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The Shifting Position of Woman in Contemporary Japan
The Lolita phenomenon rose to prominence in the late-twentieth century, a
time when Elise Tipton was writing her chapter “Being Women in Japan”. 147
In context with this period she stated that “from birth, girls are socialised to
make marriage and motherhood their primary goals” 148 and that:
Women in their early twenties undergo intense pressure from family and friends
as well as society at large to marry before they reach twenty-five. A common joke
refers to them as “Christmas cakes”, meaning that like Christmas cakes they will
become too old and stale after the twenty-fifth. 149
This meant that motherhood was also a state usually reached at a relatively
young age. Said Tipton, “it goes without saying in Japan that motherhood
means marriage”. 150
However, it was also in this period that “onna no jidai (the era of
women) became a catchphrase, connoting freedom, affluence and
independence achieved by women”. 151 And although there was this
immense pressure to marry, “women’s average age at first marriage rose to
twenty six for the first time” (Table 1). 152
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