BCIFV home > Newsletter > 1995 Archives > Fall 1995 articles

Domestic Violence in Japan

David Gough
Japan Women's University

Japan has a relatively homogeneous culture with a high sense of community values, family life, and concern for children. There is little divorce, single parenthood, reconstituted families, or poverty compared to many Western societies. There is also little crime or violence between adults in the streets despite much public drunkenness. It therefore seems unsurprising that Japan has few reported cases of domestic violence.

Cultural variation must result in some differences in the prevalence of domestic violence between countries (Levinson, 1989), but case statistics themselves are, of course, culturally determined. If awareness is low then cases of violence are not likely to be officially reported or recorded, leading to official complacency and the belief that domestic violence is only a problem for other countries.

Also, the quality of cultural life argument depends on the selective use of cultural examples. It is not difficult to think of other cultural factors that might suggest that domestic violence would be relatively high in Japan (Gough, in press). For example, proscribed gender roles with women and children with less social and economic power; social importance of family membership and family reputation; the marked distinction between private and public behaviour; and stress from cramped housing, long commuting and working hours for fathers, and severe educational pressures on children. There is little reported rape, but very high rates of sexual molestation of child and adult women on public transport, and it would be surprising if there was not also sexual violence in the home. There is also no shortage of historical examples of domestic violence and infanticide.

Whatever the true rate of incidence (and it is difficult to obtain research funding to do community surveys), there is undoubtedly a large amount of unreported and unseen domestic violence in Japan, which campaigners are trying to bring into the open. The media has played a significant role in this by publishing articles on domestic violence, interviewing speakers from seminars and conferences on domestic abuse, reporting on individual cases that have reached the courts, and contributing funds to child abuse initiatives.

The government has responded to the increased awareness about child abuse by designating certain child care centres as regional centres for child abuse, though skeptics worry whether there will be any real substance to these new labels. There are no special procedures for investigation or case management of abuse and few children at risk of harm are removed into care. There is a reluctance to intervene in family life as well as legal difficulties in implementing child care laws, though such difficulties were quickly overcome in the recent removal into care of many children of followers of Aum Shinrikyo, the religious cult implicated in terrorist attacks in Japan.

There have been more overt changes in the voluntary sector with the introduction of abuse telephone hot lines in both Tokyo and Osaka (predominantly receiving calls from parents under stress) and the development of manuals for staff on how to respond to suspected cases of abuse. Sexual abuse survivor groups are also bringing attention to the existence of sexual abuse.

Last year I helped to initiate and organize an international child abuse conference in Tokyo under the auspices of Ispcan and four child abuse groups in Japan that attracted 500 delegates. This has led to the first national child abuse congress and the formation of a Japanese child abuse society slated from April 1996.

Most studies on child abuse in Japan are restricted to the few officially recorded cases, but my own research on discipline and perceptions of appropriate child care indicates that there are culturally specific aspects to the use of violence and control Corporal punishment, for example, seems to be a less favoured form of discipline than exclusion or confinement of the child. On the other hand, leaving young children alone in a car in considered more acceptable in Japan than it is in North America.

Women's groups and women's centres are at the forefront of raising awareness about domestic violence against women. Much of the work of women's advice and information centres and refuges has been concerned with violence and exploitation of women from south east Asia coming to Japan for marriage or to work in the large sexual entertainment industry.

Nowadays there is a growing recognition that Japanese women are also subject to violence. Culturally specific aspects of such male violence against wives in Japan include showing contempt by overturning the dinner table, a central symbol of the women's domestic role; throwing water or salt at their wives, with the symbolic meaning of marking the women as unclean; or husbands refusing to use condoms in a society where oral contraceptives are not easily available and women have little direct control of contraception (Yoshihama, 1995). Culture is also reflected in laws which give few financial and other rights to divorced women or children born outside marriage.

It is an exciting time to be in Japan with very real social changes and an increased awareness of domestic violence, though these social changes may result, in the short term at least, in more violence as proscribed roles become increasingly challenged. Children are also likely to suffer if any breakdown in traditional roles providing high quality child care are not replaced by alternative models of care.

Gough, D.A. "Child abuse in Japan: Child Psychology and Psychiatry Review. In press.

Levinson, D. Family Violence in Cross Cultural Perspective. Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1989.

Yoshihama, M. "Assessment of culture-specific manifestations of male partners' violence: A study in Japan". Paper presented at 4th International Conference on Family Violence, University of New Hampshire, July 1995.