SOAS Research Online

Abstract

In Japan, mass consumerism in the 1960s and feminist movements in the 1970s expanded women’s expectations of personal freedom and purportedly served to free them from the domestic sphere. At the same time, an expansion in economic opportunities in the 1980s fuelled a growing demand for female labour. A culmination of these peaking trends, calls for greater equality, and the economic downturn in the 1990s, have prompted renewed attention on the roles women are to play both in society and in the economy in contemporary Japan. This chapter seeks to bring together some of these recent trends and to highlight key issues surrounding the employment of women in Japanese society today. Over three sections,this chapter will first outline the major trends in women’s employment that have taken place during the post-war decades, and then discuss the key issues facing women workers during the last 15 years in Japan.It ends with a discussion of implications and challenges for the future socio-economic roles of Japanese women.