Unconcealed: A Tale of Japanese Women’s Development

Since the Meiji Restoration, and especially during the more than seventy years after the war, Japanese women, one of the representative groups of women in the East, have undergone a dramatic transformation: from shackling their own spirits to seeking freedom of the soul, and from adhering to tradition to asserting their individuality. Their awareness as women has changed profoundly, yet remains rooted in their national character. Over the past century, Japanese women’s journey toward self-liberation has touched every aspect of life, from love, marriage, family, education, and the workplace to political participation. Seeking a balance between tradition and modernity, they have nurtured a new kind of woman who combines modern ideas with traditional virtues. Drawing on a wealth of real-life examples and written in an accessible, natural style, this book tells the story of Japanese women’s development. It reveals how political systems and economic growth have shaped women’s consciousness and interacted with it, how Japanese women today came to be, and how women’s consciousness and feminism in Japan have evolved, offering lessons worth learning and questions worth exploring.