Labor and Gender in Muto Sanji's Discourse

Abstract

Historical research on labor and gender in Japan is still insufficient. This paper analyzes the notion of gender held by Muto Sanji, who was a prominent business manager in Japan's cotton-spinning industry before WW2. Because the expectations demanded of labor show up in managers' congratulatory messages, we use Muto's congratulatory messages for data. As a result of our analysis, Muto's notion of gender includes (1) a justification of employment using a market-oriented logic, (2) essentialism regarding gender roles in labor, and (3) the justification of a gender division of labor via a genderized family concept. These findings have been overlooked in previous research.