ABSTRACT
All females in Japan suffer under ie (pronounced “ee-eh” and meaning family or household), a patriarchal family system rooted in Confucianism. The system requires that women subjugate themselves to fathers, husbands, and sons and persevere for the sake of their family. Women are expected to administer household affairs and raise and care for the children and the elderly, and resolve all emotional or relational issues for family. Under the ie system, a wife is expected to treat her husband’s and his immediate family members’ healthcare as more important than that of her own, of her parents, or of her maiden family. The domestic obligations delineated by ie may well lead the woman into utsu [depression]. Ie’s victims tend to suffer in silence, following the Confucian value of perseverance rather than reveal their utsu. They would not want to worry their family or to appear as a failure.
