new book, Women and Family in Contemporary Japan

author Susan Holloway, s_hollo@berkeley dotedu

Women and Family in Contemporary Japan, by Cambridge University Press.

Japanese women have often been singled out for their strong commitment to the role of housewife and mother. But they are now postponing marriage and bearing fewer children, and Japan has become one of the least fertile and fastest aging countries in the world. Why are so many Japanese women opting out of family life?
 
To answer this question, the author draws on in-depth interviews and extensive survey data to examine Japanese mothers'
perspectives and experiences of marriage, parenting, and family life. The goal is to understand how, as introspective, self-aware individuals, these women interpret and respond to the barriers and opportunities afforded within the structural and ideological contexts of contemporary Japan.
 
The findings suggest a need for changes in the structure of the workplace and the education system to provide women with the opportunity to find a fulfilling balance of work and family life.

http://www.cambridge.org/us/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521180375

online Japanese language learning

via Senseionline 18 June 2010:
 
...for people who would like to learn Japanese and aren't conveniently located by an institution or
a friend that will teach it to them, this might be just the information they were looking for:

*UAB NihongoCast,* http://www.uab.edu/foreignlang/nihongocast/, the online version of Japanese
101 at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, a joint production of the UAB Departments of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Communication Studies, and Theatre, taught by Tim Cook of Georgia Public Broadcasting's *Irasshai.*