Exploring the Contemporary Japanese Woman\u27s Conception of Life Fulfillment

Japanese women place value on life-qualities which some cannot understand. Many women from American culture, as well as from Japanese culture, feel that the Japanese woman is subjugated to an inferior status in comparison to men as well as being the victim of archaic societal values. The women interpret their own status and their own happiness, however. What makes an American middle class housewife happy will not necessarily make her Japanese counterpart equally content. This distinction was what initially fueled the flames of my interest in researching the contemporary Japanese woman. As a twenty-year-old American woman living in Japan, my life aspirations were markedly different from what the Japanese women around me hoped to attain. I set out to define what it is that Japanese women find fulfilling, what life aspirations they embrace