). Five other womentalked about companies refusing tohire women in their late 20s becauseof the expectation that they wouldhave children and leave soon or askfor maternity leave (which iscompulsory by law but not oftenapplied). As one said: “The company Iworked for indirectly asked women who

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get married to leave the company.Because of the law, it is not donedirectly, but it is understood thatthe company does not hire women inregular-track employment. However, thecompany used to hire one woman peryear to avoid legal problems”(Respondent 9).

Only two of our Tokyo informantswere without a job. One had lost herjob at the same time her boyfriend wasassigned to a position in anotherregion of Japan. They then decided toget married, even though no talk aboutmarriage had occurred before. Theythought that their relation would notsurvive living far from each other.The other one, who was an elementaryschool teacher, became pregnant, quither job and got married. She says shecould have kept her job and taken amaternity leave, but pregnancy beforemarriage was seen as immoral andunacceptable by her coworkers, andthat is why she decided to quit. Sheis now in a difficult situation, sinceher husband lost his job. He is nowconsidered a furita by her parents(Respondent 33). All otherinterviewees worked, but most were inirregular low paying jobs. Three werein more demanding positions, aswebsite designer, as a nurse and assection chief in an insurance company.These three women saw themselves as

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career women, the last one mentioningthe long hours expected of regularemployees (Respondent 5).

The women who were in Montreal atthe time of our research had allworked previously in Japan beforecoming to Canada. All but two (the oneworking in a bakery and one who workedin a company in the computerprogramming division) had hadirregular low-paying jobs. Half ofthem came to Montreal as exchangestudents. Of these, three stayed thereafter completing their studies. Theothers were still students at the timeof the interviews. They noted that itis easier for women to find a job inMontreal than in Japan and that thereis less discrimination against womenand less rejection because of age. Onementioned the fact that there is lessinsistence in Canada than in Japan onhiring new graduates.

One aspect that the women inMontreal noticed was the fact thatworking hours were much shorter inCanada and that vacations were longer.In theory, vacation time was about thesame in Japan and in Canada, but inJapan, you could not take all yourvacation days because nobody did, andif you chose to do it, your superiorsand coworkers would consider you aslacker. In Canada, everybody took all

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their vacation days. They also noticedthe large number of women who tookmaternity leave and went back to theirold jobs when the leave was over,something that is difficult to do inJapan.3. Marriage, children and family

All the women in our sample,whether in Tokyo or Montreal, wantedto get married. As one noted, it isnatural for people to want to form afamily. “Normally, at 30, everyonefeels the need to form a family; it isa natural wish of all humans’’(Respondent 25). However, women in acareer as well as the ones who werearound 30 thought that they would havedifficulty finding a Japanese husband,or even a husband of any nationality.The great majority of our informants(27 of 32) said they wanted to getmarried around 30, one who had acareer mentioned 35 and one even saidshe wanted to marry at 40. Among thefive others, two (both 30 years old)were already married, and the otherwanted to get married between 25 and30. Two informants said that theywould like to get married but that itwould not be a problem if they did not(Respondents 4 and 13). As one said,‘’ I will get married only if I meetsomeone with whom it is worthwhile toget married. If not, I think marriage

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is not necessary’’ (Respondent 4).To the question whether they

prefer marrying a Japanese or aforeigner, more than half (21)answered that it did not make anydifference. Four clearly preferredforeigners. Two were already marriedto Japanese, so the question did notapply to them. Only five women saidthey would marry only Japanese. Thereason given was the capacity tounderstand each other because theyspeak the same language. One (anexchange student in Montreal) evensaid she would marry only somebodyfrom the Kansai, saying that evenpeople from Tokyo had a culturedifferent from her own (Respondent 2).One woman thought that Japanese menwere weak so she did not want to marryone (Respondent 1). She thought thatJapanese men were becoming “wives inthe couple”, that women had to huntfor a husband, which she foundridiculous. Men should be moredecisive, more assertive, which, toher, is a sign of virility is.According to another respondent,“Japanese men do not make decisions.We (women) have to take charge”(Respondent 4). Both found thatattitude strange.

Five women (three in Japan, twoin Montreal) saw marriage as the way

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to solve the difficult job situation.Three of them mentioned the fact thatit is preferable to be married and bea housewife if the only jobs you couldfind were boring and with low wages.Another one, whose dead father was ayakuza, and whose brother and sisterhad been arrested for drug possession,saw marriage as the only way to getout of the stigma attached to herfamily, but she thought it would bealmost impossible to find a mate,especially in Japan, because of thatstigma. As she said: ‘’I am in a moraland economic hole from which I willnever be able to get out alone’’(Respondent 30). Another one sawmarriage as a way to get out ofdepression caused by an unstablepersonal and job situation (Respondent31).

All the women except one (‘’I donot see myself having children. I donot trust myself to raise themproperly’’; Respondent 13) wantedchildren, but four of the ones whosaid it would be difficult to find ahusband did not think they would haveany children. The great majority (24)said they wanted two children. Onesaid she wanted two or three. Amongthe others, five answered they wantedthree children, one wanted four andonly one wanted an only child. What isclear is that all the women did not

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even consider having children if theywere not married. As one intervieweesaid: ‘’I want two children, but notwithout being married. Marriage first,children after’’ (Respondent 14); itis to be noted that this respondentsaid she did not want to get marriedbefore 40). So marriage is still seenby these women as a prerequisite forhaving children, a situation quitedifferent from the one in many Westerncountries, among them Quebec wheremore than half the children born inthe last ten years were to parents whowere not married.

To the question “will you takecare of your husband’s parents or yourown parents in the future”, the greatmajority (26) answered yes. One (theone from a yakuza family) did not haveany parents left and did not expect toget married, at least not with a manwho still had parents, so the questiondid not apply. The three others wereliving in Montreal, had non-Japaneseboyfriends and expected to liveabroad, so they did not expect to takecare of their husband’s or their ownparents. The answer to the questionabout living with their husband’s ortheir own parents had a more variedanswer. A good number did not answerclearly (8 women): Three said they didnot want to but thought they would nothave a choice but to live with their

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husband’s parents; two had the sameanswer about their own parents; tensaid they would live either with theirhusband’s or their own parents; andnine said they would not live withparents of either side.

All but three women who clearlyanswered the question (21) did notthink that their husband would help inhousework, especially if he wereJapanese. Working hours for men inJapan are long and usually they do notgive them any time to help withhousehold chores. The three thatwished their husband to help withhousework were all expecting to marrya non-Japanese. So the norm for thesewomen seems to be that householdchores are a woman’s task.

All the women interviewed saidthey would stop working when they havea child. This is consistent with whatMatsuda observed in the early 2000s.2

The ones who expected to live abroadthought the period they would not workwould be temporary. Most of them (6)thought they would take a maternityleave of a few months. However, mostof our respondents who expected tolive in Japan wanted to stop workingfor many years or thought they wouldnot have a choice (11). As oneinterviewee, a website designer,despite the fact that she sees herself

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as a career woman, said: “there arelaws in Japan that allow you to goback to the same company aftermaternity leave, but nobody does it.Women feel bad to take leave and otherpeople, the company and coworkers, letyou know. I do not want to make mycompany waste time and myself feelguilty on top of that. So I will quitmy company” (Respondent 28).

A majority (11) of the women inJapan answered that they would like togo back to work when their child isabout 3 or when entering the schoolsystem, but they expected to work parttime. Two women living in Japan, onenurse and one travel agency employee,said they would go back to work fulltime as soon as they find a daycarefor their child (Respondents 19 and34). The two students in chemicalengineering said that they wouldreturn to work full time after a shortmaternity leave (Respondents 3 and 4).Two women said that it is good to senda child to daycare in order for thechild to be socialized (Respondents 14and 19).3 Finally, one informant whoworked for a company that allowedwomen to go back to work full timeafter childbirth said she woulddefinitely go back to work (Respondent28), But this is a minority positionamong our respondents. The opiniongiven by one woman seems to be the

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norm: “I want to be a housewife.Quiet. I do not want to work like acareer women, but I want to have aquiet life” (Respondent 15). But eventhis respondent said she would like towork in a café when her children enterschool.

One woman, now in Montreal andhaving no preference between aJapanese or non-Japanese husband,mentioned that she would like herhusband to be educated. As she said:“I am a woman, so I prefer a husbandwho is informed, so that I can lean onhim” (Respondent 6).

Three women mentioned thepossibility of divorce (Respondents 3,4 and 5). All three mentioned that, incase of divorce, it is preferable thatthe woman has a good source of income.All three insisted on the necessityfor women to have a regular full-timejob if they wanted to be comfortableafter a divorce. 4. Combining a job and family life

All the women interviewed saidthat it is difficult to combine workand family life in Japan. Many (11) ofthe ones who were in Montreal noticedhow women in Canada have morefacilities, especially daycarecenters, that allow them to work whilehaving children. They also noted thatit is easier to have maternity leave

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and go back to their jobs after a fewmonths or a year. But in Japan, as onewoman said, “Companies are notflexible, so if my child is sick, Icould not easily take a day off. It islegal to do so, but people incompanies let you know it is notappreciated” (Respondent 12). Onewoman who worked for a non-Japaneseairline noted that it is easier forwomen to go back to work rapidly ifthey work for a foreign company inJapan. They take maternity leave andthey go back to work in the same jobwhen the leave is over (Respondent13). Finally, one woman in a career-path position worked in a Japanesecompany that encouraged women to takematernity leave, and then come backafter one year in the same positionthey had before, with possibility forpromotion, which is exceptional(Respondent 5).

Another obstacle for marriedwomen with children to go back to workis the work organization in Japan.Many women, especially the ones whohad lived outside of Japan, mentionedthe long working hours, for men aswell as women, and the insufficientnumber of daycare centers and theirshort hours (many close around 2.30pm). One mentioned the practice forJapanese companies to rotate employeesfrom one city to another, and this was

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seen as an obstacle to women withchildren (Respondent 9).

One respondent said she would goback to work full-time after having achild as she found it necessary forwomen to have some independent income.As she says ‘my father when he had afight with my mother who was a fulltime housewife used to tell her “Don’tforget who brings the money”. I do notwant that, so I will work’ (Respondent22).

ConclusionWhat our data shows is that there

are changes in the view women have ofwork, career, marriage, children andfamily life, but that there are alsomany continuities. Among thecontinuities, there is the idea thatmarriage is a prerequisite for thefoundation of a family and for havingchildren. Having children is also seenas natural, although a small minoritythinks it is not necessary to havechildren. For a certain number, butnot a majority, marriage is seen as away to solve personal problems, suchas the lack of good jobs or difficultywith their own life. It is to be notedthat to get married because a womandoes not have an interesting job isnot exactly continuity, because, ifthe result is the same as before, the

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reason is different. A majority of ourrespondents said they would stopworking for a certain number of yearswhen they have children before goingback to work, preferably in a part-time job. A good proportion of ourinterviewees also think that houseworkis a woman’s task and that men eitherdo not have time to participate or donot know what to do. All thisinformation points out not only thefact that the “good wife, wise mother”ideology is still present among amajority of the women in our samplebut also signs that this ideology isweakening. So if there arecontinuities with the past, there arealso discontinuities.

Delaying the time when a womangets married is a major change. As wenoted, women used to get married inthe early 20s up to about 1980. Sincethen the average age at marriage hasincreased, to top 29 years oldnationally and over 30 in Tokyo. Oursample, on this point, is very closeto the Tokyo average, at least if welook at their aspirations asmanifested in their answers, sinceonly two of our respondents weremarried. Even though they are aminority, it is still remarkable thateight of our respondents said theywant to go back to work quickly aftergiving birth. Some of them insisted

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that it is good to send children to adaycare center to be socialized. Thisis a change from before, even thoughsome women with children had full-timejobs such as nurses or school teachersin the 1970s and 1980s, and eventhough our respondents who wanted togo back to a full-time job were aminority.

There is also a change that islinked to the economic difficulties ofthe last twenty years. It is the factthat men with good regular positionsare less numerous than before 1990.This reduces the number of eligiblemates. However, this can also be seenas continuity, since it shows that, asbefore, men are still seen as the mainsource of income.

The question about living withthe husband’s or one’s own parentsgave rise to more varied answers thanwould have been expected in the 1970s.The fact that nine women said theywould not live with the parents ofeither spouse can be seen as adecrease in the strength of theobligation toward the previousgeneration within the family. However,the change is only partial since tenwomen said they would live with theirown or their husband’s parents. It isto be noted that for a woman to live

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with her own parents and not theirhusband’s can be seen as a majormodification of the family compositioninherited from the ie model, where themale line was seen as central to thehousehold and where women had to livewith their husbands’ family.

The idea of sacrifice for thecountry was really weak among ourrespondents. This idea had been strongduring the war years and even in theera of high economic growth from 1955to 1973. The prosperity that came as aresult of this period made a firstdent in this will to make sacrificefor the country. It seems that the endof the bubble in 1990 and the ensuingeconomic difficulties have weakenedthe spirit of sacrifice even more.

There has been much improvementin the situation of women in Japan, asreflected in our sample’s answers.However, many problems remain. Forexample, large companies are stillreluctant to hire women in regularpositions, as managers routinelyaccept the traditional view that womenshould stop working when they getmarried and have children. Moreover,women are wary of a workplace thatforces salaried personnel to workovertime (and to go to bars afterwork), even if it were possible tofinish the job within regular hours.

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It is of course almost impossible fora married woman with children to holda regular job in this kind ofenvironment. However, even with noovertime, it would be difficult forwomen to hold a regular job because ofthe scarcity of daycare centers thatstay open late enough. We have seenthat a sizeable minority of ourrespondents would like to have thepossibility to put their children indaycare if facilities were available.But for now, there is little will fromthe part of government officials andlarge company administrators to makeit easier to combine work and familylife.

In this context, it must be notedthat overtime is very often notnecessary, as foreigners working inJapan as well as some Japanese pointout.4 But if one worker does overtime,the other ones are forced to do thesame if they want to have a chance ofpromotion. Company administratorsappreciate having workers andemployees who accept overtime workregularly, it shows that the employeeis ready to do anything for the goodof the company, whether the overtimeis necessary or not. For women, thisis often impossible. Even for thosewho would have the possibility to workovertime, it is often not attractive

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to them, since it means cuttingdrastically into their leisure time.

It would be possible for Japanesecompanies and public administrationsto change work organization andworking habits. Long working hoursmight have been necessary when Japanwas trying to catch up economicallywith North American and WesternEuropean countries, but it is notnecessary any longer. Japaneseemployees and workers could do withshorter working hours and this wouldbe possible if managers did not insistso much on overtime and if work wasbetter organized. One way to improveworking conditions would be to do awaywith involuntary transfer to othercities (or even foreign countries), apractice that strains the familystructure and complicates family life.In the same way as long working hours,the rotation of employees benefits thecompany at the expense of the worker.

Moreover, Japan could establish amaternity leave program that insuresthat women have the opportunity to goback to their previous positions aftertheir leave, such as exists in someWestern countries. With a betterorganization and maternity leave,women could be hired full-time. Thereare a great number of well-trainedJapanese women, and it seems a waste

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of expertise that they cannot getpermanent jobs in government or largecompanies.

Finally, our interviews show thatmore women would work full-time ifworking conditions were better.Whatever we may say about men workingand women staying at home, it stillseems important that women have themeans to achieve economicindependence, at least to avoidremarks by husbands that they are thebreadwinner and women should behaveaccordingly. Economic independence isalso crucial in case of divorce.

Shorter working hours would alsobenefit men, since they would havemore rest and more leisure time aswell as spending more time with theirfamily. There is nothing “natural” oreven cultural, if we define culture bytradition, in the way men’s andwomen’s lives are kept apart in Japan.Rural society, traditionally, did notfunction that way. The separationbetween men’s and women’s lives is aphenomenon linked to industrialsociety. But, many industrialsocieties have moved in differentdirections with shorter work days andlonger vacations. This includes Taiwanand South Korea where the situation ofwomen in the workplace (and evenoutside) has improved much more than

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in Japan.5 Taiwan and South Koreaprovide the proof that so-calledConfucian societies can get away froma theory of women’s inferiority and goforward to more open relations betweenmen and women.

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1Endnotes

This research was made possible through a grant from the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). I wish to thank the SSHRC, as well as the Ph. D. students who did interviews for this project : Kanzaki Sachiyo, Akanéd’Orangeville and Catherine Laurent-Sédillot.2 Matsuda, Shigeki, ‘’Josei no kaisô to shûgyô sentaku’’ ( 性性性性性性性性性女), in Honda, Yuki (Ed.), Josei no shûgyô to oyako kankei ( 性性性性性性性性性女), Tokyo, Keisô shobô, 2008 (2nd edition): 3-20.3 Anne Imamura (Imamura, Anne E., Urban Japanese Housewives : At Home and in the Community,Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, 1987.70-71) mentions that young urbanhousewives with a university education, even in the 1980s, thought daycare centerswere good for the socialization of their children. However, they refused to makeuse of babysitters.4 This is based on interviews with four engineering students from Université de Montréal who worked for two years or more in large Japanese companies. One former anthropology student from the same university worked for two years in a city officeand had the same assessment. As he said : ‘’In the morning, we come and we read the newspapers. Then we discuss with our coworkers. If a visitor comes, we have tea with him. Then we go for lunch.After lunch, we work for a while. At 4pm, when the boss asks who will stay for overtime, everybody raises his hand. Then we work slowly until we go to bars’’ (Interview in 1995). This is corroborated by aJapanese salariiman interviewed by one of my students : ‘’In Japan, when you work for a company, you have to do overtime, it is valued, even if finally you do not accomplish more. We often say that Japanese employees work hard, but I do not think it is true. Very often when we stay late at night or on weekend,we sort of pretend we are working. Me, I don’t like that attitude. I would prefer to be more efficient and go homeearlier rather than stay just to please my bosses. But my attitude is considered bad, division chiefs (buchô) do not like it’’ (Pacha Valencia, Emil, Masculinité en crise : transformation des pratiques et des représentations de la masculinité chez les jeunes salariés japonais, M. Sc. thesis, Anthropology, Université de Montréal, 2013: 76).5 Yu, Wei-Hsin, Gendered Trajectories: Women, Work, and Social Change in Japan and Taiwan, Stanford, Stanford University Press, 2009