The Japanese Family--in a strawberry picking session in Chiba, Japan

After hard work, families were able to enjoy a meal of strawberries, d.i.y. pizza and salad

Grandfather helping his child with a traditional weaving machine (Photo taken with my camera by Tomonari Kino)

Family in Japan is a topic discussed in my Visual Anthropology class quite frequently. The development of the children of the household, the care of the household, which parent truly dominates the house, the relationship between the wife and husband, as well as the future of the Japanese house hold and whether recent changes in the economy and government have benefited a Japanese household or whether they are diminishing the opportunity for improvement.

To touch on a few issues of this broad topic, we have learned that unlike in Western society, it is the woman who is the leader of the household in a Japanese ie (house) system. The man is unable to cook, clean, or take care of his children without the help of his wife due to the man usually expected to make money for the family. The man of the house is the money maker and therefore the wife, if she does not have a job for herself, is financially dependent on her husband. Often times because of the high tension of the household, the relationship between the man and the female becomes more like business so typically the male will seek sexual or intimate companionship outside of the house as in hostess or girl bars. Divorce is steadily rising in Japan and in 2013 it is 1.84 per 1,000 couples (Statistical Handbook of Japan 2015). Marriages are also on the decline as well as the birth rate which has been declared a national problem for Japan. The Japanese family, in my opinion, is in a dangerous position of disappearing. The relationship between the male and the female in a household and in the general Japanese population has an overwhelming amount of pressure and sense of awkwardness. In order to reinvent the Japanese family, the issue needs to be more readily addressed.

In this visual representation I have captured families on a Sunday outing in Chiba Japan. The majority of the attendees were mothers taking care of their children but I found only a handful of fathers, grandfathers, and partners in the group. It was a part of an event to develop a community for housewives who might be exhausted with their daily life.

"Statistical Handbook of Japan 2015." Statistics Japan. Statistics Buerau Ministry of International Affairs and Communications, 2015. Web. 29 June 2016.