Yuko Ogasawara

The Gender Triad: Men, Women, and Corporations

To better understand gender relations in contemporary Japan, Yuko Ogasawara focuses on the triad among men, women, and corporations. She shows how the gendered division used to be a “happy collusion” among the triad during the high economic growth years, but how it has become more rigid than either men or women generally wish it to be. Moreover, the rigidity of the division renders men not more but less powerful in their everyday interactions with women. Increasing numbers of men are adopting exit strategies of not getting married. Ogasawara analyzes popular phrases used to describe the absence of marriage among youths, and finds that male celibacy has tended to be regarded as the reaction of a minority of men maladjusted to the society.