How the Eastern Invention Influenced the Japanese Gender Roles Paper Example

Introduction

Modern Japan is composed of civilization as part of their back born, that dictates the economic growth of the nation and other cultural values. As Brau (54), points out that, the average Japanese woman is more skilled as compared to the male in the same nation. The earlier days of Japan characterized a different role that contextualized both the genders, a great rift separated the two sides, with the male entitled to the overall work of the community, while the females were only reduced to the extent of taking care of the children and households responsibilities. Through this, women had the opportunity to teach and learn from the elders on how to take care of their families as it was the basic unit of the community. The invention of the United States during the great war between the two nations and the end of the world war II marked the beginning of civilization and the changes of gender roles that profoundly affected the female in general until today. Through this, the women slowly started drifting away from their necessary households affairs to even more complex responsibilities that constituted industrial and political relations.

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History of the Female Gender Role in Japan

For decades, the female in Japan society were dependents of the male in the nation just like any other neighboring nation that shared similar traits, this includes Korea and China, that are explicitly driven by Confucian. As Nakamura (19), concludes, a Confucian society extensively focuses on the family as the underlying factor, where the women are given the responsibility to take care of the family with the support and decisions regarding anything in the family coming from the male counterparts. Through this, it is clear that the female gender is subjected to the male, and their actions will heavily depend on the male's decisions to dictate their steps in the family.

Marriage is a contract, and a wife could be taken back to her family if she failed to produce an heir. The Japan community highly regards and valued heirs as part of continuing and establishing a lineage. Shoichi (5), observes, a single house can be occupied by the more than three generation hence indicating the vitality of the heir in the family. In a nutshell, family lineage was one of the primary things a family could ever afford to have than marriage, they believed in keeping and carrying the past generation in the family for as long as they could.

Nakamura (19), observes, during the Tokugawa Shogunate (1602-1868) women were not part of the community as they owned nothing, not to mention the subjection they face to the male. Through this, they had no power nor any agency that could advocate against the oppression and need to have equity in the long run.

Shifting of the Confucian Family Ideals

The call for gradual change in Confucian family ideals shifted during the Americans invention in Japan and the second world war, where the nation began understanding and taking into consideration the role of the female from the household perspective to revolutionaries the nation's economy.

During the second world war, female Americans had been integrated into the defense force and military issues as part of defending the nation. Through this, the United States had found a gap that needed to be filled to ensure that equity was prevailing in the country. As a result, more and more women were being trained not only in the military perspectives, but the state had realized the need of integrating the females in the government and other economic sectors that women were best in.

Drawing their observations from American community in the second world war, the Japanese learned a lot from the need of integrating the female to national security and other related occupations that a woman could ever be entitled with. IN 1946, the Japanese constitution conducted a thorough revision on the bases of granting the women privileges and opportunity to rebuild the nation. The Civil Code inspired and influenced the American culture, gave the women possible legal rights to own property legally and inherited a family estate. They were entitled to sign parental rights as well as participating in choosing their leaders through voting. This was one of the significant milestones towards attaining the democratic rule and governance in the nation.

On the same token, the Civil Code gave the female gender a privilege to have a say in the family matters as one could decide to have a divorce, breaking the custom norm that had existed for decades. Through this, the female had a chance to change the tables from being inherited or forcefully married to partners that they were not interested in but instead make their own choices in marriage. The Civil Code broke the norm, where women were termed as a dependent that heavily depended on their husbands, fathers and eldest sons giving them the responsibilities as community members. In a nutshell, both wife and husband were given the mandate of being heads of the family in all perspectives. However, despite the outline of the Civil Code, the women were expected to take care of the households, and the husbands were entitled to be the breadwinners of the family.

Role of the Modern Japanese Female

Education

Western civilization had a significant impact on the cultural role of the female gender when it comes to education and knowledge acquisition. Like many other nations such as Korea and China, the female gender's education was based on traditional norms, with women being taught by their grandparents regarding the educational family, which included the basic structure of a good home (Shoichi 31). Through this, it is quite interesting to see how the female role was entitled to their chores regarding the need to keep a home. As a result, the female education never went beyond past the communal perspectives.

On the other hand, the male gender was entitled to traditional teaching as well as modern teaching as technology expanded. The male was integrated into the modern business world as well as being involved in the military affairs as part of their fundamental factors in providing security (Oppler 65). On the same token, the education regarding technology, building automobiles that expanded the Japan economy came from the effort of the male counterparts, which increased the rift between the two sides. However, through the integration of the Western culture in the Japanese community, the nation gradually began adopting and implementing the system, giving the female a better education, that extended their knowledge. The female Japanese role was now shifting from a basic educational structure to a more competitive education system that leads building of modern education system all across the nation. Through this, the shift in private teaching gave the Females in Japan an opportunity to learn and integrate the education in the nation's economy.

Marital Opinion

In the Japanese context, the husband is responsible for looking and finding the wife who in return should support in the family lineage. Through this, the female was subjected to little or no rights at all in regards to airing their opinions regarding marriage. As Shoichi (45), points out, any objection to marriage may lead to a girl being disowned by her father, which was perceived as a curse. Through this, the women were left with no choice but to accept the circumstances whether they liked it or not. Right to object a marriage was far beyond their reach, and no institution could oppose the act in regards to the Japanese customs. However, this was not until the invasion of the US to Japan, that opened them.

The war between the Americans and the Japanese resulted in massive death of booming, in regards to the nuclear weapons used during the war (Hadley 31). The Japanese suffered from the effects as they watched thousands of innocent lives got lost, only to mark a new beginning from the wrath of the Americans. As Nakamura. (23), points out, the US was modernized and more civilized than Japan, this ranged from the military staging of battles, economic arrangement, to institutions that fought for the rights of the American citizens.

Through the Civil Code that made several adjustments in the 1946 constitution revision, the government legalized formation of human rights independent institutions that were subjected to work within the law as part of ensuring that women were given the privileges and rights as members of the community. Through this, the abolishment of forceful marriage that was heavily practiced in the rural parts of Japan were now being faced off, with thousands of young girls being rescued from the mission during the first year of the ruling established in Japan (Hadley 34).

Work Responsibilities

At the don of the second world war, Japan had been reduced to the staggering nation, with no hopes of better economic stability (Hane 12). Through this, several steps with the cooperation of the countries such as Great Britain, Soviet Union and the people's republic of China had been part of the Supreme Command of Allied Powers (SCAP), that was led by, General Douglas MacArthur.

MacArthur took the lead in September 1945, with the primary aim of collaborating with other nations to rebuild the Japan nation ones again. The war had toured the country and most of its funds had been consumed in fueling the conflict, which made Japan find itself between a hard place and a rock.

As part of the new reforms, both the collaboration between both genders was needed to ensure that the nation's economy was brought into a microscopic scale. Through this, the need to entitle the female to work came into consideration as General Douglas MacArthur pushed it forward to give the women an opportunity to diversify the economic growth of the nation (Douglass 4). This ranged from the commercial distribution of land that was retrieved from large landowners that oppressed the farmers. Through the Civil Code that subjected women to the right of property ownership, the females got an opportunity to ensure that they can contribute to the national economic growth by engaging in farming to support their families.

On the other hand, the female gender was given an opportunity to working government posts as it was part of attaining a sustainable economic growth within the nation. Although this was not positively considered as a positive approach towards achieving the national growth, the constitution supported the women in holding post and positions in the government offices that would result in a better nation. However, for a better attaining of this, General Douglas MacArthur under his authority with the council had to factor out top official governments from the previous government, which gave no opportunity to the females participating in the national affairs.

By early 1948, the emergence of an economic crisis was slowly unleashing its course in the Japan nation which increased the chances of communism spread. The period lasted until the 1950, when the economic rehabilitation center staged in mater concerned the increasing threat to internal communism movement which could have drastically affected the nation. The American government under the SCAP association took the initiative of educating the Japanese community on the primary effects the country would suffer if there was no collaboration and acceptance of both genders in the government. Through this, the nation would receive a reduced rate of national friction among the domestic conflicts and the formed bodies advocating for the equal rights for both genders (Beauchamp 13). As a result, the Civil Code Act facilitated rights and regulations that enacted the equity of job allocation and sustainability of all the Japanese citizens.

Role of the sons to the mothers

According to the ancient Japanese customs, a fem...