Women's Roles in Japan as Portrayed by Inspector Imanishi Investigates - Book Report/Review Example

December 08, Womens Roles in Japan as Portrayed by Inspector Imanishi Investigates Seicho Matsumotos Inspector Imanishi Investigates is a crime novel set in Japan in the 1960s. One of the most disturbing themes in the novel is the treatment of women, not only by Sekigawa, but also to a lesser extent by Inspector Imanishi, who is supposed to be the good guy. In fact, this fits in very well with Japanese society. Japanese society does not respect women, especially at the time when the novel took place. Women are supposed to be inferior to their husbands and do whatever they want. Domestic and emotional abuse, central parts of the story, are not properly treated by courts, or at least were not in the past. Fortunately this has started to change. Although the novel itself does bring up the issue, it is not certain whether the author was completely against women being subordinate, because of the way the inspector treats his wife and sister. Regardless, Inspector Imanishi Investigates is critical of a society in which powerful men are able to do whatever the want to women. Japanese society traditionally does not respect women very much. In fact, Japan in general is a "society where a rigid sex-role division of laobr persists" (Yoshihama 417). This means that women are supposed to do "womens things" and men are supposed to do "manly things," unlike for instance the United States where women can get jobs if they want. "Japan is probably the country with the least commitment to the principle of gender equality in the modern industrialized countries" (Mia 31). Because of this set of traditional circumstances, "women as a group are socialized as inferior to men in terms of esteem, power, honor, privilege, and authority" (Mia 31). This sort of thing can be clearly seen in the novel in how Imanishi treats his wife. The very first time she appears it is doing household chores after Imanishi gets home. Instead of asking her how she is doing, he lies down and takes a nap, and then eats some food she has prepared especially for him, even drinking alcohol with him to make him "comfortable" although she doesnt want any (Matsumoto 10). This is much like reality in Japan, where women are "restricted to assume domestic drudgery" (Mia 31). A few pages later, this is made even more clear when the detective calls his wife in from the kitchen and tells her “Hurry up and shine my shoes, will you?” (Matsumoto 12). Imanishi does not really know he is doing this to his wife, but because it is culturally acceptable he just accepts it as normal and does not even think about it. In other words "the domestic sphere is still their main responsibility with little or no help from her husband" (Mia 31). In fact, "for many women [marriage] redirects earnings from their own wants and needs to those of their family"(Tsuya, Mason and Bumpass 43). They have to focus on their new family and their husband more than on what they want to do. Yoshiko never even thinks about what she wants to do, but is one hundred percent devoted to her husband and son. When she is mentioned in the novel she is always cooking or doing something in the household. Often, she is mentioned as being interruped from cooking in the kitchen by Imanishi in order to do something he could easily have done himself if he wanted to. For instance, in the fourth chapter after he wakes up in the morning he calls "to the kitchen" for the newspaper and Yoshiko brings it to him after "wiping her hands," suggesting pretty clearly that she was cooking but still has to do her husbands bidding (Matsumoto 61). The relationship between Sekigawa and his girlfriend is even worse, showing the much scarier side of what this kind of cultural idea can do. Even from the start, Sekigawas relationship with Emiko borders on the abusive, because of the culture he grew up in much like Imanishi. Their relationship is very well summed up by the text like this: "Sekigawa smiled coldly. His face was very hard. But Emiko was bewitched by him" (Matsumoto 46). Even though Sekigawa does not care at all about Emiko and is probably just using her for sex, she has accepted this situation as normal and given into the dominant social role of men. Much like Inspector Imanishis treatment of his wife, this is very similar to what Japan would actually have been like at that time, when domestic abuse and generally the mistreatment of women was very widespread. Compared to many other countries which are modern like the United States or even Russia, Japan traditionally had a very poor opinion of women and treats them badly, treatment which is even built into the social system by the government (Mia 35). This problem is especially bad with domestic abuse or other abuse by the womens husbands. Domestic abuse in Japan has been in the past a "serious, but previously underaddressed problem" (Yoshihama 405). Although the situation is not as bad any more today, in the time the novel is set in there was clearly still a lot of domestic abuse going on. This was because of the traditionally held notion in Japan that domestic abuse isnt a problem, which actually is not true, as studies have shown (Yoshihama 406). It was not until the 1980s that "various womens groups began addressing the issues of rape, pornography, and objectification of women in the media" (Yoshihama 409). Even into the 1990s, "Japanese women reported experiencing a wide range of partners violence, and of varying degrees of severity" (Yoshihama 413). It is important to note that these types of violence were not only physical but sexual and also emotional (Yoshihama 413), as with Sekigawas treatment of Emiko. What is really tragic about the relationship between Sekigawa and Emiko is that it ends in her death because she wants to have his child and he does not want her to. After he finds out she is pregnant he forces her to quit her job and move to a remote part of the city, and then he has her murdered. Interestingly even the nurse in this part of the story is belittled. Sekigawa sounds like he is threatening her over the phone (Matsumoto 181) and even the doctor orders her to do things she does not want to do, like going into the house where Emiko is dying (Matsumoto 184). In addition the societal response to domestic violence and other belittling of women was often condoned or not recongized by Japanese society (Yoshihama 418). Even the police and court system were initially part of the problem, and would emphasize "the importance of maintaining family harmony" women who reported domestic abuse things like "try harder to be a better wife and mother" (Yoshihama 416). This same emphasis on family harmony is clearly so ingrained into Yoshiko that she does not even think to complain about anything her husband does. Admittedly he is fairly nice and does not really abuse her emotionally or sexually that we see in the novel. That really only makes things worse, though, because his abuse of her is so casual that he does not even realize he is doing it, ordering her to do things for him without a second thought because its just the way things are. This shows that the treatment of women like this is a wholescale social problem and cannot be limited to sex abusers or criminals to the neglect of normal men. In general, women are treated as domestic servants in the novel and little else. The current situation in Japan is fortunately not the same as it was at the time of the novels setting, however. Nowadays, "Japanese women are more skeptical of the emotional benifits of marriage than Japanese men" (Tsuya, Mason and Bumpass 44). In fact, young people in general in Japan are not that thrilled about marriage. There is a tendency among young people in Japan to "view marriage as ... restrictive of personal freedom" (Tsuya, Mason and Bumpass 44) regardless of gender. Due to the issues outlined in the essay above and also shown from the reading of Matsumotos detective novel Inspector Imanishi Investigates, women obviously feel more strongly about marriage because of traditional societys views. Japanese women have "long found the obligations of marriage and parenthood burdensome" (Tsuya, Mason and Bumpass 45). When looking at how Yoshiko has to deal with the household affairs and their son by herself all the time, this is hardly surprising. It can be imagined that the situation for real women living in Japan at the time, and even now, is pretty similar to Yoshikos situation in the novel. It is no surprise that Japanese women "see marriage as more restrictive of their personal freedom, more likely to reduce their economic well-being, and less likely to improve their overall happiness" (Tsuya, Mason and Bumpass 51) than staying single. The general absence of women in any really important active roles in the novel makes it difficult to look at Matsumotos views on women in a very positive light. Although we are probably not meant to view Waga and Sekigawa as good guys, and their mistreatment of women is probably meant to be seen in a negative light, this does not mean Matsumoto thought women should be treated as equals to men. This can be clearly seen from the way in which Imanishi treats his wife like a slave without even thinking about what he is doing, and not in a mean way. His casual belittling of her is almost worse, though, than the way the cold and calculating Sekigawa continually abuses Emikos trust, eventually leaving her for dead. In this regard, it is a bit disturbing that Matsumoto apparently agreed with how Imanishi treats his wife, as the detective is the good guy in the novel. Still, regardless of the authors intent, his novel can ultimately be used as a very good argument for the traditional neglect and belittling of women in Japan. Works Cited Ma, Tianyue. "A Comparative Look at Attitudes toward Gender and Division of Household Labor in Russia, Japan, Germany and the United States." Journal of the Washington Institute of China Studies 5.1(2010): 26-39. Web. Dec. 08, 2010. Tsuya, Noriko, Mason, Karen, and Bumpass, Larry. "Views of Marriage among Never-Married Young Adults." in Marriage, work, and family life in comparative perspective: Japan, South Korea, and the United States. Eds. Noriko Tsuya and Larry Bumpass. Honolulu, HI: U Hawaii P, 2004. Print. Yoshihama, Mieko. "Domestic Violence in Japan: Research, Program Developments, and Emerging Movements." in Battered Women and their Families: Intervention, Strategies and Treatment. Ed. Albert Roberts. New York: Springer, 1998. Print. Matsumoto, Seicho. Inspector Imanishi Investigates. Trans. Beth Cary. New york: Soho Press, 1989. Print. Read More