Configurations of Family in Contemporary Japan Nissan Institute/Routledge Japanese Studies Series

The middle-class nuclear family model has long dominated discourses on family in Japan. Yet there have always been multiple configurations of family and kinship, which, in the context of significant socio-economic and demographic shifts since the 1990s, have become increasingly visible in public discourse. This book explores the meanings and practices of "family" in Japan, and brings together research by scholars of literature, gender studies, media and cultural studies, sociology and anthropology. While the primary focus is the "Japanese" family, it also examines the experience and practice of family beyond the borders of Japan, in such settings as Brazil, Australia, and Bali. The chapters explore key issues such as ageing, single households, non-heterosexual living arrangements and parenting. Moreover, many of the issues addressed, such as the growing diversity of family, the increase in single-person households, and the implications of an ageing society, are applicable to other mature, late-industrial societies.

Employing both multi- and inter-disciplinary approaches, this book combines textual analysis of contemporary television, film, literature, manga, anime and other media with empirical and ethnographic studies of families in Japan and in transnational spaces. As such, it will be of great interest to students and scholars working across a number of fields including Japanese culture and society, sociology of family, gender studies, film and media studies, literature and cultural studies, and gerontology.

Introduction Part I: Family, Companionship 1. Re-imagining the "Post-Bubble" Family in Tokyo Sonata and Hush!2. Suitably Single?: Representations of Singlehood in Contemporary Japan3. Accommodating Japan’s Ageing Sexual Minorities: The "Family of Friends" Concept in LGBTI Seniors’ Residential Care Part II: Old Age, Women, Storytelling4. The Girl-Grandmother Relation in Japanese Children’s Literature 5. Girls, Old Women, and Fairytale Families in ‘The Old Woman’s Skin’ and Howl’s Moving Castle Part III: Contemporary Parenting 6. From Model to Deviant: Conflicting Representations of Parenthood in the Transnational Families in Japan and Brazil 7. The Role of Newspapers in Constructing Public Representations of "Monster Parents" Part IV: Transnational Families 8. Making "Traditional" Families in Transnational Settings: Japanese Women in Balinese-Japanese Marriages 9. Transnational Japanese Women and Family Space in Western Australia 10. Reconciling Migration and Filial Piety: Accounts of Japanese Lifestyle Migrants in Australia 11. Epilogue:The Family in Twenty-First Century Japan: Between Nation and Transnation

Tomoko Aoyama is Associate Professor in Japanese at the University of Queensland, Australia

Laura Dales is Assistant Professor in Asian Studies at the School of Social and Culture Studies at the University of Western Australia.

Romit Dasgupta is Assistant Professor in Asian Studies at the School of Social and Culture Studies at the University of Western Australia.