The purpose of the study is to understand how Japanese women become social entrepreneurs. The challenges in fostering women's entrepreneurship include socio-cultural traditional views on women's roles and expectations and insufficient support systems. Despite such challenges, the rise of Japanese women as social entrepreneurs has been observed in…

This research investigated the presentation and content of magazines targeted at preschool-aged girls in Japan to analyse what gender patterns or gendered behaviours were encouraged and how the readers reacted to the media discourse. There were 13 magazines published in 2013 in Japan. Seven of them catered to girls, three to boys and three to both…

This paper attempts to explore the connections between expanding female education and the participation of women in paid employment in Japan, China and India, three of Asia's largest economies. Analysis based on existing data and literature shows that despite the large expansion in educational access in these countries in the last half century,…

Drawing on data gathered from British Council seminars in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Dubai on "Absent Talent: Women in Research and Academic Leadership" (2012-2013), this paper discusses academic women's experiences and explanations for women's under-representation as knowledge leaders and producers in the global academy. Participants from…

This paper examines the Japanese word "kawaii" "cute". Teachers frequently use "kawaii" to show positive feelings toward objects in the classroom. Female children also are primary users of the word, which suggests that they are acquiring "kawaii" as an index of female gender identity. From a linguistic…

In this article, the authors argue that to understand the very low incidence of outside-of-marriage childbearing in contemporary Japan one needs to take into account perceptions of all possible solutions to a premarital pregnancy: marriage, abortion, and childbearing outside wedlock. To demonstrate the particular impact of these perceptions in…

This paper addresses the life and educational experiences of Ainu women, using the framework of postcolonial feminist theory. It explores the extent to which two factors--gender and ethnic minority status--affect young Ainu women as they attempt to enter mainstream society. The authors analyse life history interviews from three Ainu women aged 25.…

Middle-aged middle-class women (N=200) in suburban cities in the United States and Japan are compared with regard to their attitudes toward and behavior in extramarital sexual relations. The primary difference seems to lie in their attitudes rather than in their experiences. (Author)

This article presents commentaries on being gay in Japan and China by distinguished educators with various backgrounds and from different countries. Given space limitations, these are more evocative than particulate, but collectively they provide multiple platforms for reflection. As noted by some commentators in this article and others (e.g.,…

The study deals with inter- and intracultural differences in the perception of family roles. One hundred and fifty-six Japanese students (40 modern females, 76 traditional females, and 40 males) and 148 German students (58 modern females, 49 traditional females, and 41 males) answered questionnaires concerning the ideal and real decision-making…