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JAPAN: THE CHILDLESS SOCIETY? MURIEL JOLIVET
Translated by Anne-Marie Glasheen London and New York: Routledge, 1997 244 pages. Cloth L45; paper L14.99
Japan's maternal malaise shows no signs of abating. In Japan: The Childless Society?, originally published in French as Un pays en mal d'enfants, Muriel Jolivet explains why women are putting off marriage and motherhood and sketches the largely negative implications of the birth drought for Japanese society. Readers are given a view from the trenches based on extensive interviews and close reading of books and magazines intended for mothers. Jolivet, a professor of French studies and sociology at Sophia University in Tokyo, has collected a treasure-trove of antediluvian comments, pseudo-psychoanalysis and dumb advice, all of which buttress her assertions about the inner circle of hell called motherhood in Japan and shed light on what ails Japanese society. "The ten commandments of the good mother" detailed in The Childless Society indicate just how oppressive the prevailing child-rearing theories and attitudes are, both for mother and child, and why women are taking a less-is-best attitude toward giving birth.
Women are getting married later and having fewer children because they are investing more time and energy in their education and increasing numbers are pursuing careers. Two-income families are becoming a norm in Japan and women hoping to improve their employment prospects are delaying marriage and shortening the period they are out of the work force to have children. In addition, raising children is very expensive, housing is cramped, day-care regulations are often too rigid for working couples and the decline in three-generation households limits recourse to family assistance in childrearing activities. In short, child-rearing has never been so hard as it is in modern Japan. The author also suggests that the gap in attitudes between the sexes is widening into a chasm and for many women, Japan is not a happy hunting ground for Mr. Right.
Japan is the most rapidly aging industrialized nation in the world and will experience sooner and more intensively the host of socioeconomic problems associated with this trend. Low birthrates and greater longevity are accelerating the graying of Japan and the day of reckoning. This demographic time bomb will result in exploding pension and health-care costs and inflate tax burdens for...