Tough Choices: Bearing an Illegitimate Child in Contemporary Japan PDF
Preview Tough Choices: Bearing an Illegitimate Child in Contemporary Japan
Tough Choices Tough Choices Bearing an Illegitimate Child in Contemporary Japan ekaterina hertog Stanford University Press Stanford, California Stanford University Press Stanford, California ©2009 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Stanford University Press. Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hertog, Ekaterina, 1979- Tough choices : bearing an illegitimate child in contemporary Japan / Ekaterina Hertog. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8047-6129-1 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Unmarried mothers--Japan. I. Title. HQ999.J3H48 2009 306.874'320952--dc22 2009007194 Typeset by Bruce Lundquist in 10.5/15 Bembo Contents Illustrations and Tables vii Acknowledgments ix 1 Introduction 1 2 “Naturally I Believed I Would Get Married”: Making the Choice 18 3 Navigating Work and Welfare 49 4 Legal Discrimination against Unwed Mothers 77 5 Are Unwed Mothers “Immoral” or “Impressive”? The Role of Social Stigma and Shame in Upholding Family Norms 96 6 “The Worst Child Abuse Is the Absence of a Parent”: The Role of Guilt 127 Conclusion 151 Appendix 157 Notes 167 Bibliography 207 Index 223 Illustrations and Tables Figures 1.1 Illegitimate children per 1,000 children 3 1.2 Crude divorce rate 4 2.1 Potential choices of a premaritally pregnant woman 25 3.1 Percent of women in employment by age 51 Map 1.1 Percent of illegitimate births out of all births by prefecture, 2004 15 Tables 1.1 Attitudes toward single motherhood in Japan 6 1.2 Age variation of unwed mothers in my sample 13 1.3 Earnings distribution of unwed mothers in my sample 14 1.4 Highest level of education completed by unwed mothers in my sample 14 2.1 Age characteristics of women who gave up their children for adoption to Wa no Kai in 2002 33 4.1 Length of court procedures (Tokyo Family Court) 89 4.2 Cost of cases (Tokyo Family Court) 89 4.3 Acknowledgment cases per year (Tokyo Family Court) 89 Acknowledgments a book is a lengthy endeavor full of inspiration but also dishearten- ment over unexpected setbacks. I believe I would have never been able to carry out this project successfully without the constant support and advice of Anthony Heath and Roger Goodman. Both magically provided insights just at the times when I felt I was at a dead end, helped me to regain confi- dence after setbacks, and played a major role in enabling me to carry out a year of research in Japan. Many people helped me during the field research in Japan. I owe a debt of gratitude to David Slater of Sophia University, who patiently listened to my fledgling ideas and offered invaluable comments. The monthly gather- ings he organized proved to be a great venue for honing ideas, meeting col- leagues, sharing difficulties, and finding solutions to various problems. The project was nurtured in lengthy discussions with several specialists on the Japanese family, especially Tetsuo Tsuzaki and Yukio Shinbo, who patiently explained “how things work in Japan,” revealed the mysteries of welfare and taxation, and offered valuable introductions. I learned a lot about the day-to-day life and concerns of Japanese single mothers when attending meetings and talking to members of Single Moth- ers’ Forum, Konsakai, and Nakusō Koseki to Kongaishi Sabetsu Kōryūkai, lobby groups that aim to change the social, economic, and legal environ- ment of Japanese lone mothers. I would like to thank the members of these groups for allowing me to come to their meetings, spending time with me explaining the details of lone mothers’ situation in Japan, and making avail- able their archives. I am also very grateful to the webmaster of Shinguru Mazā Kaigishitsu, who promoted my research project on her website and helped me to get in touch with many of my interviewees. Of course my greatest debt of gratitude is to my interviewees. Due to concerns for anonymity, I cannot name any of the women I met but I will always be grateful for their kindness and support. Most of them were
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