Transforming Men and Masculinities in Contemporary Japan

Abstract

In June of 1991, the so-called economic bubble of the 1980s in Japan burst, and with this came corporate restructuring, unending economic stagnation, and the widespread loss of direction among, and lack of popular confidence in, Japan’s male dominated leadership and dominant notions of masculinity. More or less concurrent with this, and especially since the mid-1990s, there has been an ongoing and increasingly pluralized relocating and reeducating of men and masculinities in Japan by researchers and activists both inside and outside of Japan. There were significant precursors inside Japan, particularly of practice, and, after some lag, there have been significant scholarly developments outside of Japan that complement and in some ways complicate work by Japanese writers. There have also been significant changes in everyday masculine identities, practices, and performances, and in Government policies that affect and influence men and masculinities in Japan.KeywordsDomestic ViolenceFamily ViolenceMasculine IdentitySpousal ViolenceMale SuicideThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.