https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9483-3422
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ABSTRACT
As the Japan Self-Defense Forces becomes ‘closer’ to everyday people, discourses surrounding military masculinities and femininities shift. This paper takes a ‘curious feminist’ approach to the shifting significance of the JSDF and asks the question, ‘What can the changing JSDF tell us about its relationship with women?’ I explore representations of women and men in three JSDF-related publications – a matchmaking website that caters to male soldiers and women civilians, Jieitai Premium Club; a popular manga series drawn by a woman married to a JSDF man, Totsugeki Jiekan Zuma; and the monthly JSDF publication, Mamor – and suggest that despite the ostensible pursuit of gender equality within the JSDF as evidenced in the increased recruitment of women, and the promoting of women to higher ranks, women continue to be imagined as ‘helpmates’, just as they were during Japan’s modernization process. They are discursively constructed as helpmates to men as wives and other female companions, and in being so constructed, become (un/conscious) supporters of the JSDF and thus helpmates to the state.
Acknowledgments
This preparation of this paper was made possible by the 2018 National Library of Australia Asia Studies Grant.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. For example, in August 2018, Matsushima Misa qualified as the first woman fighter jet pilot in the Air Self Defense Force (JASDF), after restrictions on women becoming fighter and reconnaissance aircraft pilots were lifted in November 2015 (The Japan Times Citation2018).
2. An example of this opposition is 69 year old ‘housewife’ Kitamoto from Kumamoto prefecture, who explains her opposition in a 18 September Letter to the Editor in Asashi Shinbun. She urges people to think about the possible scenario of Japan becoming both a victim and a perpetrator of war and believes that maintaining Article 9 in its current form will allow the country to avoid that scenario (Shinbun Citation2019, 12). Furthermore, the protests against the new security legislation held outside the parliamentary building in Tokyo from 2013 onwards showed similar sentiment across a diverse cross section of society (Aoi Citation2016, 18–19). Protest placards include the messages ‘Protect the constitution!’ and ‘We don’t war!’ Yet another example of widespread and organized opposition to constitutional revision is the organization Jiyūhōsōdan, comprising more than 2000 lawyers, whose activities include handing out pamphlets to passers-by at busy train stations.
3. Japan is not alone – the main functions of the today’s armed forces of many countries tend to have less to do with waging war and more to do with disaster relief and peace-keeping (DeGroot Citation2001, 23–24; Woodward and Duncanson Citation2017, 5).
4. Japan has a long-work-hours culture which can be inhospitable to those who cannot devote themselves to their jobs. This work culture is particularly unwelcoming to women, who are usually responsible for family and household care (Nemoto Citation2016; Takenobu Citation2013).
5. Based on the deeply entrenched assumption that childcare should be the responsibility of women.
6. Jieitai means Self-Defense Forces.
7. Both websites are owned and managed by the same people. The difference between them is that Jieitai Premium Bridal is strictly a matrimonial website reserved for those looking seriously for a marriage partner, while Jieitai Premium Club is a matchmaking website with associated matchmaking events and parties. I will use the generic Jieitai Premium unless there is a need to specify the one to which I am referring.
8. For example, the website that seeks to match up ‘high status’ men and flight attendants (under the age of 33).
9. The English title on the cover of this manga is ‘Charge! The Wife of Self Defense Force’.
10. For information on the genesis of Mamor, and an insight into the strategic reasoning behind its creation, see Fukuura (Citation2017a, 120–121) .
11. These were the editions available to me at the National Library of Australia, the only library in Australia to hold this magazine.
12. Frühstück has produced ground-breaking and fascinating work into gender and the JSDF (beyond that relating to popular culture), much of which this paper relies on. In particular, she has explored the various ways in which military-themed popular culture products express gender shifts and ideologies, and has provided insightful feminist analyses of women’s experiences within the JSDF, including of sexual harassment and discrimination (Frühstück Citation2007, 98–104).
13. According to the 2020 World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index, Japan ranks 121 out of 153 countries (World Economic Forum Citation2019, 31).
14. I use the term ‘state’ to refer to a political entity that monopolizes the use of legitimate force, as defined by Weber (Dusza Citation1989). Constitutional scholar Aoi Miho (cited in Magajin Citation2018), asserts that in the context of the debates around revising Article Nine of the constitution (the pro-revision side asserts the purpose of revision would be to clarify and legitimate the role of the JSDF), despite the rhetoric of the Japanese government that the JSDF’s function should be to protect the ‘people’, the purpose of a military is to protect the ‘state’. One of the main purposes of the constitution is to limit the power of the state and ensure an oppositional relationship between ‘individuals’ and the ‘state’, but this point seems to have been lost in the debate (Aoi Citation2016, 20–21).
15. I am not the first person to use the word ‘helpmate’ to describe women’s relationship to the Japanese state. See Mackie (Citation1997, 43&157) for an analysis of the modernizing Japanese state’s appropriation of women’s various roles as helpmates.
16. See Talleyrand (Citation2000) for a thorough overview of the extent of modern military organization in procuring women to sexually serve servicemen.
17. All translations are my own unless otherwise stated.
18. Italics added.
19. The ‘sample’ woman’s profile is an example profile generated by the website to guide women in writing their own profiles.
20. The apparent rise in popularity of JSDF men as potential husbands spawned the new term, J-kon (the J from Jieitai and kon referring to one of the kanji characters from the word marriage – kekkon) (Eldridge Citation2017, 47). But according to some in the konkatsu industry, the popularity of JSDF men as potential husbands for civilian women engaged in konkatsu activities dropped off in around 2015 (Fukuura Citation2017a, 125).
21. This refers to the controversial set of security laws implemented in 2015 that allows Japan to exercise self-defense under extreme conditions, such as a threat. It includes defending the U.S. or other friendly nations if they come under attack.