A Hakujin View

There are many family traditions followed in Japan. Before the war, the family system was feudal. (Thomas 188) After marriage, the oldest son continued to live in the same house as his parents, a custom destroyed by urbanization and one-room homes. (Thomas 188) After the war, the Japanese family was no longer a male-dominated autocracy. (Thomas 188) Women had gained rights over their property and are able to transact business without their husband’s consent. (Thomas 188) There are three systems of marital match-making in Japan. (Thomas 189) Miai, the traditional method, involves a formal introduction, usually by a go-between. (Thomas 189) Shokai is less formal, based on a meeting arranged by mutual friends, and Renai is like the usual Western practice, a meeting

The range of courses offered in all-girl high schools is limited. (Thomas 110) Science, mathematics and technical subjects are given little time in the schedule, thus encouraging students to take courses that qualify them only for a domestic role. (Thomas 110) It is significant that the only two aspects of education mentioned in LDP policy on the family are domestic education in schools and adult education for women. (Thomas 110) Even though the average time a Japanese women spends on housework has decreased, (Sansom 109) the traditional view is that a woman’s place is in the home. (Thomas 110) Yet at the same time women are encouraged to enter the work place as “temporaries” at substandard wages. (Thomas 111) Due to a man’s long work hours, it keeps him from home, leaving the chores to the woman. (Thomas 189) The wife is responsible for accounts, calling plumbers, carpenters or electricians. (Thomas 190) As well, her chores include most of the physical work around the house, including taking out the garbage. (Thomas 190) “On the last night of his spying he saw her empty a bucket of kitchen scraps not fifty yards from where he crouched.” (Guterson 105)

Guterson chose to break the three systems of marital match-making follo

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