Gender Lecture 2

*Note by hand from next week

Salary Man
 Background: Patriarchal system: only the eldest son got to inherit
 Salary man: work to achieve a certain status (middle class)
o Features
 Family is proud of the identity as the educated class/western culture-basis
 They are not owner of property (no house/capital accumulation)
 Although educated but not wealthy
 Number increases from late Meiji. In the Taisho period, the employment
increased significantly
 Cultural porotype: koshiben 日々弁当を携えて出勤するような，安サラリーマン
 government employees
 Graduates from elite schools become salary man  Why people still struggle to
get into good university and be salaryman?

 Industrialization
o Aristocracy does not work but inherit  Industrialization  new type of middle
class emerges; they are educated but still need to work.
o Japan’s middle-class emergence is different from the western one
o Old middleclass v new middle class (salaryman)
o In some countries there are business class, with capital system

 System
o Aristocracy
o Business: highly paid (doctor/lawyers)  need to work
o Salaryman (Elite schools in Japan not as expensive as its counterparts)

 Why?
a) Aspirational ideology/Cultural narrative
 Widespread and influential
 Institutionalized in the educational system
 立身出世: Succeeding in the world, but specifically from educational
achievement (rising in the world; gaining a prominent position in society)
b) Dramatic competition
 Degree inflation
c) Economic
 Economic downturns: No good jobs available
 立身出世 Risshin Shusse
o Rising one’s position, making a name for yourself and family mainly through
education  attributing honors to your family and ancestors
o Fukazawa (founder of Keio): “Study leads to wealth and honor”