The Country of Unhappy Marriages

1
The Country of Unhappy Marriages?

• A Comparative Study of Marital Conflict
  Domestic Violence (DV) among
• Japanese-Japanse (J-J), Chinese-Japanese (C-J)
  and Filipina-Japanese (F-J)
• Reiko Yamagishi

2
Why Conflicts?

• Japanese-Japanese
• Victims of DV 1/4- 1/2 women vs. 1/10 men
  (Yoshihara Solenson, 1994 The Govt. 2002)
• Users of The Govt. DV Shelter
• 35,797 women vs. 146 men in 2002
• Divorces
• 1980 - 89,361 (1.1)
• 1990 - 104,522 (1.2 )
• 2001 - 214,522 (2.3)
• (The National Inst. of Population Social
  Security Research Center)

3
Why Conflict?

• International Marriage
• DV 39 calls from foreign women /per day to
  hotline in Tokyo (1 man)
• Increasing concerns by NGOs and scholars (Piper,
  Yamanaka, Turner, Suzuki, Nakazawa, AWC, etc)
• Divorces
• 1980 141,689 vs. 1,144 (F-F)
• 1990 157,608 vs. 1,586 (F-F)
• 2001 285,911 vs. 1,572 (F-F)
• 99.45 vs. 0.55 in 2001
• F-F (Foreign husband and foreign wife)

4
Why International Marriage?Increasing Number of
Foreigners

5
Why Intl. Marriage C-J F- J?
6
Why Chinese Women Filipina?

• The first and second largest immigrant groups
• Chinese Women Foreign Brides Students
• Philippine Women 85 sent to the Sex Industry
• (Dinan, 2002 Piper, 2000 Turner, 1996)

7

• The Problem in Theoretical Framework
• Predominantly UK/US based
• Exclusion of immigrants/racial-minorities
• One dimensional analysis (either micro or macro
  approach)

 
8
Structural Exchange Theory
Cognitive
Interpersonal
Structural Level
Wifes Cognitive Orientation
Marital Exchange Relationship Self
Normative Orientation
Husbands Cognitive Orientation
Feminist Theory Recourse Theory Cultural
Violence Theory
The Family System Theory
9
Social Structural Changes in Japan
The End of 19th C Emperorism The Family
System Imperialism
1950s-1990s The Family System Corporate
Japan Bubble Economy
In 1990s Women w/ Career Economic Recession
Birthrate the Second Worst (1.3) Changes in
Law 1999 Illegalized Sexual Harassment 1999
Legalized Birth Control Pills 1999 Equal
Employment Opportunity Law 1999 Parental
Leave 1999 Basic Law for Gender Equal
Society 2000 Illegalized DV
Migration International Marriage ?
The Japanese Management System??
Family System??
10
Research Questions Claims

• How do these traditional social systems and their
  recent changes affect marital conditions among
  J-J, C-J and F-J? Is it the patriarchal family
  system creating conflicts? Or, is it the loss of
  this system, without a substitutive new system,
  which creates insecurity among people and results
  in unhappy marriages?
• Do increases in womens economic power create
  more space for negotiation or more conflicts?
  (?The family system/Resource theory)
• How does the economic exploitation of the first
  and third world, specifically the way these women
  came to Japan and their former occupations,
  influence their marriage? (?Nagasawa, 1996
  Kuwahara, 2002 Straus et al1980 1990)
• How significant are the contrasting
  interpretations and nature of martial conflict/DV
  for
• a. men women
• b. different racial, cultural, religious groups?

11
Method

• Data Set I
• Shelters
• Document analysis.
• Records of people visiting shelters (NGOs
  local govt. shelters in the Great Tokyo Area)
• Interviews.
• Staff members victims of DV at shelters

• Data Set II
• Couples
• Interviews
• Marriage story, In-depth, Open-end
• Sample
• 50 J-J, C-J F-J couples (both men women)
  living in the Great Tokyo Area
• Snowball Sampling.

12
Why Important?

• Internationally, increasing concern about DV
  among immigrant women
• No study on DV among immigrant women in Japan
• No comparative study of marital conflict/DV
  between J-J and International marriage
• For new theoretical framework of DV in the 21st C
• For future policy making (The Japanese Govt.
  announced to increase number of immigrants in
  Japan in 2000)
• (Anderson, 1993 Chin, 1994 Goldman, 1999
  Narayan, 1995 Wachholz Miedema, 2000 Yick,
  2001 Yoshihara, 2001)