The Heisei era, which lasted for the three decades ending in 2019, was undoubtedly a highly eventful period. The edited book at hand is not presented, however, as a summary of the period. Instead, it sets out to analyze "how these events have impacted the social attitudes and values held by the Japanese people" (p. 4). The main significance of this volume, edited by Carola Hommerich, Naoki Sudo, and Toru Kikkawa, three leading scholars of Japan, is in providing concrete data from studies by experts on how the transformation of Japan over the past three decades reverberates throughout [End Page 251] the population. Focusing on changes in the way Japanese people perceive themselves and their society, their status identification, and their social consciousness, as measured by quantitative analyses based on extensive survey data, the book depicts a society contending with long-term economic stagnation, a shrinking population, employment destabilization, and the expansion of mass education coupled with the devaluation of education credentials, among other factors.

The participation of fathers in parenting and caring has become a topical issue in the public discourse in Japan. The phenomenon is often epitomized in the popular neologism ikumen, defining fathers actively involved in childcare (ikuji) as “cool” men. Based on extended ethnography, the article focuses on a group of men who reject the ostensibly carefree ikumen image, and who explicitly and “proactively” (shutai-teki) define themselves as “househusbands.” The article explores the interactive and creative process through which this marginal group of men “craft” their new identities as self-reliant responsible caretakers of children and the home. I suggest that these men affirm their potentially new masculine identity through relating to —and differentiating themselves from—three symbolic others: the ikumen as the trendy and cool, but not really committed new father; the sarariiman, epitome of Japanese hegemonic masculinity; and the dedicated housewife (sengyō shufu), the symbol of Japanese femininity. Adopting a perspective that does not hesitate in looking at the potentiality of change in gender relations, the article poses crucial questions about the potentiality of househusbands for undoing conventional understandings of masculinity and fathering—and, through this,“ undoing gender.”

This study provides an analysis of rich field-based data regarding the translation of self-spirituality into Israeli public schools. The study also draws from research conducted in other Western for-profit and health organizations. While the analysis supports existing assertions from research regarding the increasing market orientation of the culture of self-spirituality, it also identifies the specific methods used by brokers to translate self-spirituality concepts into the school system and distinguishes between ethical and unethical approaches to translation. It further illuminates the interactional dynamics that explain the emergence of an instrumental orientation to the translation of self-spirituality.

Does the emergent phenomenon of ‘working fathers' herald a process of change in gender relations in Japan? Against the background of the current discourse in Japan about new modes of fathers' participation in the family, the article focuses on the small group of working fathers — men who explicitly organize their working lives around family responsibilities — to examine the potentiality of change. This supposed change in the roles of men (and women), at home and in the workplace, is considered in terms of latency, as a ‘slow-dripping' process. The qualitative research focuses on Fathering Japan, Japan's leading fathering movement, its ideology, its members and their families. The article offers a critical perspective, juxtaposing gender ideology with practice. Exploring the real-life experiences of working fathers caught between family and work, especially against Japan's gendered corporate culture, the article also addresses the persistence of gender inequality in Japan.

The analytical prism of gender contract is used in this article as a means to conceptualize the cultural construction of the idea of the heteronormative “ordinary” Japanese family, a construct that gained hegemonic dominance over the course of Japan’s stable prosperous postwar period (1960s-1980s); and from there, for examining the strength of this normative “contract” against post-bubble economic and social challenges. To further challenge the potential changes in the corporate gender contract,—particularly against the corporate culture—the study purposely sampled the second group of male and female interviewees, who were related to the so-called ikumen movement, which calls for greater involvement of men in family life and a better work–life balance. These men and women were not only from younger age cohorts compared to the first group of women and men. They also mostly resided in dual-income households, unlike the first group whose households were mainly based on a male breadwinner.

“You are right about e-mail which gives us a strange feeling about the distance and time. I can’t really tell whether we are near or far,” thus wrote to me Mariko my principle informant and interlocutor in my study of the lives of housewives in her own middle-class Japanese neighborhood that was summarized in my book on Housewives of Japan (Goldstein-Gidoni 2012). The book explores the complexities of the relationship between socially and culturally constructed roles bestowed on Japanese women by a variety of state agents, including the corporate sector, the market and the media, and the ‘real’ lives of these women. It focuses on the role of the ‘professional housewife’ as well as its other novel consumerized versions such as ‘charisma housewives’ and ‘hot mamas’. (Goldstein-Gidoni 2017, 288) However, here I do not intend to discuss the findings of this research. Instead, I would like to focus on the research process. This is in fact another focus of the book, which aims at a reflexive interrogation of the process of ethnographic research. One of the structural manifestations of this attempt is my choice to include the e-conversation between Mariko and me in the book. These emails include personal, casual as well as analytical conversation.

Post-bubble Japan is characterized by an unprecedented diversity and proliferation of options for lifestyles for women. Paradoxically, it was the bursting of the economic bubble in the 1990s that caused the market to intensify its grip on Japanese women of all ages. This chapter focuses on one of the main social roles still available to women in Japan – that of the full-time housewife (sengyō shufu). I argue that as the vision of ‘good wife, wise mother’ gradually becomes obsolete, and the hold of the housewife role loosens, new images of women as homebound are emerging. Focusing on the production of seemingly new images of female domesticity, this chapter shows how the status quo has been reasserted and reproduced.

This chapter focuses on the ideas of happiness grasped by middle-class housewives of today's Japan. It also focuses on happiness as a socio-cultural idea and on the way people in a specific cultural context conceive happiness. The chapter shows the ideas of happiness for contemporary middle-class housewives still are strongly related to the ideas or pursuit of stability. The quest of happiness for middle-class women is thus embodied in marriage as the idea of following a standardized life plan and forming a "standard family". The chapter suggests that the cultural idea of happiness or the idea of what forms the promise of happiness is closely related to leading an expected and normative lifestyle and life plan. The changing cultural concept of happiness of Japanese housewives seems to have been largely related to the emergence of a new type of "happy housewives" as depicted in popular women's magazines.

“The Joy of Normal Living” is at once the motto and the ideology of Kurihara Harumi, Japan’s best-known charisma housewife and icon of domesticity. This article looks at the relationship between “normal living” and the promise of happiness, as formulated in postwar Japan. Beginning with the government’s promotion, in the early postwar period, of the idea of akarui seikatsu (bright new life) as related to the typical suburban middle-class family of salaryman husband and full-time housewife, the article goes on to look at the cultural idea of “being happy as a woman” in contemporary Japan. Based on in-depth interviews with full-time housewives, and an analysis of popular women’s magazines, this article seeks to decipher what constitutes the idea of happiness for these women and for their generation.