Japan's New Middle Class: The Salary Man and His Family in a Tokyo Suburb Read Online Free PDF Page A

perhaps more important is the tradition of family loyalty. Sons are expected to continue the family name and line of a dead father, and widows are still admired for remaining loyal to their dead husbands. Men feel that a wife who was properly devoted to her first husband would have difficulty transferring that devotion to another man, and a wife who was not properly devoted to her first husband would be less likely to make a good wife for anyone. [5]
    In addition to the financial difficulties a widow or divorcee must face, her children are discriminated against when they begin looking for jobs. Mamachi residents report that if two young men of
    [4] In 1956, only 6.1 percent of marriages in Japan were of women who had been married before, but 10 percent were of men who had been wed before. Fujin no Genjoo (The Position of Women), Tokyo: Roodooshoo Fujinshoonen Kyoku, 1959, p. 55. In the United States, between January, 1947, and June, 1954, 19.9 percent of marriages were of women who had been married before. Paul C. Glick, American Families, New York: John Wiley, 1957, p. 141. This difference is too large to be explained only by the difference in the divorce rate.
    [5] For a widower, however, it is not only considered advisable but necessary to remarry in order to have someone care for the children. Since the children would remain in the father's line, this is not seen as causing any serious problem.
----
    ― 18 ―
    roughly equal qualifications are seeking employment, one whose home includes a father and one whose home does not, the job would go to the boy with a father. This preference continues today even in corporations which select employees by examination. It is assumed, first of all, that a fatherless boy would not have been given proper disciplinary and moral training. Even if he did receive such training, companies feel that he is more apt to be dishonest, for his greater need for money might tempt him to embezzle or in some way cheat the company for personal and family needs. Furthermore, since he is partly responsible for the care and protection of his mother and siblings and since a firm ordinarily assumes some responsibility for the welfare of its workers and families, the firm is cautious in taking on this extra burden. Although the firm may not contribute enough to make a really easy life for the employee's family, nevertheless, the degree to which it is expected to help could be an added burden on the company.
    The almost total reliance of the wife and children on the husband's income is further reflected by the late age of marriage (in 1955, in cities, 47.5 percent of men and 23.6 percent of women 25 to 29 years of age were still single) and the importance of the husband's health as a factor in the decision to marry. A girl is reluctant to marry a man until he is fully established in a place of employment and his health and life expectancy are openly and carefully discussed by his fiancée and her parents. A young man who has had tuberculosis or another serious disease has more difficulty finding a wife not only because people want healthy descendants but because the wife's family wants some assurance that the young man will live long and be able to support his wife. Today increased longevity makes health less problematic than formerly, but it is still one of the major criteria of a desirable husband.
    The death of the husband undoubtedly is the most serious blow to a family's livelihood, but the loss of his job is almost as serious. Not only are good jobs hard to find, but because of the policies of Japanese firms, a man who loses his job probably will have to start again at the bottom, with a low salary and with little hope of rapid promotion. Hence, many people consider the stability of a job more important than the amount of income.
    The significance of the Japanese salary man lies, therefore, not
----
    ― 19 ―
    only in the fact that he is a nonmanual worker and an organization man, but in the fact that