Japanese Women and their Consumer Culture
What is it about?
The article is to focus three female influential columnists in Japan to follow how women in their ages have been struggling as well as enjoying their lives in hyper consumer culture. Since mid-1980s, young women have been playing a leading role of consumer culture in Japan and the media also has been inducing their consumption. The author wrote an article about upper middle-class middle age women called bimajo (bimajyo) who are conscious about their appearance and spend so much money to maintain it. The oldest generation of bimajo is now around 60 years old, and women in this generation enjoyed consumer culture of bubble economy era in the early 1990s when they were in their 20s. This article is to look at the culture they were in through reading the books written by influential columnists.
Why is it important?
One of the research interests of the author is low birthrate of Japan as well as east Asian countries. Economic difficulties, as well as adverse culture and society for women, are important reasons, however, prolonging the time of ‘youth’, extending fun time through immersing in consumer culture could be an important cause of this situation. The key mindset is to consume for themselves, for their own fun, for their own comfort. The article is following how this fun culture has been developed through the literature of influential female writers.