Finding a Place in the Capitalist World Order: Japanese Women and the Losses (or Gains) of Western Capitalism

Abstract

Employing an ethnographic methodology, this paper examines how women living in a small Japanese village negotiated the tension between capitalist modernity and cultural constructions of Japanese “tradition,” identified by scholars as a central component of Japanese cultural identity. It argues that women are a particularly interesting group to focus on for such an investigation because of their frequent positioning as keepers of tradition and because of the perception of western influence as potentially liberating. It maintains that Japanese women are particularly aware of the losses and gains occasioned by Japan's spectacular entry into global geopolitics over the course of the second half of the 20th Century. The often contradictory and ambiguous feelings informants expressed in the course of this study demonstrate the complex process of negotiation currently taking place in Japan, as individuals come to term with the fast evolving nature of their cultural environment.