Papers by Ofra Goldstein-Gidoni
Housewives of Japan, 2012
Sakura is a new magazine for women first published in 2006. Like many of the new magazines, Sakur... more Sakura is a new magazine for women first published in 2006. Like many of the new magazines, Sakura has an Internet site in addition to hard-copy issues containing glossy and colorful materials. A young woman who reaches the magazine through the Internet encounters a short clip posing a beautiful, pregnant, young woman facing the globe on a black screen. The running text in English (with smaller captions of Japanese translation), which is allegedly giving “voice” to this woman, is directed at a mysterious being whom the woman asks where s/he has come from and why s/he has chosen her. The short text ends with the realization that the mysterious being is in fact “(my) Baby,” this same baby whom the young mother was waiting to see. 1 This running text with its somewhat intentional elusiveness ends up with a fixed picture of another woman (or is it the same woman?) holding her beloved baby on the background of a beautiful sunset facing the text quoted above with the Japanese caption “‘Having a family’ is the supreme [form of] happiness, which makes women ever more luminous!” (“kazoku o motsu” to iu saikō no shiawase ga josei o yori kagayakaseru!).
Ethnos, 2000
In this article I examine the production of culture in the contemporary commercialJapanese weddin... more In this article I examine the production of culture in the contemporary commercialJapanese wedding. This is analyzed in relation to the theoretical discourse ofthe invention of tradition'. However, while this 'invention' is usually related to political motivations, I discuss the invention of tradition and of culture for economic motivations. I offer a broader perspective of tradition and culture and show how flexible these two may be as they are manufactured, played with or imagined. The contemporary wedding consists ofboth 'traditional-Japanese' and 'Western' inventions. These are regarded here as cultural constructs which, both play a significant role in the construction of contemporary Japanese cultural identity.
Ethnology, 1999
This article argues that the distinction between Japanese and Western attire is a part of the pro... more This article argues that the distinction between Japanese and Western attire is a part of the process of the construction of gendered and cultural identities in modern Japan. Kimono in modern Japan has been invented as national attire and as a marked feminine costume. Women have ...
American Anthropologist, 2007
Ethnos, 2003
ofra goldstein-gidoni of another child, who also selected a Japanese birthday for her son from th... more ofra goldstein-gidoni of another child, who also selected a Japanese birthday for her son from the global cultural repertoire offered by Ruth, which also includes Spanish, South American, and Middle Eastern cultures, explained her choice: 'Japan seemed to me the most exotic'. Children's birthday parties have recently become grand events in Israel, and this has resulted in the growth of a large industry of attractions and birthday 'operators'. Thus, having 'Japan' as the theme for a birthday is not an exception; 'Japanese culture' is offered as one of many other educational entertainments. The popular interest in Japanese culture in Israel has been growing from the 1980s. One of the characteristics of this Japan craze is the high involvement of local Israelis in the promotion of Japanese culture in Israel. They have visited Japan mostly for relatively long periods, and now they offer courses, workshops, or lectures for the general public, organize artistic, cultural, and commercial displays at galleries, public centers, or specialized shops as well as organize and contribute to local festivals of Japanese culture. This paper is concerned with the nature of the process in which these local cultural brokers appropriate Japanese culture. Processes of 'cultural appropriation', or more specifically the appropriation of the culture of the Other, have usually been analyzed in colonial or post-colonial contexts. However, with regard to Israel and Israelis Japan is an ultimate Other, a total stranger that does not share any historical or cultural heritage. In comparison with the usa and most of Europe, even the relatively minor economic relationship between Israel and Japan cannot be described in terms of power relations. Nevertheless, this distance between the societies/cultures has not prevented the development of high popular interest in Japanese culture. Since the mid 1990s, there has been a growing academic interest in the theme of 'Japan Outside Japan'. 1 The majority of the works, including those of Ben-Ari and Clammer (2000) and Befu and Guichard-Anguis (2001), is mainly concerned with Japanese people outside Japan as well as with the more general theme of globalization. Although this paper is in many ways part of this general concern, it is distinct in at least two main points. First, it is not about Japanese living in Israel. There is a small community of Japanese living in Israel, 2 but the production of 'Japanese culture' as discussed in this paper is marked by the absence of Japanese people. The second distinction is related to the remoteness of Japan. This is a different case from studies about Japanese culture in Asian countries such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, or Korea, or even big European cities like Paris (Guichard-Anguis 2001). Not only does a marked set of historical relationships exist for each of these cases,
The Journal of Asian Studies, 1998
PACKAGED JAPANESENESS WEDDINGS, BUSINESS AND BRIDES OFRA OLDSTEIN-GIDONI ... PACKAGED JAPANESENES... more PACKAGED JAPANESENESS WEDDINGS, BUSINESS AND BRIDES OFRA OLDSTEIN-GIDONI ... PACKAGED JAPANESENESS Weddings, Business and Brides Th± s One ... ConsumAsiaN Book Series edited by Brian Moeran and Lise Skov and Published by The Curzon Press ...
PART I: A COLLABORATIVE QUEST FOR UNDERSTANDING 'SENGYO SHUFU' Intertext I Entering the F... more PART I: A COLLABORATIVE QUEST FOR UNDERSTANDING 'SENGYO SHUFU' Intertext I Entering the Field: Joining Mariko's Introspective Journey Intertext II The Postwar 'Professional Housewife' and the Japanese State PART II: THE WOMEN OF ROYAL HEIGHTS Intertext III On 'Naturally' Becoming Housewives Intertext IV 'Guarding the House': Men as Breadwinners, Women as Housewives Intertext V A New Housewife Is Born? Discourses of Class and Change in Royal Heights PART III: HOUSEWIVES AS WOMEN IN POST-BUBBLE JAPAN Intertext VI The New Happy Housewife of Post-Bubble Japan Intertext VII Wrapping up: Housewives as the 'Winners'? Intertext VIII
This article presents an unusual angle for the study of consumer culture in a case study of an ex... more This article presents an unusual angle for the study of consumer culture in a case study of an explicit process of the production and consumption of ‘culture’, or more specifically, of a product, which carries the label: ‘Japanese culture’, and which crosses national borders. The general context is that of cross-cultural consumption and cultural globalization. Globalization cannot be easily described anymore as having ‘a distinctly American face’. There is more and more evidence for competing centers or multiple globalizations. Japan has no doubt become one of these centers. The case at hand is that of the re-production and consumption of ‘Japanese culture’ in Israel. The article emphasizes the significance of looking at local cultural discourses or discourses about culture both at the ‘exporting’ and ‘importing’ destinations in trying to have a deeper understating of the processes of cultural globalization. I show how the Japanese cultural discourse – largely through the extremely ...
In this article, we examine what really happens when spirituality enters profit organizations. We... more In this article, we examine what really happens when spirituality enters profit organizations. We suggest looking at workplace spirituality as a form of organizational wisdom. When surveyed, managers and consultants attested that spirituality improved their awareness at work, enhanced communication, and reduced stress. Yet our results show that workplace spirituality suggests alternative ways of thought and behavior that organization members perceive as threatening and thus reject or discard. The chief clash is related to assumptions about social order and social relationships. Our work adds value to translation research by giving more significance to the impact of core organizational ideas in the encounter with new wisdom. We also contribute to workplace spirituality literature and to the emerging field of organizational wisdom by analyzing the initial stages and essence of the encounter between existing and new wisdom.
This article explores the effects of the merging of two cultural processes, one local and the oth... more This article explores the effects of the merging of two cultural processes, one local and the other global, on the production and meanings of cultural Otherness in an era characterized by revolutionary developments in technologies of communication and cooperation to the point it was dubbed the Globalization 3.0 Era. The first local cultural process is the emergence of a community of Israeli fans of media-centered Japanese popular culture, who exhibit a new paradigm of cosmopolitans. Fans belong to a highly inclusive semivirtual imagined community, they appropriate and reproduce without reservations foreign products and practices, and they perform as cultural specialists, often without ever going abroad at all. We see them as neocosmopolitans. Another global cultural process we refer to is the one through which the media-centered Japanese popular culture fans appropriate, has become in recent years a transculture rather than a national culture; a culture with which the identification...
This thesis is concerned with the Japanese Ceremonial Occasions industry, and in particular with ... more This thesis is concerned with the Japanese Ceremonial Occasions industry, and in particular with contemporary Japanese weddings which are viewed as commercialized productions for a highly consumerist society. The study is mainly based on anthropological fieldwork conducted in an urban wedding parlour. The perspective offered diverges from those of previous studies in that its focus is on weddings, rather than marriage, and on the activities of the wedding producers, rather than those of its principal actors. The thesis shows how both 'traditional' and 'Western' traits found in commercial weddings are manipulated by the Ceremonial Occasions industry which is heavily involved in the 'invention of traditions'. Although such invention has hitherto and elsewhere been analysed in terms of political or national aims, the argument here is that traditions may also be created for economic, or business, purposes. Such a viewpoint enables me to reconsider ways in which J...
Consuming Life in Post-Bubble Japan
Post-bubble Japan is characterized by an unprecedented diversity and proliferation of options for... more Post-bubble Japan is characterized by an unprecedented diversity and proliferation of options for lifestyles for women. Paradoxically, it was the bursting of the economic bubble in the 1990s that caused the market to intensify its grip on Japanese women of all ages. This chapter focuses on one of the main social roles still available to women in Japan-that of the full-time housewife (sengyō shufu). I argue that as the vision of 'good wife, wise mother' gradually becomes obsolete, and the hold of the housewife role loosens, new images of women as homebound are emerging. Focusing on the production of seemingly new images of female domesticity, this chapter shows how the status quo has been reasserted and reproduced.
Academy of Management Proceedings
This study explores the travelling of ideas and practices from one context to another. Using qual... more This study explores the travelling of ideas and practices from one context to another. Using qualitative data collected at two points in time about the translation of New Age Spirituality (NAS) pra...
Social Compass
This study provides an analysis of rich field-based data regarding the translation of self-spirit... more This study provides an analysis of rich field-based data regarding the translation of self-spirituality into Israeli public schools. The study also draws from research conducted in other Western for-profit and health organizations. While the analysis supports existing assertions from research regarding the increasing market orientation of the culture of self-spirituality, it also identifies the specific methods used by brokers to translate self-spirituality concepts into the school system and distinguishes between ethical and unethical approaches to translation. It further illuminates the interactional dynamics that explain the emergence of an instrumental orientation to the translation of self-spirituality.
Gender, Work & Organization
Journal of Family Issues
The analytical prism of gender contract is used in this article as a means to conceptualize the c... more The analytical prism of gender contract is used in this article as a means to conceptualize the cultural construction of the idea of the heteronormative “ordinary” Japanese family, a construct that gained hegemonic dominance over the course of Japan’s stable prosperous postwar period (1960s-1980s); and from there, for examining the strength of this normative “contract” against post-bubble economic and social challenges. To further challenge the potential changes in the corporate gender contract,—particularly against the corporate culture—the study purposely sampled the second group of male and female interviewees, who were related to the so-called ikumen movement, which calls for greater involvement of men in family life and a better work–life balance. These men and women were not only from younger age cohorts compared to the first group of women and men. They also mostly resided in dual-income households, unlike the first group whose households were mainly based on a male breadwinner.
Asian Studies Review
ABSTRACT “The Joy of Normal Living” is at once the motto and the ideology of Kurihara Harumi, Jap... more ABSTRACT “The Joy of Normal Living” is at once the motto and the ideology of Kurihara Harumi, Japan’s best-known charisma housewife and icon of domesticity. This article looks at the relationship between “normal living” and the promise of happiness, as formulated in postwar Japan. Beginning with the government’s promotion, in the early postwar period, of the idea of akarui seikatsu (bright new life) as related to the typical suburban middle-class family of salaryman husband and full-time housewife, the article goes on to look at the cultural idea of “being happy as a woman” in contemporary Japan. Based on in-depth interviews with full-time housewives, and an analysis of popular women’s magazines, this article seeks to decipher what constitutes the idea of happiness for these women and for their generation.
Housewives of Japan, 2012
Shibata-san is a quiet person. At the lively tea parties that Mariko and I held with women of Roy... more Shibata-san is a quiet person. At the lively tea parties that Mariko and I held with women of Royal Heights, she usually did not say much, although she was happy to be invited. It took her some time to agree to be interviewed, but finally, in one of my recurrent visits, Mariko and I went to her apartment to meet her and her mother. “Everyone” in Royal Heights (actually meaning all the housewives) knows Shibata-san’s mother, who lives not very far away and has helped her daughter raise her only child since he was a baby. Shibata-san married relatively young, at 22.1 She met her husband, who is her age, at the vocational school where they both were students. Marriage in Japan is generally considered a significant turning point, at which by establishing their own household the couple become “members of society” (shakaijin) and “adults” (ichininmae; see Edwards, 1989, p.124). As the Shibatas had married very young, and the husband was not yet as financially established as a salaryman should be on marrying, they could not build a fully independent household as is generally expected. Shibata-san thus finds it necessary to explain that they initially had a special “contract” with their parents, which included an agreement that “no matter what people think about us we do not have to be totally independent after marriage.” This may be the reason that while Shibata-san needed her mother’s help, she was also constantly worried, as she told Mariko on a previous occasion, that other housewives in the manshon would criticize her for not being independent.
Housewives of Japan, 2012
“When we [women] begin preparing food and cleaning the house for someone other than ourselves and... more “When we [women] begin preparing food and cleaning the house for someone other than ourselves and when we start managing the household budget, then we become housewives (shufu).” This is how one of the “model housewives” (shufu no kagami) of Royal Heights, who is considered by her neighbors and friends to be someone who performs her role perfectly, characterized the transformation into a housewife. Other women interviewed for this study often gave a much more straightforward answer to the question “When did you become a shufu?” by validating what seems to be a general understanding in Japan that a woman customarily becomes a shufu upon marriage.
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Papers by Ofra Goldstein-Gidoni