1st Edition
Gender and the Koseki In Contemporary Japan Surname, Power, and Privilege
By Linda White
Copyright 2018
138 Pages
9 B/W Illustrations
by
Routledge
138 Pages
9 B/W Illustrations
by
Routledge
138 Pages
9 B/W Illustrations
by
Routledge
Also available as eBook on:
The Japanese koseki system is the legal and social structure keeping record of all Japanese citizens. Determined by the Civil Code and the Koseki Law, for activists challenging it, the koseki is also an ideological structure, which has produced patriarchal control through single-surname households.
Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Tokyo, this book engages with issues of gender... Read more
Introduction and chapter overviews
1. The matter of names and why names matter
2. Separate-surname activism
3. Common-law marriage as a form of koseki resistance
4. Illegitimacy and male privilege: the underlying logic of the koseki
5. Beyond the scope of the koseki: families out of bounds
Epilogue: December 20, 2017
Appendix I: Association (Kōryūkai) timeline
Biography
Linda White is Associate Professor and Chair of Japanese Studies at Middlebury College, USA. Trained as a cultural anthropologist, she has conducted ethnographic research with grassroots organizations in the Tokyo area during the past several decades.
