ABSTRACT
Characterisations of the post-occupation Japanese state of the years 1955 to 1973 vary widely and are heavily marked by the political stripe of their proponents. Liberal historians, in contrast, suggest Japan gained material wealth, as well as leisure goods and time, as a result of economic expansion in the high growth era, and they commonly cite the 1964 Summer Olympics and the development of the high-speed bullet train (shinkansen) as evidence of great strides the country made in the period. Indubitably, the men of post-occupation Japan enjoyed their vacuum cleaners, refrigerators and washing machines in the 1950s, and their colour television sets, air conditioners and cars in the 1960s and 1970s. Entitlement to a full-time housewife was a perk accruing to them, in addition to white goods, but feminists have been strangely reluctant to explain their self-sacrifice on this basis.
