Alexa
After reading the account of Minami, the mother who had to quit being an opera singer, did you feel that the obento served as a type of repression which ties Japanese women to domestication?
Matt
Is ISA another way of saying popular culture?
Shannon
If Japanese people are all manipulated and routinized from such a young age is it possible to ever really understand Japanese people on a personal/individual level? Does such a thing as individuality exist within Japan?
Zach F.
Are the Obentos really that important? For something as simple as food to hold such meaning, and the idea that the mothers creating these obentos are under a power structure of the state through feeding their children seems like quite a reach. What would happen if they didn't follow the obentos tradition? Could they break such bonds?
LB
Concerning preschools, it is stated that "children learn less about reading and writing than they do about how to become a Japanese student" (88). What is more important to the Japanese educational system, learning the material or learning how to be Japanese?
Katy
Allison reveals that the creation of Obentos is seen as a creative and fulfilling endeavor for many Japanese mothers, but that this very act reinforces societal structure and norms. Can there be individuality in a political act? Is there true individuality in any culture?
Marquis
What would a "lady like" woman in Japan have to give up in order to gain more power in society?
Michaela
Could Takasu even attempt to function without gender? Does the educational philosophy of "Good Wives-Wise Mothers" encourage the idea of females as an inferior role to males?
Danielle
One of the students said that she thinks that her school has too many rules and therefore cannot truly encourage Westernization. Do you think that Japanese educational systems could ever promote individuality and independence?
Emily M.
McVeigh argues that there is a link between femininity and internationalism, and that learning one usually entails acquiring the other. Is this true? Or can one be feminine without being an internationalist and vice versa?
Alix
Why do Japanese people/students rely on “non-Japaneseness,” including the “linguistic Other,” to define themselves and their specific Japanese identity?
Kayo
Do you think that this distinction between Japanese and non-Japanese make the people living in Japan more prone to racism?
Kristen L.
"Instructors are encouraged to fail 30 percent of their students", Takasu International College strives to be unlike any other college, having extremely high academic standards, what is Japan trying to prove? How does Japans culture and traditions take part in the college's philosophy? Why is the "cultivation of character and practical, non-professional training" so important in Japan?
Stacey
"Well dressed and groomed, they wear suits, dresses, and dress slacks, since school regulations prohibit jeans and other "unladylike" attire." This quote addresses the dilemma of gender. What dictates ladylike? Is this just another school fitting into the stereotype of what women should look like?
Kristen M.
Young women attend these colleges to be taught the social norms of "being" a Japanese woman. As an American woman, I have an understanding of behavioral norms, but what is the equivalent institution in the United States that would teach this? In Japan, what is an equivalent institution for men? What are the expectations of men and their role in society?
Minoru
In this report about Japanese women education, the author points out that the Gender role in Japan is "enriched" by teaching Internationalization which works as a device to contrast Japan with foreign countries (Gaikoku), in other words, creating others to define one-self. Can this mechanism be applied to the United States by taking an example of Middle East as others through their beliefs called democratization? Whether if so or not, how can we solve the problems of antinomy which causes collisions between the two things however, which also functions as shaping identity which is necessary to start thinking.
Kayo
Does this trend of higher, more modernized and technological education causing women to become more home-bound true for other countries and cultures as well? (a global issue?)
Shannon
If Japan's historical family roles/customs were so evenly distributed in earlier times then how can we refer to their society as traditional when they are clearly breaking their own traditions?
LB
What makes Uno's findings so so surprising to her? Is it the apparent differences in the pre-industrial Japanese household compared to the urrent household? Is it simply that the Japanese household was ever like this at all?
Marc
The author ends with the line "After all, if Japanese women became trapped in the home, Japanese men became locked out of the home." How do you interpret this statement?
Nicole
The author wrote, "Today, the long workday and grueling commute allow salaried male workers scant time to spend with their children, but during the Tokugawa and Meiji periods the workplace of most fathers was near their children. Furthermore, the househead's obligation to maintain ie continuity gave many men a vital stake in the birth and successful rearing of at least one child."
Therefore, how can present-day societal expectations improve to create more unity in the household? What steps are required to cause change?
Alix
If middle-class Japanese men and women shared both “productive” and “reproductive” work prior to the twentieth century, why were many middle-class Japanese women (and not men) later expected to “render service to the nation from the home” (38). Are men, including Japanese men, always perceived (despite actual ability) as more economically productive than women?
Stephanie B.
“In defeat, Japanese men were emasculated, and it was through economic activity as salary men, that they sought to regain their dignity and rebuild their sense of confidence and self” Is this why the majority of men feel that they should be soul providers for the household?
Stephanie W.
Is the author arguing that the importance of the woman's role in the household has dwindled or increased as the division of labor has evolved?
Matt
How could such a huge cultural shift occur between the lifestyles of prewar Japanese women compared to postwar Japanese women?
Allison H.
Why do people associate Japanese women with subordination? Are Japanese women really subordinate, or is their subordination being constructed by Americans who have different social ideals?
Katy
How does the modern rigidity of gender roles compare to roles now seen in post-modern Japan? How does post-modern Japan compare to the gender roles seen in the Tokugawa period?
Zach F.
"Ideology sanctioned women's participation in the economic life" (Uno 30). Ideology can be a scary thing, and an even tougher idea to break. How does an ideological concept get broken?
Marquis
Does having things talking about Japanese turning white make the accusation that they are the most accepted minority more truthful?
Minoru
Why is Japanese people depicted to need an ideal? Is it only a sophistry to squeeze an argument out of a nation called Japan?
Katie
Do you think that the concept of men in the workplace and women at home is a social construct?