The Housewife Is Born Analysis
Moreover, there is a change in Japanese society’s expectations that now allows Japanese woman to remain single by choice. For decades, the norm for Japanese woman was to get married in their twenties, have children and take care of them. Recently, there has been a shift from the « full-time professional housewife » (sengyoshufu) that Kazumi Ishii and Nerida Jarkey describe in their book The housewife is Born: The Establishment of the Notion and Identity of the Shufu in Modern Japan as being popularized to all classes since the Taisho era, to « double income » (tomobataraki) families. Women have fewer pressures to get married at an early age: MHLW shows in 2016 that the average marriage age was 23 years old in 1950 and of 29.4 years old
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Effectively, it is now possible in Japan to hire a ‘daily’ boyfriend; to chose him, woman have access to their photos and their personality in a catalogue-like format. This commercialization of love aims at overcoming the shyness of women to speak with men, as they lack experience. On one hand, women can benefit from this but on the other hand, it also amplifies their fear of reality and confine them in their singleness. As a matter of fact, Japanese society tends to have the habit to focus on virtual life rather than real life. To add to this matter of commercialization of love, women have the possibility to buy a ‘wedding’ but paradoxically without any partner: it is called the ‘solo-wedding’. In fact, Philippe Mesmer explains in Le Monde that for the modest sum of 2400 euros, women can rent a wedding dress, have a professionally-made hairstyle, a photograph and much more, as in the addition for 365 euros of a man for their wedding day only.
Hence, this attachment to the perfect man only maintains the celibacy of women preferring living a virtual existence. Thus, these activities can reflect a society that demands too much. It appears as a conclusion to all the ways love can be commercialized and women’s high standards that celibacy could be Japanese women’s ideal
Effectively, it is now possible in Japan to hire a ‘daily’ boyfriend; to chose him, woman have access to their photos and their personality in a catalogue-like format. This commercialization of love aims at overcoming the shyness of women to speak with men, as they lack experience. On one hand, women can benefit from this but on the other hand, it also amplifies their fear of reality and confine them in their singleness. As a matter of fact, Japanese society tends to have the habit to focus on virtual life rather than real life. To add to this matter of commercialization of love, women have the possibility to buy a ‘wedding’ but paradoxically without any partner: it is called the ‘solo-wedding’. In fact, Philippe Mesmer explains in Le Monde that for the modest sum of 2400 euros, women can rent a wedding dress, have a professionally-made hairstyle, a photograph and much more, as in the addition for 365 euros of a man for their wedding day only.
Hence, this attachment to the perfect man only maintains the celibacy of women preferring living a virtual existence. Thus, these activities can reflect a society that demands too much. It appears as a conclusion to all the ways love can be commercialized and women’s high standards that celibacy could be Japanese women’s ideal