Gender

Especially in school related events and activities, gender stands out strongly. Similar to private schools in the U.S., students wear uniforms. This usually dictates that men wear one distinct outfit while the girls wear another, which includes a skirt rather than pants. In elementary school and middle school all students are required to have a specific large backpack. In middle school these backpacks are usually the same color, but in elementary school the boys and girls have separate colors. Usually red for girls and blue for boys. At middle school the boys and girls always sit in lines depending on gender back to front, and then the lines usually alternate between boys a girls. Unless there is an imbalance in the male to female ratio in a class, a students desk partner will be of the opposite gender and desk groups are usually made up of three boys and three girls. For most of the day, the students wear their casual gym outfits, which are identical. To add decoration to their identical outfits, both girls and boys buy colorful pencil bags and accessories that are usually decorated with a popular cartoon character or pop group. Also these are additionally decorated with key chains and stickers. While boys use more anime characters and girls use more Disney and pop characters, both boys and girls seem to decorate their belongings with an equal enthusiasm. The picture above was taken by me at my middle school at their cultural festival. As you can see, the boys and girls are divided and you can see their uniforms. Most elementary schools in the Morioka area have very similar uniforms however all schools differ slightly.



I find it very difficult to talk about gender. There are so many layers to how genders are scene and ones role in society based off of this. In our classes at Gandai we have been discussing the understanding of the inexistence of some dichotomies in Japanese culture. I’m starting to wonder if gender is one of these in some ways. Or rather than gender is simply different than it is in the western culture. Sometimes I find myself overly frustrated and sometimes I realize that I’m seeing views of gender that I have never seen before. I can’t say that the culture of mother’s have a large responsibility to take care of their home and children doesn’t exist (in comparison to the father of the house), but there is so much more for me to understand before I feel comfortable talking about it. At the moment, Japan, especially the Tohoku area in which we are staying, is changing. Here there is a strong concern about younger people leaving to live in more “modern” cities and there is depopulation. The effects of this change on gender in this area have been seen by our group. I took the picture above at a festival in Morioka. Above are different float groups lined up for a speech to be given. Originally, only men could participate in pulling the floats. In the picture most of the people are men, but now both women and men can participate. This change has occurred because of the growing change in women’s roles and in the depopulation of the area causing more people to be needed in traditional festival roles such as this one.