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Memoir Yuriko Hashimoto:

Portrait of a Japanese Family

Andrew Gordon

My name is Yuriko Hashimoto. I live in a small suburban

community just outside Osaka with my husband, Nobu, aged 52, and

my two sons, Hideki and Kazuo, ages 23 and 12, respectively. Our

community is in an ideal location because it allows my husband, as

well as the other workers residing there, to commute to downtown

Osaka for work and the kids and I are able to avoid the noise and rush

of the big city. I enjoy my life at home, and I love my family very

much, but I was not always a shufu, or “housewife.” I was formerly an

actress, and sometimes I miss my time at the Takarazuka Theater.

The Takarazuka Theater is a popular theater revue located in the

city of Takarazuka¹. The cast is all female, enlisting women to play the

parts of males as well as females. I was a talented singer and dancer

as a child, so when I was sixteen years of age, my mother brought me

to Takarazuka to audition. Miraculously, I was accepted to the

Takarazuka Music School to begin my training. I say that it was

miraculous because out of the thousands that auditioned, only 40² or

so were accepted. My audition was not the first time I had been to
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Takarazuka. My mother had brought me there to see the group

perform. I enjoyed the performance immensely, as I was absorbed it

to a wonderful fantasy world where almost anything was possible.

Therefore, I was ecstatic when I was given an opportunity to

participate in the fantasy myself.

Of course, I did not start performing immediately. I had to go

through schooling first. The school was rigorous, but my passion to

perform made it enjoyable, even though I had to spend my first year

cleaning the facility. Because of my petite frame and high singing

voice I was chosen to be a female star, or musumeyaku, and

consequently played a female part in all productions in which I acted.

My favorite show was The Rose of Versailles, in which I played the part

of Marie Antoinette. The play is based on a popular manga series set

during the French Revolution. The choreography was excellent, and I

liked to elegant costume I got to wear

The 9 years I spent studying and performing there were filled

with much joy. Even after I started performing, I still felt like a student,

constantly honing my abilities. Ultimately, I graduated because I had

completed my Takarazuka training and I wished to get married to a

businessman, Nobu Hashimoto. I met Nobu while he was on a business

trip to Takarazuka. As the audience for the theater is mostly women,

he had not been planning to see a show. However, I met him at a

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restaurant near the theater and was able to convince him to come see

me perform. I was quite taken with him, and he felt the same way.

We got married soon after my graduation, and we moved to the house

in which we currently reside, near Osaka.

I was used to being independent and in the spotlight, so adapting

to a quiet, docile life as a shufu was difficult at first. I had previously

looked down upon common “housewives,” but in time I found it to be

just as fulfilling, if not more so, as my acting career³. I formed a tight-

knit bond with the other ladies in my community. We have much in

common as we have children in the same schools and our husbands

have to make to same commute to work at firms in the same city. We

participate in many activities together. For example, most of us our

active in the PTA (parent-teacher association) and several of us took a

cooking class together a month ago. I found that the work I was doing

around the house and raising our children was just as important, if not

more so, to our family as the money Nobu earns, especially because

without me there would be no one to do it, as Nobu spends too much

time at work.

Nobu is what’s known as a “salaryman” in Japan, receiving a

salaried wage at a corporate job and, more often than not, putting in

extremely long hours⁴. My husband works for Capcom, co., a very

successful international video game developer and publisher who has

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their headquarters in Osaka. They have released many popular games

for a variety of gaming systems. Some of their most popular games

include the Mega Man series, the Street Fighter series, and the

Resident Evil series. Nobu works in the promotion/advertising division

of the company and has had for many years.

Nobu was recruited by Capcom right after graduating from Keio

University. He was selected not by his performance at University, but

merely for his University affiliation as is the case with many Japanese

companies. His grades and activities at Keio were irrelevant to the

company because they recognize that Universities don’t provide career

preparation and the fact that he was able to get in to such a

prestigious university proved that he was bright and hardworking.

Capcom requires all new employees go through rigorous job training

specific to the company itself. Nobu learned how to do things the

“Capcom way,” and was taught everything from company policies to

business etiquette.

Since the beginning of his employment, Nobu has spent most of

his time away from home. He has to be at the office before 8:30 a.m.,

because that is when the daily staff meeting begins⁵. After the staff

meeting he proceeds about his daily work, which takes place in small

groups that work on specific projects together. The work day officially

“ends” at 5:00 p.m., but there is so much work for Nobu and the other
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employees to do, they often don’t leave the office until 9:00 p.m. And

then, on most nights, he and his colleagues will go out together to a

karaoke bar with their superiors and drink sake. On these nights, it is

common for him to not arrive at home until 3:00 in the morning, long

after the children and I have gone to sleep. He will get up the next

morning around 7:00 a.m., in time to get ready and commute to work

and repeat the cycle once more. This hectic schedule means that on

an average week he spends only about 10 hours awake with the rest of

the family.

He is allotted 20 vacation days each year, but typically only uses

four or five of them⁶. He has confided in me that he would feel guilty

using more as his fellow employees don’t use all of theirs and it could

put his loyalty to the company in question. The quality and

doggedness of his work has not gone unnoticed, however. He is now

the supervisor of a group made up of himself and four others, and soon

he may be promoted once more to be in charge of several of these

groups. Also, he has been with the company long enough that he has

been given raises in salary, based entirely on seniority. These have

been very helpful in affording to put our kids through school.

Nobu’s work ethic has garnered him praise at the company, but

it has also taken a toll on him. A year ago he fell seriously ill and had

to be hospitalized for a short period of time. The doctor attributed his

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symptoms of headaches, nausea, and weight loss to stress from

overwork. I was terrified by this news because of reports of karoshi, or

death from overwork. For fear that this fate might befall him, Nobu

has been trying to spend more time away from the office, but it is

difficult because of the pressure placed on him to perform, both by his

superiors and peers. He still works overtime and does not use all of his

vacation days, but he does take more time off, especially on

weekends, than before.

Our family was hit hard as a result of Nobu’s illness, but we got

off easy compared to the fate suffered by his brother Yoshi’s family.

Yoshi took out loans in order to buy brand name goods that he could

not afford with his salary, but thought that his family deserved.

Unfortunately, some of those loans were from unscrupulous lenders,

and the interest rates were through the roof. The interest increased

faster than he was able to pay it on his salary and he came to the

realization that he would not be able to repay them⁷.

The lenders began visiting him at his home, and threatening to

inform all of his neighbors and family about his massive debts. He was

unwilling to face this shame, and he was afraid that filing for

bankruptcy would bring about the same degree of disgrace and

embarrassment. He committed suicide to avoid this future and to free

himself and his family from his debts. He intimated in the note he left
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behind that his life was his payment for his debts. He left behind a

wife and two kids, a son and a daughter, but left them with a large

payout from his life insurance policy. He had not heard of civil

rehabilitation, a relatively new way to manage debt. I think if he had

been familiar with it, he may have decided to opt into civil

rehabilitation instead of taking his own life since it doesn’t carry the

same stigma as bankruptcy. I hope the new programs to help people

manage their debt will save some people from the same fate as Yoshi.

My elder son, Hideki, studied hard throughout junior high school

and high school and was accepted into Kobe University. Upon

graduating from Kobe, however, he decided to move back home

instead of pursuing a career. He is now what is commonly referred to

as a “freeter,” and a few months ago acquired a job working retail at a

clothing store⁸. Even though the current labor market is unfavorable

for young workers, as a successful student who graduated from a

prestigious university he would have been able to find a steady job at a

good firm if he so chose. I believe that the events that have happened

in our family recently, both Nobu’s illness from overwork and Yoshi’s

suicide, had an influence on his decision. He saw the grave harmful

consequences the life of a salaryman can have and decided that the

benefits weren’t worth it. Furthermore, Hideki’s time at University was

leisurely and full of partying so he was reluctant to reenter the harsh

type of work environment he experienced during high school.

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I can also see how some aspects of retail work could seem

appealing to a young adult like Hideki. The work is easy and relatively

stress free compared to Nobu’s work. He has the freedom to quit and

find new employment if he is unsatisfied, a luxury not afforded to a

salaryman. Most importantly, however, he only works 40 hours a week

(opposed to Nobu’s ~60 hours a week) and he is free the moment his

shift ends; he doesn’t have to worry about overtime or mandatory

office parties. Also, since Hideki is a “parasite single” who lives at

home, he lives a fairly affluent lifestyle without having to work too

hard. Nobu and I pay for the nice home he lives in, therefore all of the

money he earns is spending money⁹.

There are some distinct disadvantages to the lifestyle Hideki has

chosen, and I think he is coming to realize them. First off, he knows

that he doesn’t have the potential for advancement or an increase in

salary. When he wants to move out on his own, this will be his biggest

obstacle as he only earns half of what the average salaryman does. In

addition, I can tell that he is unhappy with his love life because it is

difficult for him to find girls and I know he wants to be married

someday. At his current position, he is unable to be a successful

“breadwinner” because of his low wage. Women recognize this and

mostly are looking for someone who can provide more security and a

higher quality of life. Because of these drawbacks, I hope that this

decision is just a phase. The choice of career paths can be daunting

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for a young person, as it will most likely only be made once, but I hope

that soon Hideki will be ready to make that choice and assume real

responsibility once more.

My younger son, Kazuo, is still in junior high school and shows a

lot of potential. He has been receiving excellent marks on his exams.

Nobu and I decided to keep him in public school even though we had

the option of sending him to a single-sex private school near where we

live. This decision was made in part because the public school system

surrounding us was exceptional and in part because I did not want to

spurn the community. The sense of community created by having all

the children in our neighborhood go to the same school is important to

me and I did not want to withdraw from the PTA.

The school that Kazuo attends is militaristic in some ways¹⁰.

Discipline is strict and he has to wear a uniform made up of black

trousers and a black jacket. In addition, physical fitness is

emphasized, with exercise sessions mandatory. In fact, Kazuo just

passed a physical examination last week, just one of the several that

occur throughout the school year. The school attempts to promote

group work, and one of the ways that this is accomplished is through

the formation of exercise groups. These groups exercise together and

learn certain gymnastics workouts together.

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Physical fitness is important for one’s health, and learning to get

along and work together is also important as it aids one in the business

world. However, there is a downside to this structure in the schools: it

cultivates ijime, or bullying. Fortunately for Kazuo he is intelligent, fit,

and well-liked, but one of his classmates, Kenji, wasn’t as lucky. Kenji

wasn’t gifted physically, and being the scrawniest one in his exercise

group made him the target of teasing. This bullying spread out of just

his exercise group to the whole class, and consisted of physical abuse,

name-calling, and destruction of some of his belongings. He informed

the teacher and his parents but nobody did anything about it.

Hopeless, two months ago he hung himself with his belt in the

bathroom. I believe the administration is in some ways to blame more

than the bullies themselves. They were informed of the problem but

did not do anything to help Kenji. Their attitude was that dealing with

bullying is preparation for later in life. I have heard of other incidents

of Ijime-induced suicide in the news and I hope that this will trigger a

change in the way schools deal with bullying.

Despite this tragedy, Kazuo has been able to keep his studies on

track. He works almost as many hours as Nobu does, because in

addition to his time spent at school, he participates in after-hours cram

schools known as juku¹¹. These schools meet evenings and on

weekends and are extremely rigorous. The effort is necessary though,

as juku is crucial to passing the entrance exams for the top high
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schools. Nobu and I want Kazuo to be able to gain the proper

academic credentials to make it into a top University like his brother,

but unlike his brother use credentials to find suitable employment.

Though I occasionally miss my glamorous life as an actress, I am

content with my home life. I love my husband and my children and I

feel like a full member in our community. Even though there we have

been affected by tragedies and worries, we remain a close family unit

that provides support to one another.

References

¹Nakamura, Karen. Lecture given at Yale University, 22 October 2009

²Dream Girls (1994). film.

³LeBlanc (1999): Bicycle Citizens, Ch 1 & 2.

⁴Yuko Ogasawara, Office Ladies and Salaried Men: Power, Gender, and

Work in Japanese Companies. University of California Press, 1998.

⁵Thomas P. Rholen, “The Office Group,” in his For Harmony and

Strength, pp. 93-120. University of California Press, 1974.

⁶”Sayonara Salaryman” (2008) in The Economist. Jan 5: 68-70.

⁷West, Mark (2005), Law in Everyday Japan. Ch. 8 “Debt-Suicide.”

⁸Yuki Honda, “Freeters: Young Atypical Workers in Japan,” [unpublished

manuscript]
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⁹Gordon Matthews, “Seeking a Career, Finding a Job: How Young

People Enter and Resist the Japanese World of Work,” in Gordon

Matthews and Bruce White (editors), Japan’s Changing Generations:

Are Young People Creating a New Society?, pp.121-136. London and

New York: RoutledgeCurazon, 2004.

¹⁰Yoshio Sugimoto, “Diversity and Unity in Education,” chapter 5 from

his An Introduction to Japanese Society, pp. 107-135. Cambridge

University Press, 1997.

¹¹The Learning Machine (1990). Film.