Australian Journal of Anthropology, The: Gambling with Virtue: Japanese Women and the Search for Sel

Nancy Rosenberger. Gambling with Virtue: Japanese Women and the Search for Self in a Changing World Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2001. Pp. 288, bibliog., index. [pounds sterling]43.50 (Hc.), ISBN 0-82482-262-5.

In post-war Japan, it was often said that what became robust after the war were women and stockings. Stockings became more long-wearing as nylon was introduced and women became stronger as they obtained the right to vote under the newly established democracy. Over fifty years have passed since then, and both women and socks are as robust ever at the beginning of the twenty-first century in Japan. Currently, Japan as a nation is in the midst of a recession as domestic consumption has plummeted and the unemployment rate has soared. The men who regarded their companies as providing them with lifetime security are feeling unsure of their future. Inevitably, the widespread economic downturn has affected many families, but the women who have been systematically excluded from the corporate identity and destiny seem to be challenging enough to explore new avenues in this changing world.

Rosenberger's recent book, Gambling with Virtue, provides some indications why the women seem to be more genki (high spirited) than their men-folk. The book is a welcome addition to anthropological studies on Japan and women, as it provides multiple voices of Japanese women for the extended period between the 1970s and 1990s. Rosenberger was skilful in capturing their unpretentious voices so that readers are able to encounter many women from different backgrounds and in varied circumstances in contemporary Japan.

The book was interesting to me as someone who has both insider and outsider views on Japanese women. I left Japan for Australia in 1980 after completing my first degree at a women's college, and since then I have been living outside Japan. In the meantime, my college friends have embarked on their careers, marriages and families at home.

Gambling with Virtue brings a rewarding reading experience as Rosenberger presents her material in a highly readable style, which supports the lively and vivid ethnographic descriptions of Japanese women. The women's narratives are intriguing enough to maintain the reader's attention to the end. However, there are some weaknesses in this book, particularly in its analysis of the data presented, and in the assumption that the readership belongs to a particular group.

Almost all the references Rosenberger used were in English except for some government white papers and magazine articles. Even for the writings by Japanese women, the references which were cited were in English. The issue of the changing roles of women has been undoubtedly a topic of heated discussion and debate within Japan during the period the book covers. The omission of this discourse on the issue, which was carried out in Japanese, is regrettable.

The book could have been more persuasive if Rosenberger had constructed the theoretical discussion more tightly. She introduced the metaphors of a front stage and a back stage in order to explain how Japanese women tried to cope with changes without upsetting the accepted social norm. The women kept playing virtuous roles on the front stage, but struggled with change on the backstage. Throughout the book, she referred to this metaphor, but failed to bring the discussion together in a solid analysis. The same can be said of the discussion of the concept of ki (spirit) and selfhood. The expectation that the concluding chapter would tie those theoretical concepts together did not materialise, the author instead introducing Giddens' discussion of self and high modernity from his book, Modernity and Self-Identity. Questions such as in which area the changes of women's self occurred, and if they managed to maintain some continuity, were not fully answered.

In the introductory chapter, Rosenberger wrote that she expected readers to be Americans. She also made her presence as an American researcher evident by referring to her informants' comments on American society. The intentional gearing to this readership produced some problems for non-American readers. A lesser problem was that Rosenberger converted Japanese yen to American dollars in her main text according to the exchange rate of the period. While she listed both yen and US dollars in the earlier chapters, the conversion rate used was not clear in the latter chapters. Thus, in 1993, Suzuki-san made $2,600 a month plus bonuses as a kindergarten teacher and spent $350 a month on entertainment and clothes. She lived with her mother and paid $500 to her as month rent (p. 182). For non-American readers, the data was garbled, as it was not possible to determine the amount in yen.

Lastly, Rosenberger intended to convey to the readers that she observed not only the front stage as an American fleidworker but also had access to the backstage through her interviews. However, I wondered if the author was observing merely another layer of the front stage where the women talked and performed for an American academic. The fact that the book focused solely on the women's narratives and did not include ethnographic observations of their interactions with their husbands, mothers-in-law, and children gives strength to the feeling that something vital is missing from the analysis. In spite of these weaknesses I believe Gambling with Virtue has achieved its main objective of presenting the multiple voices of contemporary Japanese women successfully.