Ambivalence and tension over time:

1. Ambivalence and tension over time: Japanese women

2. Concepts grew out of: • Longitudinal study with in-depth broad interviews • 60 single women 25-35 in 1993 • ‘delaying marriage and childbirth’ from gov’t point of view • For me: • Interest in resistance and agency over time

3. Parasite singles…single aristocrats…smells like resistance

4. Sample • Re-interviewed in 1998 and 2004 • Half Tokyo • Half Northern regional city, village (Iwate) • 3/5 university grads • 2/5 vocational school grads • 2004: 1/3 single (all working) • 2/3 married (80% with children) (40% working)

5. Challenges • Time—dynamic changes over lifetime • Time—between modernity and post-modernity • Bias towards agency and resistance • Freedom, individual empowerment as goal • Western bias, romanticization: (Asad, Abu Lughod) • Honesty to data

6. なんとなく • It just happened… • Not intentional • Going with the flow of the times

7. What do I find in the data? • 迷っている-confused; lost • 不安-uncomfortable • 困っている-not sure what to do; in trouble • 悩んでいる（なやんでいる）-worried • あいまいな所-in an ambiguous place • 揺れ動く-not sure which way to go • 葛藤（かっとう）-complicated place

8. Ambivalence • 自分さがし-search for self—global imagination • 自分 実現- self realization, actualization • //Selfishness • 我がまま • 勝手 • //Emotional commitment to family, work, Japan

9. Ambivalence • Looking in two directions, reflection • Search for self • Responding to now, situation of generation and ersa • There is no script, feeling alone • Participation in institutional norms • Emotional commitments • Feelings of power, worthiness

10. Ambivalence • Judith Butler: psychological ambivalence: love of subordination and will to own power • Grosz/ Merleau-Ponty: social ambivalence • We turn at the fold between inner and outer

11. Tension • Risk: adventures and insecurities, • excitement and anxiety • Both good stress and discomfort (fuan) • Stability • Both relief (anshin) and • feeling of being shut in, shut off

12. Tension • Giddens: risks of global life, building of self-narrative/ • Cocooning safety • Alberto Melucci: • endless possibilities, challenging cultural codes/ • dilemma of choice, going through the gauntlet of choice to live life • Between agency and structure (Bourdieu); reason and individuating (Touraine)

13. Societal framework: Contradictions • Institutional order, modern/ national progress • Diversity, difference, chaos (global market, media, lifestyles) • Postmodernity: modernity questioning itself • Subject and society seen as under construction • Globalization: uncertain processes that mock binaries of order/chaos (Baumann) • Many sites of positioning (Foucault, Ueno)

14. Societal framework: Ambiguities • Risks and potentials of global arena for companies, nation • National protection, tradition, nationalistic ideologies, ethnic fervor • Appadurai: between global reach and national control • Beck: manipulation of risk perception

15. Locating theory • Grounded theory emerging from Japanese data • Broadened through relationship with other theory • Useful not only for Japan but for me, you, and other situations in this era

16. Individual level Search of Self ambivalence t e n s i o n Risk Security Institutional Norms

17. Societal level Post-modern difference contradictions a m b i g u i t i e s Nationalistic Protection Global Risks Institutional Order

18. Single women: high risk, strong self • Quitting engineering job to study English • Living with boyfriend • Telling parents: mother’s voice • “I am rebelling. I want them to understand.” • Owns apartment • Flex job • Job overseas • Connection with parents, brother—accept me

19. Single women: self/family; risk of new ways • Retirement aide in northern village • Living alone, boyfriend • 98: City retirement home, living with family • Need to leave: brother’s family • 04: Renting flat, can’t buy • Committed to secret BF who doesn’t want to marry • Visits with family • “There is no script for this.”

20. Single women: low risk, high norms • High school teacher in Tokyo • Caring for mother with stroke • Siblings not helping • Global travel • Ethnic food • Caring for mother and father • Saving school • “I made my choices”

21. Balanced lifedefeatnew risks • Single nurse in the north • Antiques, paintings • Night work increasing • Chanson • Father died • Breakdown with night work • Quit, turn to religion: “Listen to my teacher... I will learn how to really heal people.”

22. Married with children: self, family, self • Translator in Tokyo, from regions • Own flat, bass in band • Compromise: arranged marriage • Kagoshima • Child, education; Husband, disabled tho working • She can’t work • Green coop interests • “Sometimes I really want to work, but I am the center. If I am not up, the others will fall.”

23. Married with children: risks in safety • Continued working in Toyota as secretary • Enjoyed single life within sphere allowed by father, living at home • Single aristocrat, travel, tea • Older age, let’s-drink-tea-together love marriage • Extreme stress of childraising and working • Help from father, mother • “As I copy documents, I wonder if this is worth it.”

24. Married without children:losing the bet on marriage • Iwate to Sapporo to Tokyo • Dorm mother to print shop to arranged marriage with divorced gov’t worker • “I was tired of this life.” • He won’t let her work except seasonal part-time • She fears operation for fertility; he resists it. • Hard to make friends; concentrate on ‘the two of us’ • “I thought I was special, but it turns out I am just an ordinary Japanese woman.”

25. Dialectical thinking • Compromise between ‘diverse social and temporal priorities’ (Wilk) • To hold both sides of oppositions within self, between oneself and one’s world, within society • Bourdieu: doxa, heterodoxy, orthodoxy • Still maintain integrity (DT Moore)