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内容記述 |
This is a midterm report of the joint project work "Changing Gender Roles in New towns in Japan " with a grant in aid of research from the Ministry of Science and Education, Japan, from Apr. 2001 to Mar. 2004 (Representative: Yuko Nishikawa, Kyoto Bunkyo University). The project aims to investigate the remarkable and dynamic social changes to be observed in new towns today and, at the same time, to exploit a new arena of research of new towns by introducing the views and methods of Anthropology. The new towns of Japan were designed as "dormitories" around mega cities chiefly for 'the modern families', which were composed of white-collar workers, fulltime housewives and their children. However, the recent social changes brought about by various factors, especially by the collapse of the wage system based on lifetime employment and on a family allowance, the rising numbers of employed women and the arrival of an-on average-much older society, has led to a disjunction between the "containers", well-planned and ordered towns, and the "contents", the actual inhabitants. And the modification of gender roles in the modern family has prompted an incipient remodelling of human relationships in these communities, which has the potential to alter the whole society drastically. Chapter 1 presents the significance and the outlook of the project. Chapter 2 focuses on the history of housing policy and the development of new towns in Japan, through which we will clearly set out the historical and functional and geographical positions of four new towns which we have visited during these one-and-a-half years. The stage is thus set for the following three chapters which embody our observations of new towns: Chapter 3 is on Matsudo-Tokiwadaira Danchi, which was designed for a new middle class in the early days of new towns, while Chapter 4 details the survey of Kouzouji New Town nowadays, more than thirty years after its construction. It is shifting from a town for transient dwellers to one for permanent residents. Chapter 5 focuses on Makuhari-Patios and Shinonome Canal Court, which were planned in accordance with quite new concepts as a challenge to the society of the future. Chapter 6 concludes by examining the findings of the project. Via investigation of documents and field researches shaped by anthropological viewpoints and methods, especially from the standpoint of comparative cultures and with the practices of participant observation, the regional differences and common features among various new 86 towns in Japan became clear. Finally, we discuss following five prominent features of 'the Japanese type of new towns'. Firstly, most of them designed in the early period were developed following the concept of the geographical separation of residential areas from working areas. This feature was based on and at the same time contributed to reinforce the differentiation of gender roles, males as workers and females as housewives. Secondly, the common spaces of new towns, for example parking spaces of bicycles and parks, are all inside the residential areas and monopolized by the patently finite number of their inhabitants. And those common spaces often appear as the settings for various conflicts or tensions among them. Thirdly, the social stratification among inhabitants is becoming more and more obvious in new towns. Nowadays we can find in a new town a division between rented flats occupied by many of the older and relatively poor residents, and which have plenty of vacancies, and those sold in lots occupied by rather wealthier residents. Fourthly, the characteristics of the greying society emerge remarkably in contemporary new towns. Because of the rapid increase of the percentage of older people and the decrease in the number of children, there is pressure to establish various institutions for the elderly, while schools are being down sized. Finally the number of inhabitants of foreign origin is increasing in new towns after the dropping of the rule which had long debarred tenants without Japanese nationality. This is beginning to change the human landscapes of new towns substantially. Japanese new towns are thus playing their part in the movement of labor between countries. We must now put our minds to how best to develop multi-cultural or hybrid communities. The studies of new towns from the anthropological perspective also need to contribute effectively in that respect. |
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