ABSTRACT

The service industries conform in some ways to the traditional ideal for women in Japan. Apart from the feudal ideology there were economic imperatives which led to further debasement of the status of women, particularly in the rural areas. If a woman could not achieve this ideal because of economic or other circumstances then she worked in paid service to a man or to women of the aristocracy. The service industries thus developed as occupations sanctioned by the traditional ideology. Women represent 50 percent of all those employed in service industries. Except for agriculture, service industries have the highest ratio of female to male workers of any occupation. Women in the service industries also have the highest ratio of women’s to men’s wages of any occupation: 61.5 percent. Both the change in the over-all size of the work force and the change in the marital status of women workers have been reflected in the service industries.