"The Joy of Normal Living" as the Promise of Happiness for Japanese Women and their Families. Issue 2 (3rd April 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Goldstein-Gidoni, Ofra
• Is Part Of: Asian studies review. Volume 41:Issue 2(2017)
• Page Start: 281
• Page End: 298
• Publication Date: 2017-04-03
• Subjects: Japan -- happiness -- women -- housewives -- middle class -- marriage -- normality -- magazines; Asia -- Study and teaching -- Australia -- Periodicals; 950.05
• DOI: 10.1080/10357823.2017.1295021
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1035-7823

Abstract

ABSTRACT: "The Joy of Normal Living" is at once the motto and the ideology of Kurihara Harumi, Japan's best-known charisma housewife and icon of domesticity. This article looks at the relationship between "normal living" and the promise of happiness, as formulated in postwar Japan. Beginning with the government's promotion, in the early postwar period, of the idea of akarui seikatsu (bright new life) as related to the typical suburban middle-class family of salaryman husband and full-time housewife, the article goes on to look at the cultural idea of "being happy as a woman" in contemporary Japan. Based on in-depth interviews with full-time housewives, and an analysis of popular women's magazines, this article seeks to decipher what constitutes the idea of happiness for these women and for their generation.