Announcements

• No class on Friday

• Final paper proposal due on April 10th

• Scheduling “Tokyo Movie Night”

Final paper proposal

• Feedback from TFs• Be sure to include sources you have

identified

• Short-paper comments• Lacking thesis• Scope of paper

• Generalization/essentialization

Tokyo Movie Night

• Double feature• Godzilla (original Japanese version)• Tampopo

• Other possibilities include Stray Dog, and Grave of the Fireflies

• Probably on a Thursday evening

The “Three Treasures” of 1950snew middle class life

• Washing machine• B&W Television• Refrigerators

The “Three C’s” of 1960s new middle class life

• Color Television• Car• Cooler (air conditioner)

The growth of “danchi”

• Public housing for urban middle classes• Standardized housing• “2K” -- two tatami rooms and a kitchen• (evolves into 2DK, 3DK, 3LDK)

• (tatami as modular unit of measurement)

Hikarigaoka danchi

Hikarigaoka danchi

Hikarigaoka danchi

New Middle Class Tokyo

• 1950s-70s -- high economic growth period

• Rebuilding the country and the economy• Deferred gratification -- saving for the

future• Idealized “salaryman” lifestyle

New Middle Class Tokyo

• 1970s “oil shock”• 1970s-80s -- rapid growth of personal income

levels -- redistribution of wealth -- 95% “middle class”

• Beginnings of conspicuous consumption• In retrospect, the 1980s “Bubble Economy”

-- frenzied land speculation, loose bank loans, stock market manipulation

Women’s roles• Idealization of full-time housewife• Old notion of “good wife, wise mother”• Caretaker of family -- support the

working husband, supervise the children’s education, be frugal manager of domestic affairs

Women and children• Stereotype of “kyoiku mama”• Closer ties between mother and kids

than between father and kids

• Intense educational pressure• Exam system for different levels of

education• Growth of “cram schools” and ronin

(students in limbo)

“Professional Housewife”

• In its most exagerated modes, hypercompetition among mothers regarding children and domesticity

• Anne Allison’s analysis of box lunches, schools, and constraints on women

Cute Bento

Cute Bento

Cute Bento

Bento nationalism

The salaryman lifestyle• Postwar ideal -- secure employment in large

prestigious firm• Relatively high social status• So-called “lifetime employment”• Seniority based wage system• Generalists rather than specialists (human

capital created within the capital)• Emphasis on teamwork• Comprehensive benefits from company

• Early retirement age (60) put emphasis on savings

Salaryman lifestyle

• Husband/father largely absent• Mandatory overtime• Semi-mandatory afterhours socializing• Limited vacations (and pressure not to take them

anyway)

• Often posted to distant assignments for years at a stretch

New Middle Class Tokyo• From approx. 1990 -- the long recession

• Loss of social confidence• Political scandals, financial scandals• Discredited bureaucracy• Aum Shinrikyo gas attacks• Public impact of Kobe earthquake• Restructuring of economy -- end of lifetime

employment

Asahara Shoko

Aum Shinrikyo

Aum Shrinrikyo

• March 20, 1995• Coordinated release of nerve gas (sarin) in

the Tokyo subway system during rush hour

• Gas released on 5 trains converging on Kasumigaseki (center of government offices)

• 12 people died, approximately 5-6,000 injured

Aum Shinrikyo

Shock of attack

• Horror of the attack itself• Shattered sense of “safe” Japan• Outrage over religious cults

• Perhaps most of all, shock and puzzlement that many of the perpetrators were very well educated -- scientists, medical doctors

• What could be wrong about a society in which the educated youth could do such things?

Social unravelling of 1990s

• Salaryman becomes social object of pity if not scorn

• “Oyaji” bashing• “Karoshi” -- death by overwork

• Emergence of clear intergenerational attitudes towards work, career, education,marriage, family