Gender and the Salaryman in Post-War Japan

Topics: gender roles salaryman Japan

Words: 4000 Pages: 12

Introduction: Understanding Gender Roles

Gender roles describe the ways that society expects people to act and interact, depending on whether they are seen as male or female. Often, these expectations are so deeply rooted that they are almost invisible, but they still influence how individuals behave and how others respond to them. For example, society has long associated the color pink with girls and blue with boys. The same is true for children’s toys: parents often buy toy airplanes, cars, and guns for boys, while girls receive dolls and play kitchen sets. These early choices reinforce gendered expectations from birth.

Society imposes these roles, defining what is considered “appropriate” for men and women. Traditionally, men have been viewed as the heads of families and the primary breadwinners, while women are cast as caregivers and homemakers. These roles have been reinforced over generations, shaping both individual choices and broader social structures.

Changing Gender Roles in Wartime Japan

The experience of World War II brought significant shifts in gender roles, particularly in Japan. As Anagnost et al. (2013) point out, during the war, men were needed on the front lines rather than in corporate offices. With so many men recruited into the military, women filled the resulting gaps in the workforce. This change gave many women new financial independence and greater autonomy. It marked a turning point in Japanese society, challenging and redefining traditional gender roles.

This assignment will explore how gender roles have helped define the role and function of the salaryman in post-war Japan, considering both the historical context and the impact of social expectations on work and family life.

Historical Context: The Rise of the Salaryman

Modernization in Japan began in the nineteenth century, driven by a need to import technology and expertise from abroad. To support this, companies began investing in their workers housing them, building their skills, and training them with the goal of retaining talent. This approach to employment persisted even during World War II, when the government pressured companies to lock in their workforce to maintain production.

After the war, the American occupation brought changes, including the freedom for Japanese workers to unionize. Labor unions began to prioritize job security, and compensation systems shifted from merit-based pay to systems where salary increased with age. The benefits of this system were significant, but they came at a cost, workers in Shimbashi and other business districts recall both the sacrifices and rewards of the salaried life. Today, however, these benefits are shrinking as Japan’s economy faces new challenges.

Japan’s population is aging and declining. By 2030, just two workers will need to support each pensioner, creating severe strain on the system. Temporary and part-time workers now earn roughly 40% less than their full-time counterparts, and about half receive no pension contributions at all (Gordon, 2017). This has created a looming fiscal crisis, as fewer people contribute to the system while more retirees depend on it.

The Evolution of the Salaryman

The relationship between Japanese companies and their employees once described as paternalistic and stable is now showing signs of strain. In the post-war years, young employees often devoted themselves entirely to their jobs, staying late at the office, sometimes sleeping under their desks, and socializing with colleagues late into the night (Allison, 2014). They rarely considered changing employers; loyalty to one company was seen as a virtue.

The “salaryman” became the model of success in modern Japan: the white-collar worker who played a crucial role in rebuilding the country and powering its economic rise. However, as society changes and new pressures emerge, the image of the salaryman is also beginning to look like a relic of the past. Younger generations are less willing to sacrifice everything for a single employer, and the old guarantees of job security and stable advancement are no longer assured.

Falling wages and the loss of established benefits led to growing dissatisfaction among Japanese workers. Despite Japan’s reputation as a highly equal and prosperous country, it now has a significant “working poor” population individuals who are employed but still struggle to cover their basic expenses (Hidaka, 2010). This reality highlights just how much companies have neglected the welfare of their employees. Over the past decade, wages have dropped by 10%, with the erosion of salaries and benefits standing out as a central issue. This decline has thrown the older promises of stable, upwardly mobile employment into stark relief.

The term “salaryman,” which originated in the mid-1920s, refers to the managerial class that oversaw Japan’s rapid industrialization and modernization. While this ideal became most pronounced after World War II, it soon came to represent not just a job but a status: to be a salaryman was to embody middle-class stability and success. Lifetime employment offered predictability, salaries started modest but rose steadily with age, leading to a secure pension in retirement. Training and various perks were provided, and companies often took responsibility for the well-being of employees and their families. In exchange, workers were expected to dedicate their lives to their firms. As Katsurada (1999) points out, even university graduates were often not free to choose their own career paths; the company’s needs always came first.

Stories from the Salaryman Experience

To illustrate this system’s social consequences, The Economist (2008) described “nights of employees on the town” stories that reveal the changing outlook of post-war salarymen. Many saw themselves as the last of their kind and expressed a nostalgia rooted in their frustrations and past rejections. For the older generation, personal sacrifices such as putting the company ahead of family became a point of pride, but also of questioning.

Social awareness began to rise as workers recognized that their loyalty was often met with diminishing returns from their employers. In a global consumer products survey, many salarymen expressed frustration with how their lives had turned out (Dasgupta, 2014). In Shimbashi, a Tokyo business district, a group of three men in their mid-fifties sat together in a bar, sharing sake and reflecting on decades of work. Each wore the company lapel pin, symbolizing their loyalty and collective experience. Their stories revealed just how deeply work shaped their lives and the gradual realization that something was wrong with the system.

One member, Akira, recalled his wedding. His division chief, or bucho, made a speech at the reception, reminding the bride that her husband’s true importance was to the company. The expectation was clear: work would come before family, and long hours at the office were simply part of life. Everyone at the reception nodded in silent agreement. The wife was expected to support her husband when he was home, but the reality was that work-life balance was almost nonexistent.

As time passed, Akira’s wife grew increasingly frustrated with his late nights and constant absence. The family’s needs came second to the demands of the company. Eventually, the strain led Akira to reconsider how he managed his time, but the damage to family relationships was already done. Stories like these highlight how the boundaries between work and personal life were routinely ignored, with long hours and company loyalty seen as normal.

The collective realization among employees was that something was fundamentally wrong with the system. Long working hours and the prioritization of work over personal and family life had become the social norm in Japan, but as society changed, more people began to question whether these expectations were truly sustainable or fair.

Workplace Expectations, Holidays, and Gendered Roles

Dasgupta et al. (2014) point out that employees in post-war Japan were not permitted to leave the office before their supervisor did. The typical workday began at 9 a.m., but there was no clear ending time; employees were expected to stay late, often working well into the night. Yamaguchi (2017) observes that this culture of long hours was especially problematic because workers were rarely compensated in proportion to the value they provided to their companies. Over time, as social awareness grew, more employees began to recognize their rights, setting the stage for a transformation in the role of the salaryman.

The Issue of Holidays and Company Control

The discussion turns next to the question of time off and how holidays reflected broader gender and workplace norms. Although companies operated resorts and onsen (hot spring) facilities for their workers, the reality was that most salarymen used only a fraction of their allotted annual leave. According to Dasgupta (2012), devotion to work took precedence over personal well-being. For example, Sho—one of the salarymen whose stories are frequently cited reported taking only five vacation days in a year, despite being eligible for twenty. Sho did not feel deprived; he had been conditioned to believe that work always came first. As a result, even the concept of relief through official holidays barely existed for Japanese employees.

Those who did take full holidays were often penalized through performance-based evaluations. This strict approach to leave policies led many workers to feel betrayed by their companies, intensifying the sense of imbalance between effort and reward.

Such practices led to broad distributional consequences. When the company became the central institution in people’s lives, the ripple effects extended beyond the workplace to the social fabric of Japan (Dasgupta, 2014). By the late 1990s, Japan’s struggling economy forced firms to dramatically reduce employee benefits. Increasingly, new staff were hired on short-term, part-time contracts and were not treated as members of the corporate “family.” International competition brought further pressure, as foreign firms adopted more flexible employment practices. Mergers and acquisitions also became commonplace, eroding the promise of lifetime employment.

The Generational Shift and Gender Exclusion

A major generational shift occurred during this period. Cooper (2013) notes that younger professionals became less willing to center their lives around work or to accept the sacrifices demanded by the paternalistic systems of earlier decades. This shift reshaped the labor market and had notable effects on gender roles. As more women entered the workforce and immigration increased, the job market began to open up in new ways. At the same time, the number of pensioners returning to work rose, changing the dynamics for older employees.

Despite these changes, strict social norms still kept most people at their desks, and older generations frowned upon job-hopping. The wage system itself made changing employers expensive and difficult. Companies preferred to hire fresh graduates, nurturing them from entry-level roles until retirement, rather than absorb mid-career hires (Ono, 2018).

Gendered Barriers in Employment

Throughout this era, workplace structure in Japan remained highly paternalistic. There was little space for women to advance in the corporate world, and the environment was static locked into a model where men were expected to be the sole breadwinners for their families. The lack of opportunities for women was not just a reflection of tradition but a deeply embedded feature of the post-war employment system.

Gender Roles in Wartime and Post-War Japan

World War II marked a dramatic turning point in gender roles in Japan. During the war, the government actively called on both the loyalty and courage of its citizens, sharply dividing gender expectations and often reinforcing the subordinate status of women (Sato et al., 1987). Before the war, the highest patriotic duty for women was seen as bearing children. But as the war progressed and especially in the aftermath, these roles began to shift. Propaganda often encouraged women to see themselves as "married to the nation," emphasizing their role in protecting families and acting as breadmakers for their households.

While magazines depicted women as domestic managers, in reality many worked in munitions factories or were drafted into serving the military in less visible ways (Giustini, 2019). Poor women were often sent to serve military men, sometimes becoming so-called “comfort women” in highly controlled environments. Other women, working in public bathhouses, were labeled as “soldiers” for hygiene while professional prostitutes were viewed as providing a privilege for officers (Goldstein‐Gidoni, 2020). There was also a strong belief that men who abstained from sex during war were at a disadvantage, while women who stayed at home were viewed as chaste. Working women, by contrast, were often unfairly seen as morally questionable (Sugihara, 2002).

The “comfort doll” metaphor, describing women at home as gentle, reassuring presences, illustrates how society tried to maintain male morale during wartime even as violence and distorted ideals sometimes pushed men to the brink. These ideals, packaged as “brotherly love,” were used to drive men to extreme sacrifices, including suicide missions. In this way, gender discrimination and moral distortion shaped both the workplace and the family.

Comparing Traditional and Modern Gender Roles

After World War II, Japan’s gender roles began to change significantly. The new constitution explicitly prohibited gender-based discrimination, influenced in part by American attitudes and values. Still, the legacy of traditional roles was strong: women were expected to focus on managing households, while men were seen as breadwinners and authority figures. This left women with little voice in family financial decisions or in broader economic life.

Takeda (2003) notes that contemporary gender roles in Japan revolve around a "vertical society," where an individual’s identity is tied to group membership. This structure laid the groundwork for strong workplace hierarchies, with distinct senior-junior relationships (Tso, 2021). Leadership and loyalty remained core traits especially in male-dominated settings, while harmony and commitment to the company were seen as lifelong obligations.

Despite legal reforms, Yamaguchi (2000) found that women are still largely responsible for domestic affairs such as budgeting and household decision-making, while men focus on work. Recently, however, this pattern has started to shift. More women are career-oriented, and both men and women are marrying later, often after establishing themselves professionally. The old stigma against late marriage or against women who work outside the home is slowly fading, especially for women. Yet, many traditional ideas persist: men are still seen as naturally suited for work outside the home, while women are regarded as primary caregivers. The “full-time housewife” is still seen by some as an asset to society.

In summary, both cultural and structural differences have defined gender roles in Japan for decades. For much of the country’s history, women were viewed as breadmakers and child-rearers, while men were the breadwinners. These divisions were reinforced by societal expectations and corporate practices that favored male workers. However, the upheaval of World War II, combined with changing social awareness and increased participation of women in the workforce, has led to a slow but meaningful transformation. Gender roles in modern Japan are still evolving as the country negotiates between tradition and the realities of a changing society.

Work Cited

Allison, A. (2014). Precarious Japan. Duke University Press.

Brinton, M. C. (2011). Lost in transition: Youth, work, and instability in postindustrial Japan. Cambridge University Press.

Brinton, M. C., & Mun, E. M. (2016). Between state and family: Managers’ implementation and evaluation of parental leave policies in Japan. Socio-Economic Review, 14(2), 339–362. https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwv025

Gordon, A. (2017). Modern Japan: A Short History (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.

North, S. (2009). Negotiating what’s “natural”: Persistent domestic gender role inequality in Japan. Social Science Japan Journal, 12(1), 23–44. https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyp003

Roberts, G. S. (2018). Salaryman masculinity: The continuation of hegemonic masculinity in Japan. Routledge.

Yamaguchi, K. (2000). Married women’s gender-role attitudes and social stratification: Commonalities and differences between Japan and the United States. International Journal of Sociology, 30(2), 52–89.