INTERVIEWS


Saori Miura	Yuko Sakashita	Kazuko Wakabayashi	Yuri Yabushita	Sachie Morioka

Have you been told of or noticed any differences in your life and your mother’s growing up?

Saori Miura: [Discipline] was common in school when my mother was growing up.
Yuko Sakashita: Yes, when my mom was little, bananas were very expensive. She’s often told me that she hardly ate them.
Kazuko Wakabayashi: When my mom was growing up, it was not important for women to go to college.
Yuri Yabushita: I think that compared to the past sexual discrimination has decreased, particularly in the work place. I also think there are richer foods now day, so I grew faster and taller than my mother. I also played inside the house more when I was a child.
Sachie Morioka: Yes. My mother told me she had to cook by herself when she was a student.

Do they teach you women’s history in school? How much did you study it?

Saori: Yes, I learned a lot about women’s history in Japanese social studies classes.
Yuko: Yes, sometimes teachers will teach that in a social studies or history class.
Kazuko: In junior high school, I had a human rights class, so I learned a little bit about it. In high school, I learned about it in the social studies class.
Yuri: They taught us some women’s history in school. For example, we learned about Higuchi Ichiyo who was a novelist in the Meiji period and wrote mainly Tanka poetry.
Sachie: No.

What do you see yourself doing later in life? What kind of career do you want/expect to have?

Saori: I will get a job, and I would like to teach English at a school or in homes.
Yuko: After graduation, I want to live alone. It would be a good experience for me.
Kazuko: I’ll work after graduation, but my life will change after marriage. I will have to do all the chores or share it with my future partner.
Yuri: I haven’t decided yet, but I [think] I want to work at a travel agency. I expect to have [a] career, graduate from college, and use my study abroad experience as a job qualification.
Sachie: I will continue to live with my parents after I graduate from college, while working. I want to work for a clothing shop.

What do you find different about American perspectives of women?

Saori: American women are more independent than Japanese women, and American women are equal to men.
Yuko: I think Japanese girls care more about their fashion or trends that American women, even if they don’t use [those fashions] next year.
Kazuko: In the US, it is not only the woman’s responsibility to do household work; they can share it. In Japan, women do the chores even if they work.
Yuri: American women can speak their opinions more freely than we can. They seem to have pride and confidence in themselves.
Sachie: In America women are more independent than they are in Japan. I think they don’t rely on their friends or parents as much as Japanese women do.

Do you want to be more independent like American women?

Saori: Yes. I do not want to do only housework at home. I want to work and share the housework with my future husband.
Yuko: Yes.
Kazuko: Yes.
Yuri: Yes, I want to be more independent. I want to be able to voice my opinions freely.
Sachie: Yes. I want to be [a] strong and independent woman.