Love and Domestic Abuse in Japan

Recently I read an article on a feminist blog about domestic abuse among Christians. The reporter choose to focus in on Rick Warren’s particular philosophy at his church, Saddleback (if you have a strong stomach or enjoy a good laugh, you should also check out the recently coined term voted on by Savage Love listeners for what sex act “saddlebacking” is), specially about how women should submit to their husbands and the will of God, and the refusal of the church to recognize divorce except in cases of abandonment or affairs, even in the face of overwhelming evidence of abuse. (http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/02/03/christian_abuse/index.html)

Not surprisingly, the Posters were all over the religion issue; the Broadsheet is staunchly atheist, and contempt for religion is practically a pre-requisite for posting. One poster, who happened to be Christian, took issue with the narrow focus on the reporting; yes, Biblically, women submit to their husbands, but husbands also submit to their wives, and ultimately everybody submits to the will of God. It’s one of the biggest spiritual struggles in Christianity, throughout history; finding where you end, and God begins, and how you can submit to His will and His plan for you without going absolutely bonkers. But, discussion of submitting to an abusive partner on a feminist blog is waving a red flag in front of a bull, so it’s no surprise there was a great heaping on of “Evil religion! Religion is evil! What you believe is stupid!” regardless of nuance.

What really got to me, however, was a Poster who threw out there that people who were “atheist, pagan, and those of the eastern disciplines” were not nearly as stupid as you stupid Christians, moron.

This stuck in my craw a little bit, the suggestion that not religions, but ONLY Western and modern religions are sexist and moronic. When I took Religion 101 in college, I found it fascinating that Buddhism, that oh-so-hip religion of choice for Western yuppies, up until very recently, simply claimed women could not achieve enlightenment. Sexism exists in all religions… in all societies, too.

Let’s take Japan as an example (mostly cause I’m living here and deeply interested in Japanese anthropology.) There was a big “incident” at a sumo tournament, I think a few months back. Sumo is considered a secular sport, but the rituals surrounding it are steeped in Shinto… the pouring of rice, the purification of the ring. Before the start of the tournament, a woman ran up and touched the ring… just touched it. This was viewed as a contamination, and the entire ring had to be rebuilt. They’re so strict about this ancient tradition, a female governor of Osaka wasn’t allowed to give out the prizes for the sumo bout, and had to acquiesce to a lower male colleague. (http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSHAR05789320070920)

It’s pretty easy to dismiss this sexism, however (she can become an elected political official but she comes anywhere near our sacred rice ring…) as sumo is a sport steeped in traditional practices, one that damage males as well (check out the life expectancy on sumo wrestlers sometime.) But it isn’t just a sport focused around big guys in diapers that demonstrates sexism is alive and well in Japan.

In 1998, the Prime Minister conducted a small survey of 4500 women in the Tokyo area. One third of the women reported an experience of domestic violence, and five percent reported they were in fear of imminent death. This was a fairly small sample number and in a very specific location, but it’s an alarming number, especially since the Broadsheets give no numbers at all on how many Christian women are abused under Saddleback policy. That it was even a surprise to Japanese government officials is even more alarming-they finally pulled out a prevention law in 2001. Domestic abuse has been a hot button topic in the States since the 80’s. (I can’t say for earlier, as I was not born, but I definitely remember the public service commercials and talks we’d get in elementary school.) (http://tokyoprogressive.org.uk/gale/articles/dv-in-japan.html)

Another thing that got me thinking about domestic abuse and sexism in Japan was a TV show. Yes, a TV show, which is not very scholarly, but if TV isn’t an insight into a culture’s brain, it’s a darn good candidate. The TV show is based on a manga, 花より男子, published in 1992. The story is of a poor girl who attends a wealthy and prestigious high school, controlled by F4, a gang of uber rich pretty boys who run the school and declare war on the girl after she insults them.

I’m usually a sucker for these kinds of romance stories, love born out of hate, social and class strife, yadda yadda. I enjoy the TV show quite a lot, however… it is markedly more alarming than the manga in how it portrays the relationship between the girl, and her unwilling love interest, the leader of the F4. In the manga, she defies him and he spreads rumors, pretty typical high school drama antics.

In the TV show released in 2005, however, the leader (before he gains any real romantic feelings for her) is so determined to see her drop out from humiliation he comes close to ordering a hit on her. In one particularly shocking scene, minions of his drag her into an abandoned classroom and begin to rip the buttons off her uniform with the intent of gang rape. She’s saved only by the intervention of another F4 member. In another scene, the leader says he will call off the war (in the midst of students beating her and her friend with chalk erasers) if she gets down on her knees and licks his shoe.

Fortunately, that’s the worst of it in Season 1, but my unease with the show lingers. The leader isn’t just an anti-hero kind of romantic interest; he is down and out a villain. She eventually comes around to liking him as well, but the “why ever for” reasons are a bit mysterious-his qualities seem to be his insistence on dating her, and that he punched some guy who called her ugly and hurt her friend’s feelings.

Even more strangely is the portrayal of the main character. She’s not a weak willed or timid little flower. Her first insult to the leader of F4 was punching him in the face. She’s outspoken, holds down her own job, and is concerned for her family. She is very much a girl modern feminists would approve of.

So why is the love relationship so antiquated?

I can’t say whether this is a trend or just this particular TV show. I’ve watched precious few other Japanese dramas. The only other romantic show I’ve watched, のだめカンタービレ is also a love story, though there’s just as strong a love between characters and music as there is among themselves. It’s a bit more cartoony, and the guy is the unwilling participant in the love affair this time around, but the male protagonist is yet again cast as brooding, and while cartoony, violent towards the female love interest. (Scenes include him throwing her across the room when she isn’t focusing on practice hard enough.)

My question is, Japan is a country fairly devoid of the “Christian” morals that influence Western, and especially American, society. How has this changed or altered their view of domestic abuse, and are they better off or hindered for their lack of religious fundamentalism, if religion is indeed the catalyst to domestic abuse (as Broadsheeters claim)? I don’t know the answers to these questions, but I think it’s an interesting thing to discuss.