Season 10, Episode 5: A Time and Place to Die (Patreon)

This week on Mobile Suit Breakdown: it's the Katejina Show feat. Katejina, in which a young woman with faultless logic shows us what it really means to have a big head. We promise that sentence will make more sense after you listen to the episode. Plus enjoy the second half of Nina's research on women in Japanese society during the first half of the 90s!

And a special thank you to everyone who commented on last week's episode. Your additional thoughts about babies, moms, and Tominoisms gave us a lot to think about as we revisited the topic this week!

Show Notes

Women in 1990s Japan*

*Same sources as last week

• Statista pages consulted:
  1. Share of population unmarried at the age of 50 in Japan from 1970 to 2020, by gender
  2. Mean age at first marriage in Japan from 1955 to 2021, by gender
  3. Mean age of childbearing in Japan from 1950 to 2021 with a forecast until 2030
  4. Percentage of people in the labor force among the total population aged 15 years and older in Japan from 1973 to 2023, by gender
  5. Enrollment rate at universities and junior colleges in Japan from academic year 1960 to 2022, by gender
  6. Total fertility rate in Japan from 1800 to 2020*
• Wikipedia pages for the standard of living in Japan, the term "Yamato nadeshiko," and Empress Masako.
• Books, chapters, and articles:

Buchholz, Katharina. “Infographic: Half of Japanese Female Employees Work Part-Time.” Statista, 6 Mar. 2019, www.statista.com/chart/17262/number-of-japanese-women-working-part-time/.

Goldstein-Gidoni, Ofra. “Consuming Domesticity in Post-Bubble Japan.” Consuming Life in Post-Bubble Japan: A Transdisciplinary Perspective, edited by Katarzyna J. Cwiertka and Ewa Machotka, Amsterdam University Press, 2018, pp. 107–28. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv56fgjm.10. Accessed 24 Jan. 2024.

Imamura, Anne. “Family Culture.” The Cambridge Companion to Modern Japanese Culture, Edited by Yoshio Sugimoto, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, Australia, 2009, pp. 77–91.

Koishihara, Miho. “Sports Culture.” The Cambridge Companion to Modern Japanese Culture, Edited by Yoshio Sugimoto, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, Australia, 2009, pp. 317-335.

Kuwayama, Takami. “Japan’s Emic Conceptions.” The Cambridge Companion to Modern Japanese Culture, Edited by Yoshio Sugimoto, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne, Australia, 2009, pp. 38–55.

Lin, Ho Swee. “‘Playing Like Men’: The Extramarital Experiences of Women in Contemporary Japan.” Ethnos, vol. 77, no. 3, Sept. 2012, pp. 321–343, https://doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2011.613532.

Mackie, Vera. Feminism in Modern Japan. Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Miki, Iwamura, et al. “A Comparative Analysis of Gender Roles and the Status of Women in Japan and the U.S. (A Reanalysis of the Virginia Slims Report 1990).” U.S.-Japan Women’s Journal. English Supplement, no. 3, 1992, pp. 36–53. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/42772044. Accessed 7 Feb. 2024.

Molony, Barbara. “Japan’s 1986 Equal Employment Opportunity Law and the Changing Discourse on Gender.” Signs, vol. 20, no. 2, 1995, pp. 268–302. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3174950. Accessed 6 Feb. 2024.

Nakano, Lynne, and Moeko Wagatsuma. “Mothers and Their Unmarried Daughters: An Intimate Look at Generational Change.” Japan’s Changing Generations: Are Young People Creating a New Society?, Edited by Gordon Mathews and Bruce White, Routledge, New York, NY, 2004, pp. 137–153.

Rosenberger, Nancy. “Antiphonal Performances? Japanese Women’s Magazines and Women’s Voices.” Women Media and Consumption in Japan, Edited by Lise Skov and Brian Moeran, University of Hawai’i Press, Honolulu, HI, 1995, pp. 143–169.

Skov, Lise, and Brian Moeran. “Hiding in the Light: From Oshin to Yoshimoto Banana.” Women Media and Consumption in Japan, University of Hawai’i Press, Honolulu, HI, 1995, pp. 1–74.

Mobile Suit Breakdown is written, recorded, and produced within Lenapehoking, the ancestral and unceded homeland of the Lenape, or Delaware, people. Before European settlers forced them to move west, the Lenape lived in New York City, New Jersey, and portions of New York State, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Connecticut. Lenapehoking is still the homeland of the Lenape diaspora, which includes communities living in Oklahoma, Wisconsin, and Ontario.

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