Juliana's ghosts (2-28-10)

Colorful strings of light sweeping across the dark dance hall were additional camouflage to the flamboyant tight-fitting dresses of those women, whose hair was done in the one-length style, who were dancing vigorously on each podium of a tall structure, flapping a hand fan. Mixed with techno tunes, the swooning atmosphere of the hall was leavened even more by adrenalin, as vapor with it escaped through the narrow openings of the women’s outfits. This well-known scene was of JULIANA’S TOKYO British discotheque in Shibaura, a complex that was open from 1991 until 1994, which is often described as a symbol of Japan’s economic boom between the late ’80s and the early ’90s.

During the economic height, there were more well-off people and the society gave an incorrect notion that almost every household could afford to splurge on something extra apart from their living expenses.

Generally speaking, with highly-set benchmarks on living standards, quasi-majoritarianism was practiced by men who fiercely competed with one another in attracting women, by means of showing personal strengths as much as possible.

In the woman-winning race, men oriented themselves based on three special statuses dubbed as 3 kou, or 3 highs: a competitive educational career, a high income, and high stature. It was untrue that materialistic factors made for people’s virtues, but it was probably true that even just a financial advantage helped produce many couples.

Women were competing as well. As the public tended to cherish material things, it was obvious which man was successful/promising, judging by the uniform of a renowned school, expensive clothes and/or items.

A highly promising man could draw the attention of women even if he had lived an easy dependent life and might have chosen his favorite out of them, applying those three prime criteria. As such, in turn, one typical model of a successful woman might have been a wife, a pampered position she had won through a competition.

Fast-track to today, however, the society is trapped in a deflationary spiral, as one-hundred-yen shops, apparel stores and gyudon (/beef bowls) restaurants, all of which sell for cheaper prices, have been thriving. Following the Lehman shock, many layoffs and fewer full-time employees have come forth. People don’t have as much money as they did two decades ago.

There are many double-income families. Over the period, the ideal role of a husband has changed with the need of husband-wife cooperation in not only making a living but also doing housework and rearing a child/children. Wives today are not as fussy about their partners’ academic paths and salaries as before. Instead, they might each recognize the personality of the partner more than they did.

However, on the condition that both of the couple leave their home for work, having a baby is a more selective option. To make the situation more difficult, it was telecast that the total of available nurseries was short of the needs, leaving many infants on the waiting list.

In an attempt to help young families overcome these kinds of problems and do Japan reverse the course of its waning population, this year the leading Democratic Party of Japan with its two coalition partners has enacted a countermeasure with which each household with a child/children younger than those waiting for turning 15 on April 1st will receive 13,000 yen (or roughly 144 US dollars) per child. (This figure is slated to become 26,000 yen next year.) In addition, the DPJ will nullify the tuition fees for public high schools.

Meanwhile, these strategies could be seen as overlapping one another for the same incentivizing purpose. Indeed, OECD--Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development--suggests that Japan should take measures such as those for increasing nurseries to a sufficient level, and for improving men-women balance by putting more women in the active workforce of the nation.

Toko Shirakawa, a journalist-cum-writer, recently wrote an essay on matchmaking events in an economics magazine.

She says that women have been dominating a larger proportion in the market of konkatsu--activities for marriage, involved with organized events--since the Lehman shock which has subjected them to seeking for a secure life through marriage, while men are prone to shrinking away with no financial confidence.

For example, a konkatsu event with public servants, policemen and the officials of the Japan Self-Defense Forces lures an influx of ladies, while men fill seats in another event with (female) nurses. About 20,000 of 30,000 enrollees of a website for organizing konkatsu events are women, although the gender ratio was almost 50% in the past. Despite the high numbers, successful couples are limited because few men meet women’s demands.

However, Mrs. Shirakawa is supportive to these women, saying that they are afraid of the time they can’t earn money after (quitting a job and) giving birth and require the partner to be a reliable breadwinner.

She also points out that Japan doesn’t have a full-fledged system to allow women to keep working.

Whilst in some major companies female full-time employees are entitled to maternity leave and/or reduced working hours, as a matter of fact more than half of unmarried workers are non-regular. (This, when the number of nurseries is insufficient.)

A whopping number of women earn around 2 million yen (or roughly 22,200 dollars) a year and live in their parents’ home. The majority of these women wait for the time when they chiefly rely on the income of their husband and have resumed working as a non-regular employee, having brought up a child/children, a family model in the Showa period.

After all, although it seems more difficult to arrange conditions for substantively enriching a family, it’s fair for a kid to have a future dream when he/she can afford to. (I personally believe that such a dream tends to take shape through inevitable difficulties around.)

On a much larger scale, Japan itself is an example. Since the end of the Second World War, it has restored itself with a firm conviction that a time of prosperity would come along, helped by other countries. After having fantasies midway, at present it might be experiencing a setback but doesn’t have to be so pessimistic. The people have dreams and will meet them.