Single Mothers and Divorce Modern Japan’s New Family Portrait
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Farrah Hasnain (Shizuoka)
o Japanese drama is complete without adversity. Almost every series consists of conflicts arising from the protagonist’s environment. In the past few years, more of these sources of conflict have been taking place inside the home, emphasizing the characters’ relationships with their family members instead of outside causes. Family dynamics in Japan have transformed since World War II. Traditional family units were known as ie, where the eldest male family members made most of the decisions in the familial hierarchy. If the family did not have any sons, the daughter’s husband would become head of the household. Yet one of the most surprising trends about traditional family dynamics is the commonality of divorce (1); in the ie system, rates were fairly high. Brides, and sometimes grooms, would be sent back to their family if their partner felt that they weren’t contributing to the household or had irreconcilable differences. As more Japanese families transitioned into nuclear family units and married voluntarily instead of through arranged marriages, the divorce rate actually decreased after World War II (2). However, in the past decade, the divorce rate in Japan has been increasing, and dialogues about issues that lead to divorce, including affairs and the lack of communication between husbands and wives, have started to open up from the television screens in millions of households in Japan. So, how has Japanese media reflected this dynamic phenomenon in the past 10 years? In the beginning of the early 2000s, many popular dramas consisted of female protagonists who were raised in contemporary environments that gave them more agency over their roles in the household. In these dramas, contemporary family units would already be present in the beginning of the series. In Gokusen (2002), Kumiko Yamaguchi, a granddaughter of a Yakuza leader, is appointed the next head of her family business after her parents pass away. Although the plot of the drama mostly revolves around her career as a teacher and hiding her
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affiliation with the Yakuza, Yamaguchi’s inherited role as the head of the household shifts away from traditional gender roles. Over the next few years, this transition to non-traditional households functioned as the center of the plot instead of the setting. Fastforward to 12 years later, in 2014. Hirugao (Love Affairs in the Afternoon) focuses on the harsh truth of how collective family units can fall apart if they avoid expressing their conflicts. The protagonist, Sawa Sasamoto (played by Aya Ueto), is a housewife who is a part-time supermarket cashier. One day, she impulsively shoplifts lipstick from her own store and witnesses a neighbor in the midst of her extramarital affair. They agree to keep each other’s secrets, and Sawa also begins to have an affair with a married high school teacher who she met that same day. Throughout the drama, viewers witness how these affairs begin, intensify, and eventually affect their roles at home. The chaotic