Negotiating working motherhood in Japan

By employing an institutional perspective, this dissertation accounts for the relative lag in accommodating "working motherhood" in Japan as compared to other countries of similar economic and social modernisation levels by asking three inter-related questions: (1)how do women and feminist groups organise and advance pro-women issues and interests in Japan; (2) in what forms do the Japanese state and its associated institutions promulgate prowomen interests and issues, particularly pro-working motherhood; (3) what is the gooinstitutional dynamic between the civil society movements and the state in the context of working motherhood, and how and why does this institutional dynamic result in inertia from accommodating working motherhood? It is argued that high levels of working motherhood is not guaranteed through the presence of either or both civil society groups nor the state's legislation for gender and employment equality, as these represent the parameters within which institutions interact. Instead, the institutional inertia is the result of the dynamic between the state and civil society. Despite the presence of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act (EEOL), the manner in which working motherhood is negotiated is through bureaucratic mediation, with little substantive provisions to protect and advance the interests of working mothers. Although arbitration has been, and is increasingly used to negotiate working motherhood, the lack of substantive policy renders civil society action weak to augment bureaucratic and or employers' commitment to empower and accommodate working motherhood as a choice.Master of Science (Asian Studies