The Role of Family in Japan Essay Example

After the end of the Cold War, Japan had suffered a relatively long period of recession since its economic bubble burst. It desperately needed an economic revival. In order to do so, it needed to concentrate on the operations of the political and economic structure of its society and the ways the Japanese individuals interacted within that structure. This structure is one that the people have created themselves to be the accepted norm, meaning the accepted way that people should act and how things should be in Japan. Many conformed and contributed to this way of life and others rebelled against this structure. The key role that helped facilitate this type of social structure is the family, by its function of mediating between the society and individuals. The family, whether it is a “nuclear” family or an extended family made up of different types of members, was a very important unit in society that played the essential role of fulfilling the emotional and physical needs of the individuals which was crucial for social and economic development. The family acts as a catalyst that affected various aspects of the model societal structure and by doing so, the structure continues to revolve around the role and ideology of the family. Some aspects of the social structure it strongly influenced and continues to influence are the employment system, education, technology, and even protests against the very structure.
The individual roles of the family members played an important factor in the employment system. Japanese families had an underlying gender ideology. Therefore, it was no surprise that the society developed into a patriarchal system with men as heads of the households who would most likely provide the financial support for the family and with women in charge of taking care of the children and the home. In Japan’s social structure, people believed that women should just concentrate on doing household work and leave working outside the house to men. In