The "hidden" history of accounting in Japan: a historical examination of the relationship...

Introduction

Gender research in accounting, to date, has shed light on women's involvement with accounting in various domestic and business arenas in different historical contexts (Lehman, 1992; Loft, 1992; Kirkham & Loft, 1993, 2001; Walker, 1998, 2003a,b; Llewellyn & Walker, 2000; Anderson-Gough et al.,2005 ;Walker & Carnegie, 2007). However, the studies in this area are still predominantly based on the Anglo-Saxon context, with the analysis reflecting the social and cultural experiences of men and women in western societies. The historical examination of the relationship between women and accounting in Japan presented in this article provides evidence from a different context.

Existing studies of women's history in Japan highlight how important it is to study the relationship between Japanese women and accounting within its social and historical context. In this research area, it has been acknowledged that Western feminist perspectives are of limited use in helping us understand the position of Japanese women (Martinez, 1987; Ueno, 1987; Wakita, 1992). Historians of Japanese women's history claim that westerners' observations of Japanese women tend to give only one side of the story; their analysis depends on observations made in the "public" social realm (Ueno, 1987, p.75) and often misses the point (they claim) that the majority of Japanese women seek autonomy and status in the household rather than public power (Martinez, 1987, p.83).

Women historians in Japan emphasize the importance of thorough analysis of the historical processes that have shaped the role and position of women, their attitude to work and the family, and the need to record the real experiences of Japanese women from different classes and social spheres. More focus is therefore being placed on ethnographic studies and folklore studies of the real life of ordinary people, rather than on texts written by or for the ruling class, whose thinking has been significantly influenced by western ideology.

The evidence arising from their historical research suggests that existing studies of the relationship between women and accounting, which have to date been based on the Anglo-Saxon social context, may be unable fully to capture women's experience in accounting in a non-Anglo-Saxon contextual framework. In order fully to understand the relationship of Japanese women with accounting, therefore, one needs first to examine how historical developments and the changing function of accounting have shaped women's role and position in Japanese society. This has a particular significance since the accountancy function in Japan also differs from the Anglo-Saxon countries in many ways. In contrast to the UK and USA, where the accounting profession has a long-standing history, it was introduced in Japan by the US occupation in the post-war period and has played only a minor role because of its incompatibility with the interdependent nature of corporate networks (Komori, 2006). A detailed picture of Japanese women's real-life experiences in accounting before their entry into the profession will help us to evaluate the similarities and differences between the Japanese and Anglo-Saxon contexts in terms of the relationship constructed between accounting and gender.

The intention of the current work is not to debate Japanese women's attitude to western feminist thought, but to provide a picture of the relationship between women and accounting as it exists in the Japanese context.

A solid appreciation of the historical interaction between women and accounting is prerequisite to the understanding of the changing role of Japanese women in accounting. Growing numbers of women are currently moving beyond their traditional social role and entering the accounting profession. The migration of women from household to corporate accounting could influence the way corporate accounting is conducted, which in turn could affect the position of the accounting profession within the business community. Recent research evidence has shown there is a striking contrast between the experiences of women within and outside the home in terms of their accounting role and the power it gives them. While women enjoy very little power in the corporate setting, being still much in the minority and generally occupying inferior positions in the audit corporations, women at home have control over the family budget, and are known as "ministers of finance" by their husbands (Komori, 1998). Examination is needed of whether women will acquire the same power in the corporate setting as in the home and, if not, identification of the factors impeding them. The historical analysis of how women's relationship with accounting in the home came to be shaped will help us evaluate the complicated effects of the changes that have taken place in women's role and position in accounting.

When studying the historical relationship between women and accounting in Japan, it must be noted that western assumptions relating to gendered dichotomies such as private and public, family and work do not apply in the Japanese context (see Kirkham & Loft, 2001). In Japan, the household historically has played a particularly significant role, being positioned as a public site expected to help maintain the activities of both business corporations and the state. Throughout Japanese history, the government has been involved in defining the role of the household as the provider of essential labour and external funding (through the investment of household savings). Women have had a long-standing association with accounting in the home; indeed, through their involvement with household accounting they were instrumental in the success of the national "savings promotion movement" in the post-war period (Komori & Humphrey, 2000). Therefore the role of women in accounting and the social significance of this role need to be examined by looking at the social significance of the household, the role and position of women within the household and in the workplace, and gender relationships in Japan. Also, Japanese society has no "homegrown" tradition of feminism; the movement was initiated in the early twentieth century by well-educated women who had the opportunity to learn about western feminist thought, but has never enlisted the support of the majority of women in the country. Such a key contextual difference means accounting may have fulfilled a different role for Japanese women from what has been argued in the West. Thus the historical exploration of how accounting has shaped women's role, and its meaning for Japanese women, may broaden our understanding of the relationship between gender and accounting.

To this end, this article reveals the changing relationship between women and accounting in Japan through five historical periods: pre-modern times; the modernization period; the industrialization period; during the war; and post war. Each of these periods was marked by significant social change, which affected the role and position of women and their relationship with accounting. The main aims of the study are twofold: first, to understand how accounting was socially allocated as the woman's role and secondly, to reveal women's real-life involvement with accounting. To address the first question, a historical overview is constructed by drawing upon a wide range of literature in both English and Japanese, including: studies of women's history in Japan; studies of the Japanese business corporation, household and society; and household accounting research. Looking at the second question, the article draws upon those studies informed by the new approach to women's history and upon accounts of women's real life experiences in accounting, rather than the instruction texts imposed on women. It utilizes the historical records yielded by household accounting books and materials from various organizations including publishers of women's magazines and The Japanese Consumers' Cooperative Union (CO-OP). While the article is based predominantly on secondary sources, interviews were conducted with representatives of the Central Council for Savings Information, the editors of Fujin no Tomo and members of the Japan Housewives Association (Shufu Rengo Kai) to explore the evidence. The article closes by considering how accounting has helped to shape the current social position of women and what accounting means for Japanese women, questions that have not been discussed in the Anglo-Saxon based studies.

This is a new historical exploration. Employing a gender perspective offers us a new way to understand the development of accounting in Japan. Despite the significant changes taking place in Japan, the growing number of historical studies of accounting in the country have to date been made with no reference to issues of gender or the respective roles and influence of men and women (for example Accounting, Business and Financial Hutory, Vol.11, No.3, November 2001). As a result, little is known of how the roles of men and women and gender relationships have affected accounting's development in Japan. This historical examination of women's relationship with accounting will set it against the wider social structure and the currents of social change, thereby exposing the links between accounting and the wider social context in Japan.

Pre-modern times: the role and position of women and their relationship with accounting

The pre-modern period examined in this section is that period before the Meiji Restoration in 1868. This includes medieval times (chusei) and the Tokugawa era, during which Japan prepared for the coming of modernization under the long rule of the House of Tokugawa (kinsei). Any contact with foreign countries was prohibited except for some countries, who were allowed to retain commercial ties with one area in the South of Japan. This regime continued for more than two centuries, until the dynamic influence of westernization finally came to Japan. In the Tokugawa regime, society was strictly divided into four classes, with warriors at the top of the class hierarchy. The position of women and men, and women's relationship with accounting varied among the different classes in pre-modern Japan.

In the samurai class, which enjoyed the most privileged position in Tokugawa society, the roles of men and women were clearly demarcated. Women were kept out of the spaces where men conducted their public duties, remaining in the place called oku, literally the backroom of the house. They were prohibited from conducting ancestral rites or playing a public role in society and were completely deprived of the opportunity to pursue economic activities (Paulson, 1976). They had no contact with accounting work.

However, researchers into Japanese women's history give a very different picture of the relationship between wife and husband in other classes (Wakita, 1992). The Confucian discipline that shaped the role and position of women in the samurai class did not practically affect the women in other classes. In agrarian villages, women had control over rice, which functioned as a form of currency; in other words, they effectively had control over the domestic economy. The ritual when the female head of the household retired included "the transmission of the ladle" (Shamoji-watashi) (Ueno, 1987, p.77). The ladle, which was used to serve rice, symbolized that the female household head had exclusive control over its distribution. Women in the merchant class played an active role in many areas, including the maintaining of the family business (Wakita et al., 1987; Wakita, 1992). In this class, management of the household economy and accounts was part of the woman's responsibility for internal household management, and accounting work was one of her duties.

Women's role within and their responsibility for accounting work was closely related to the nature of the household (ie) in Japan, and its function as a unit of production (Wakita et al, 1987, p.13). Throughout Japan's history, 80 per cent of its population have been peasants, fishermen and merchants, meaning that the household has played a particularly significant role as a site for the production of goods and labour (Iwao, 1993, p.50). Unlike the western concept of "family", the Japanese household, known as ie, is not understood to mean a family-kinship group linked by biological relationship to a common ancestor. Rather, ie is understood to be based on a set of positions or statuses (Kitaoji, 1971; Shimizu, 1987). It is "a personalized relation to a corporate group based on work" and the major aspects of both social and economic life are involved inside the ie (Nakane, 1973). One of the aspects of ie is that it includes more than just living members who perform a variety of domestic, economic, political and religious functions; the dead are also considered essential members (Shimizu, 1987, p.585). Therefore, the household is recognized as an independent entity separate from its living and dead members. Even if it ceases to exist as a corporate body, losing its living members, it retains its nominal existence as a named entity with its own origins and history.

The fundamental goal of ie was household continuity, rather than the well being of individual members. Emphasis was placed on the preservation of household property, occupation, reputation, and artistic or cultural capital (Kondo, 1990, p.122). Like a corporation, in order to guarantee its organizational survival, it aimed to fill its key positions in such a way as to maintain continuity. A number of strategies were adopted to fill positions in the ie to achieve this; the most significant were the paired roles of "male and female household head".

The paired male and female household heads played different roles in the household but shared a mutual obligation to maintain its continuity. Men governed the household, playing a central role in productive activities. On the other hand, women managed it, supporting the productive labour in areas such as textiles and brewing, and managing the domestic economy. During the tenth and eleventh centuries, when this paired partnership of men and women was first established as the basic unit for the operation of ie, both male and female household head were deemed to have equal rights over the household property. This was called "fuhu douzai", which literally means equal property rights between husband and wife (Tabata, 1987, p.59; Inuma, 1992, p.165). The principle of "fuhu douzai" assumes the shared responsibility of both male and female household head for the preservation of household property, and signifies that not only could the male household heads control the property of their wives, but also that wives had the right to control their husband's property (Inuma, 1992, p.163). In this context, the financial responsibility also continued to be allocated to women as an aspect of internal household management, and the position of female household head was as significant as that of male household head, which carried with it responsibility for the external activities of the household.

The nature of the household and the principles upon which it operated were key factors defining women's role in accounting. The work of financial management was allocated to them on the grounds that, as the mothers of the next head of household, they were crucial to maintaining continuity (Wakita, 1992, p.12).

Accounting played a significant role in enabling women to manage and control the behaviours of men. Rather than being simply a means to maintain and manage internal household activities, its significance lay in enabling women to manage their husbands' "imprudent" and "extravagant" behaviour. The study by Goto (1996) concerning the everyday lives of ordinary people in pre-modern Japan reveals that the decision-making within the household was based on mutual communication and agreement between husbands and wives, and that husbands did not necessarily have absolute authority within the household. When making decisions concerning household matters, the husband had to discuss things with his wife, asking for her help and cooperation; a process that was called dango. Goto's source material was a play written in 1645 and set among the households of the commoner class. This is considered the oldest existing portrayal of the everyday life of people in this social class. In her analysis of the plot, she recounts the story of a husband accepting an invitation to play a certain role within one of the public festivals and asking his wife for help with the preparation. Unexpectedly, however, his wife gets upset with him, saying, "It is so imprudent of you to decide to accept this role with only a few days to prepare. I cannot make the preparations within such a short time. I cannot take care of you if you decide things without asking me" (Goto, 1996, p.241). The imprudent behaviour of husbands is further revealed elsewhere in the text. When a husband needs to ask for his wife's cooperation with a poetry reading he has agreed to do, he is criticized again as "imprudent" for accepting such a public role. Furthermore, he is accused of being "extravagant", spending time and money in reading a poem, so that "it is difficult to maintain the household economy" (Goto, 1996, p.242). This is an interesting contrast to the Anglo-Saxon context, where the discourse of extravagance and improvidence was used by husbands to justify their control of their wives' behaviour (see Walker, 1998; Walker & Carnegie, 2007).

Thus, in the commoner class in pre-modern Japan, where households had a significant role in defining women's role and position, accounting, a central plank in household management, was allocated to women. Within traditional merchant or agricultural households, where business was closely linked to the tradition and dynamics of household management, their accounting work helped to justify their position. The wife of the household head was referred to as the "oldest woman of the household" (ie-toji) and "head of the household" (te-nushi) in various folk terms (Ueno, 1987, p.577). However, their influence was limited to the world inside the household. Women's success was regarded as humiliating to their business competitors and embarrassing to their family; they were not expected to surpass other, male, business competitors (Lebra, 1991, p.148). Even when a woman proved to be a talented entrepreneur, playing an important role in expanding her family's business, her successors, though giving credit to her personality and achievements, were reluctant to keep her name in the family register (Lebra, 1991). Women's power within the household was further restricted when the nature of the household changed as a result of the Meiji government's social reforms.

Modernization: state policy on women and accounting in the late nineteenth century

The modern period began in Japan when the Tokugawa regime was defeated and the Meiji government was established in 1868. After being cut off from international contact for more than two centuries, Japan opened up to western commerce and diplomatic contact. In the course of the Meiji Restoration, the Meiji government made a series of social and political reforms, encouraging industrialization and increasing national power with the aim of "catching up with western countries". Old customs and practices were questioned and new social reforms were introduced from the West, including the dismantling of the four-class system, the abolition of feudal privileges, the introduction of universal compulsory education and the promotion of industrialization (Bernstein, 1991, p.7). The government's efforts pushed Japan into becoming an advanced, industrial, imperial country by the time of the First World War.

It was essential for the Meiji government to revitalize the family system when it created the family-state structure. The government's intention was to merge the individual family with state power and to portray the emperor as the great father. Under this ideology, the patriarchal family was positioned as the basic unit of the ruling order of the state. Contrary to the notion that the family is a "private" institution, the family-state ideology promoted by the Meiji government considered the family as an essential unit through which the state would exercise its power (Miyake, 1991, p.270). Consequently, the Japanese household was reframed as a "public" site within the family-state ideology. This was reflected in the implementation of the Meiji Civil Code in 1898.

The role of women was redefined in the family-state ideology imposed by the Meiji government. The Ministry of Education published a substantial number of documents emphasizing the duty of women to preserve the family system. Ryosai kenbo, which literally signifies a good wife and a wise mother, was presented in state propaganda as the ideal role for a woman (Oki, 1987). The Meiji Civil Code of 1898 explicitly defined the role of women as being to serve their men and families and to maintain the continuity of the Japanese patriarchal family system (Hara, 1995, p.97). The code legally gave authority to the head of the household, who was usually male, placing the woman in a subordinate position. The role assigned by the state was socially significant, forming as it did the basis of the family-state structure of Japanese society. Since the family was regarded as the "essential building block of the national structure", the woman's function as the cornerstone of the family was considered as vital as the work of the civil servants (Bernstein, 1991, p.7). The Ministry of Education, for example, pronounced in "The Meiji Greater Learning for Women" (Meiji onna daigaku) that "the home is a public place where private feelings should be forgotten" (Nolte & Hastings, 1991, p.156).

This role reflected much of the culture, views and ideology of the ruling elite samurai class, who took the initiative in carrying out the Meiji Restoration. Their ideology influenced other classes even as the class hierarchy was being formally abolished. Consequently, women lost much of the power they had enjoyed in the commoner class. Reflecting the gender demarcation characteristic of the samurai class, women's newly appointed social role prevented them from entering the political arena. They were denied the right to participate in politics at any level until feminists won the abolition of the legal provision that barred women from attending political meetings in 1922 (Nolte & Hastings, 1991, p.l53).The reasons cited for excluding women were not physical, mental or moral incapacity, as the studies of women accounting professionals in the UK and USA have revealed (see Lehman, 1992; Kirkham & Loft, 1993). Rather, it was because the public role defined by the state determined their location; it was argued that women involved in political activities outside the home would neglect their public duty.

This period saw the establishment of the patriarchal family structure in Japan. In this patriarchal structure, however, it was not assumed that marriages would be based on love (Sechiyama, 1998, p.92). Marriage signified a connection between households rather than a connection between individuals. Love between husband and wife was not expected; indeed it was socially repressed; it was considered impolite for a couple to express any emotional attachment they might feel in front of others after the wedding (Sechiyama, 1998, p.149). The lack of love between husband and wife spurred women to make strong attachments to their children. The corporate nature of the traditional household also helped to reinforce this trend: even in the 1920s, Japan was predominantly a country of traditional economic sectors; around 62 per cent of women worked in small-scale family agriculture without payment (Kawashima, 1995, p.273). Within traditional households, in which wives lived with their husband's family, children were regarded by women as their only comfort and protection from loneliness. Consequently, they were willing to take on the role of motherhood advocated by the state in later years (Sechiyama, 1998, p. 150).

The Meiji Government stressed the significance of education in equipping women to fulfil their role, and this was reflected in the new education policy and legislation on education. Girls' high schools were intended to turn out young girls with refined tastes and gentle and modest characters (Nolte & Hastings, 1991, p.158). The school curriculum was different from that set for boys, who were prepared for entry to higher schools and universities. It was felt that girls needed no more education than was required to enable them to carry out their household duties. A new feminine ideal was formulated, which combined the feminine virtues admired by the samurai class - modesty, courage and frugality - and those prized by the commoner class, namely, literacy, hard work and productivity.

The Meiji Government regarded household accounting as an important part of a woman's role. Women were expected to contribute to the nation's savings for investment in modern industry by practising frugal household management. From the beginning of Japan's modernization in the late nineteenth century (the Meiji era), household savings were regarded as an important funding source for new industries and the development of military power, and for supporting government policies designed to help Japan catch up with advanced western countries. Women were told that they should aim to be frugal managers. Accordingly, training in household accounting was greatly encouraged.

Studies in the UK have argued that household accounting has helped to contain women at home under male domination and served to reinforce gender inequality in a wider set of society (Walker, 1998, 2003a; Llewellyn & Walker, 2000; Walker & Carnegie, 2007). In nineteenth-century Britain, household accounting was a practice that supported private patriarchy in the middle class; accounting was used to control women's "extravagant" spending and women had to make full disclosure of their accounts to their husbands, which reinforced hierarchical accountability (Walker, 1998). In the modernization period, Japan experienced a similar development in regard to accounting in the domestic arena.

Bookkeeping was already considered part of a woman's role in the late nineteenth century (Mito, 1977, p.15). Informal bookkeeping methods were introduced as a taught subject in elementary schools in 1873 and were seen as an essential part of a girl's education (Miyokawa, 1997b). In 1883, household accounting was introduced into the high school curriculum, and educational rules in elementary schools clearly stated that the role of women was to manage the household economy by keeping household accounts. Accordingly, many textbooks on domestic bookkeeping were published between 1873 and 1913 (Yasukawa, 1991). These claimed that women should keep detailed household accounts to prevent waste (Mito, 1977, p.15; Yasukawa, 1991). For all this, however, the influence of the government's education policy was not felt much outside the upper class; it had little effect on the majority of women in rural areas. The national attendance rate at girls' elementary schools was still less than 30 per cent in the late nineteenth century (Yasukawa, 1991, p.51).

Writers in the women's magazines at that time further reinforced the newly defined role of women in household accounting. These women's magazines played a significant part in establishing the social role of women in Japan, having a considerable impact in particular on those upper-middle-class housewives in the early 1900s who wanted to incorporate western elements into their family life (Kanno & Ogawa, 1989). Fujin no Tomo (The Women's Friend), one of the most popular magazines among housewives, was published at the beginning of the 1900s and was widely read among the middle-class in the emerging urban centres. Emphasizing the importance of thrifty household management, the publishers of the magazine have issued an accounting book for households annually since 1904. Based on the ideas and experience of Mrs Motoko Hani, the editor of Fujin no Tomo, it has played a leading role in introducing accounting into the households of modern Japan (Miyokawa, 1997a, p.67). The household accounting process was advocated as a way of enhancing rationality and introducing a systematic approach in households, which it was claimed would lead to an improvement in quality of life. Westernization was also brought to household accounting practice. Publishers introduced their readers to UK household accounting practices and the literature of household accounting in publications such as Mrs Beeton's "Book of Household Management" (Yasukawa, 1991, p.53).

The government allocated the respective roles of men and women as servants of the nation and used accounting to enforce their social policy of containing women in the domestic arena. Women's role in household accounting positioned them under the male household head, whose role, also defined by the government, was to serve the emperor. In this way, accounting operated as an instrument of the government's policy to maintain the patriarchal family system and use the family as a source of funding for national investment in business and military development.

Industrialization: the changing position of women during the early twentieth century

The government also had the national aim of promoting industrialization, which it called fukoku kyohei. This literally means rich country, strong army. Under this slogan, the government played a leading role in promoting the industrialization of Japanese enterprises. It encouraged the introduction of western technologies and took steps to start up modern industries, which eventually developed into zaibatu, huge financial and industrial combines. The large-scale modern industries developed by the zaibatsu were the foundation of the remarkable industrial progress made during the last decade of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s. While the concept of joint stock companies was introduced by zaibatsu as a more rational form of modern business organization, the family business, the type of business organization prevalent in the Tokugawa era, was considered limited (Yoshino, 1968, p.60).

Industrialization brought changes to women's labour. The spinning and textile industries that were leading employers in the early stage of industrialization started to hire women from poor families as cheap labour (Kawashima, 1995). These young female workers, who had to work in order to supplement their parents' income, were faced with extensive exploitation. The deplorable working conditions and malnutrition in the dormitories led to this period being referred to as "the primitive era in the history of Japanese industrialization" (Yoshino, 1968, p.73). On the other hand, the urban areas also offered great opportunities for women. Modernization created new occupations for women at the beginning of the twentieth century; they took up jobs as telephone operators, teachers, nurses, clerical workers, retail workers, and in the medical profession. The changes led to the emergence of middle-class working women (shokugyou fujin) in Japan (Nagy, 1991, p.201). There were 865,000 women in these jobs in 1924: 97,000 were nurses and pharmacists, followed by 92,600 clerical workers and typists, 61,500 teachers, 43,800 government officers, and 43,200 journalists, writers and musicians (Wakita et al., 1987, p.233). They amounted to more than 10 per cent of the workforce in these occupations, but these jobs still only accounted for a small proportion of the work done by women as a whole in Japan: the majority of women (6,345,934) were still engaged in farming (Bureau of Statistics, 1929). However, the increase in the number of women in these professions was dramatic enough to attract people's attention (Murakami, 1983). For example, there was a great increase in the number of women in the medical profession: from 306 in 1914 to 1,032 in 1936. The growing influx of women into these professions led to the establishment of women's associations in a number of business sectors, including The Association of Typists in 1920 and The Association of Female Clerks in the following year (Wakita et al., 1987, p.233).

In his study of the employment of women bookkeepers in late nineteenth-century Britain, Walker (2003b) identified the use of women as cheap or unremunerated labour as an important factor in their employment. The same reason underlay the feminization of clerical work in Japan. To secure a cheap labour force, there was a great need to bring women out of the household, so a discourse was constructed to support the needs of industry. Thus, skills and qualities that women developed by engaging in household duties were emphasized as appropriate for work in the public arena. In his seminal historical study of the everyday life of Japanese women, Murakami (1983) reports the following statement made in the early 1990s by a manager in one of the largest Japanese insurance corporations - the Yasuda Life Insurance Company:

It is very strange to doubt whether women have the practical potential or ability to work in the public social arena. The work women do, such as caring about food, clothing and shelter, or managing the household economy, communicating with people, and bringing up the children, resembles the work of clerks or secretaries at the companies or banks. The clerks of companies or banks need to be nice and cheerful and deal kindly with customers. At the same time, they need to be hardworking, prompt and accurate when doing company work. I should say that a woman who is capable enough to be a housewife is capable enough to be a clerk ... If there was failure among female clerks, I may think this is not because of their inability but because of society's lack of understanding of the best way to use female labour. (Murakami, 1983, p.139)

Kirkham and Loft (1993) revealed that in the UK, gender discourse was used to construct the feminine nature of bookkeeping and clerical work in order to differentiate accounting from these related occupations and to establish its masculine identity. In Japan, women were also encouraged to engage in these occupations. Reviewing the historical study of the feminization of clerical work in Canada, Loft (1992, p.374) highlighted that when the labour market was demand-led, the reasons that had been given for excluding women from the workplace were employed to justify their employment in routine clerical work. The same thing happened in the feminization of the clerical labour force in Japan: women's social role at home was cited as justification for mobilizing them out of the household and into the workplace so as to secure a cheap labour force. However, the construction of clerical work as a feminine occupation here was not a by-product of the professionalization of accountancy. Instead it was part of the realization of Japan's aim of industrialization.

The social demand for cheap female labour led to more women starting work as bookkeepers in small commercial shops. More than a thousand women graduated annually from one bookkeeping school in Tokyo, with the number increasing every year throughout the 1920s (Murakami, 1983, p.27). In 1930, female accountants, bookkeepers and cashiers (7,649) accounted for more than 10 per cent of the occupation (75,831) (Bureau of Statistics, 1939). The competency these women demonstrated in their work beyond the household enabled the breakthrough of women into the public arena. Female clerks employed at that time were considered to be dedicated, accurate and careful, and were often felt to be more capable than male clerks (Murakami, 1983, p.139). But this trend, triggered by the industrialization process and growing capitalism, began to come into conflict with the "good wife and wise mother" role advocated by the Meiji government.

Walker (2003b) argued that liberal feminism also encouraged the recruitment of women bookkeepers in the late nineteenth century in the UK. However, the influence of feminism was not evident in the feminization of bookkeeping in Japan. The process was driven by the demands of industrialization rather than by women's desire for independence from the constraints of patriarchy (Murakami, 1983; Wakita et al., 1987). However, the experience of working in different social arenas had an impact on women and they started to change their ways of thinking, and to ask questions about their position and status. The growing awareness among women helped to reinforce the feminist movement in Japan.

From the onset of the modern period, well-educated women with access to western education were able to read about western feminist thought in Japanese and English translations. Works available included those of the Swedish feminist, Ellen Key (1849-1926) and Emma Goldman (1869-1940), an activist in Europe and the USA, and they helped establish the notion of "women" in Japan (Nishikawa, 1997). Prior to the modern era, society was rarely categorized in terms of gender, but rather by social class (Kano, 1997, p.196). The discussion of "how women should be", raised by the public in the course of the development of the feminist movement in Japanese society during the 20th century, established for the first time the notion of "women" as a social group (Kano, 1997, pp. 196-7). The movement developed as more western ideas and methods were introduced into Japanese society. Several young modernists from the social elite, such as Fukuzawa Yukichi and Mori Arinoli, had travelled to the USA, UK and Europe in the late nineteenth century and been educated there with the aim that they would help modernize the nation on their return. Inspired by the concepts of "equality" and "freedom" they had seen in the West, they introduced them to the Japanese people in their subsequent positions as the founder of Keio University, and Minister of Education respectively (Robins-Mowry, 1983, pp.41-2).1 Their "enlightenment" activities helped to raise public awareness regarding the role and position of women in Japan. It must be noted, however, that from the early period of its establishment, the feminist movement in Japan had greater sympathy with North European feminists and their advocacy of the significance of "motherhood" than with the Anglo-Saxon feminists' stress on economic independence and political equality (Ueno, 1998, p.46).

The first action of the feminist movement was the establishment of the Seitosha (Blue Stocking Society) in 1911 by Hiratsuka Raicho, a well-educated middle class woman. Its aim was to encourage unknown writers through its publication of the magazine Seito, and to develop women's literary and intellectual talents. The movement started as a way for women to seek their personal identity spurred by "the expression of the inward desires" of women, rather than to campaign for social and political reform (Robins-Mowry, 1983, p.61).2 As their activities gained them more support from and popularity among women in urban centres, the state's monopoly over gender construction in Japan was weakened (Rodd, 1991, p.176). Some of the women who joined Seitosha established the New Women's Association in 1920 with the aim of emancipating women from traditional attitudes and redefining women's role in the public arena (Robins-Mowry, 1983, p.66; Rodd, 1991, p.l76).The members of the New Women's Association numbered more than 200 and their activities finally secured women's legal freedom in 1922; however, this interlude of enhanced status and position did not last long. The movement and its activities were co-opted by the war regime in Japan, and were used to support nationalism.

Second World War: savings and women's role in household accounting (1920s to 1945)

The women's emancipation movement began to decline in the early 1920s. One of the reasons for the shrinkage of the feminist movement was the lack of concern among Japanese women themselves. In particular, the feminist movement did not enlist women from the farming families that constituted a significant proportion of the population. These women were more concerned with the improvement of their economic situation. The New Women's Association was criticized as bourgeois in attitude, preoccupied with ideological issues that were of interest only to middle-and upper-class women, and uninterested in the fundamental needs of the poor and the workers (Robins-Mowry, 1983, p.69). Attending meetings and engaging in politics were considered activities only possible for women with free time, and not for the majority of women with children. The political approach of the feminist movement was perceived as "trivial" and this conflicted with Japanese women's belief in the virtue of hard work (Robins-Mowry, 1983, p.68).3

Women lost interest in politics not only because of their pressing economic needs but also because of the social circumstances. The Peace Preservation Law, established in 1887, was designed to control the expanding influence of western democratic forces. The law served as the legal basis for police control of social, economic and political opposition to the government during the Second World War (Robins-Mowry, 1983, p.64; Miyake, 1991, p.279). Article Five specifically dealt with women, prohibiting them from joining political organizations, and sponsoring or attending political meetings. Such draconian legal restrictions created further psychological barriers, discouraging women from directing their concerns to political affairs. The strong control by the government was a contributing factor in the lack of interest shown by most women in Seito's activity (Yoneda, 2005).

The early 1920s witnessed the culmination of the conflict between the role advocated for women by the government and that fostered by the industrialization process. The industrialization and modernization process expanded the activities of women beyond the home. They developed a sense of independence from their role at home, which came into conflict with the government insistence upon the importance of being a good wife. In order to resolve this conflict, the government created a different gender model, emphasizing the maternal role of women (Nagahara, 1985; Miyake, 1991). The traditional family system, which centred on a male head of household, was weakened as substantial numbers of men were taken away to the war, leaving families made up mainly of women, and young or very old men. The migration of labour from the villages also accelerated the disintegration of families. This led to a switch in government emphasis from the male household head to the mother as the preserver of the family. Accordingly, the role advocated for women by the government shifted from that of wife to mother. The image of a benevolent mother encouraging her son to fight in the war and calmly dedicating her life to the nation was used by the government as an instrument to preserve and revitalize the family system (Miyake, 1991, p.270). The role encouraged by the Japanese government during the war period was referred to as "motherhood-in-the-interest-of-the-state" (kokkateki bosei).

The stress on motherhood had its roots in ryosai kenbo, the family-state ideology advocated by the Meiji government. Although this ideology ultimately held the self-sacrifice of the father to be of greater value than the mother's benevolence (Miyake, 1991, p.277), the role of women in preserving the family system was nevertheless portrayed as being as significant as the role being played by men who were fighting a war for the family-state. While the Meiji government had emphasized the role of women within the family, the wartime state viewed mothers as mothers of the nation. Women were called to carry out various duties in the service of the nation. They were encouraged to bear numerous children, and awards were given to those who had large families.

Women proactively responded to the role defined by the state to support the war regime. Patriotic associations that carried out nursing services at the front were unified into a single Greater Japan Women's Association {Dainihon Fujinkai) in 1942. By 1943, almost 19m women over the age of 20 had joined the association (Miyake, 1991, p.272). This number represents more than 60 per cent of Japanese women at that time who saw it as their duty to support the state's war effort. As in the UK, where the suffrage movement subordinated itself to the service of the nation during the First World War period (see Kirkham & Loft, 1993), Japanese feminists and the state recognized their common interest; women wanted to serve the nation, and the state wanted to mobilize their labour. Consequently, feminists supported the image of motherhood advocated by the government, and took the initiative in organizing women to help (Nishikawa, 1997, p.231). By this period, Japanese feminists had started to fight for social and political freedoms; writers in the Blue Stocking Society, such as Akiko Yosano and Raicho Hiratsuka were trying to encourage women to think more independently, while the members of the New Women's Association were fighting for gender equality in education, employment and suffrage. For them, the emphasis of the government on the role of women as preservers of the family system appeared to be a victory. It seemed to them that the role of women beyond the household was being socially acknowledged for the first time in the history of Japan (Miyake, 1991, p.273), and feminists took initiatives to mobilize and organize women on the home front. The government's emphasis on the value of motherhood was crucial. War heightened the demarcation in gender; while men could be heroes by dedicating their life to the state, women had to endure the shame of not being able to sacrifice their life for the nation. The only way for a woman to be compatible to a "hero" was to be the "mother of a hero" (Ueno, 1998, p.36). The state advocated the image of the benevolent mother to mobilize women's nursery services, and women sought a way to achieve social significance by proactively responding to the state's demand.

Not only feminists, but also women throughout the nation cooperated with the war regime. They were encouraged to believe that frugality was one of the ideal mother's most important virtues. Under the controlled economy, the government set up savings goals for military and industrial investment, ordering Japanese citizens to save first 8m and then 23bn yen (Fujin no Tomo, 1993, p.61). National savings associations were established in the drive to develop the savings movement with the support of various trade and community organizations, including women's groups. Housewives' organizations (Shufuno kai) were also established by publishers in order to share ideas among housewives and encourage household accounting as a way of maximizing the state's resources and responding to the savings drive (Fujin no Tomo, 1993, p.59). Supporting the national drive to accumulate capital, the publishers of the women's magazines presented household accounting as a way for women to develop skills in controlling waste and increasing savings.

The support of the women's magazines gave women the sense that their household accounting was significant and that it was serving the nation. Read initially by highly educated women of the middle class, from 1926 onwards readership of the magazines expanded to include women from rural areas with lower incomes (Kanno & Ogawa, 1989). Over 5m household accounting books were circulated annually by the four major women's magazines (Miyazaki, 1984). In 1922, readers of one of the magazines, Fujin no Tomo, set up a nationwide Friends' Association (Tomo no Kai), which actually encouraged local community networks.4 The magazines also responded to their readers' pleas for guidance and expressions of concern, holding various events and activities. In 1931, the first "Household Rationalization Exhibition" was held at the request of readers, attracting not only wives but also their husbands and children. In 1940, approximately 16,000 housewives attended the exhibition. Courses for household accounting were started, attracting 1,600 housewives in 1942. The influence of the women's magazines in teaching household accounting to women was so strong that when Fujin no Tomo failed to publish its accounting book due to lack of materials in 1945, seven other publishers cooperated to publish their own accounting book, distributing it through Tomono Kai (Miyokawa, 1997a, p. 124).

The women's magazines helped channel the frustration that women tended to have towards the government. The standard of living severely deteriorated during the war period partly due to the increase in the price of rice, which was the principal food for the Japanese. The national tax per person doubled and the economy suffered serious inflation, the result of the dramatic increase in prices and relatively low increase in wages (Fujin no Tomo, 1993, p.58). The magazines accommodated the public's dissatisfaction by providing a place for housewives to express their feelings. A large number of women from all over Japan sent letters to the publishers concerning the difficulties they had in managing their household budget. The letters had titles like: "Deplorable Household Which Cannot Even Buy a Snack" or "Living Itself is a Big Task". The publishers felt that printing these letters would help readers share experiences and make them feel less isolated in their difficulties. Indirectly, the women's magazines reawakened the sense of community that had characterized pre-modern Japan.

Women's magazines also played an important role in turning housewives' frustration into constructive action. After their dissatisfactions had been expressed and accommodated, the importance of household accounting was strongly reemphasized.

Every household economy has its problems, whether big or small. We could all improve our own household economies. We should not just be thinking how I can make "my household accounts" more efficient. We should be thinking how we can make "our accounts" more efficient. (Fujin no Tomo, 1993, p.60)

Although the publishers of these magazines were not controlled by the government, they also sought to promote national unity. Household accounting was promoted by women's magazines as one way in which women could serve the nation.

Thus during the war period, the state used accounting to help redefine the role and position of women as servants of the nation, while the men went to the battlefield. Accounting strengthened women's motivation to fight for the nation and reinforced the sense of unity among women beyond the household. But although the impact on women's work and lives was major, it did not outlive the war regime. In post-war Japan, the way women used accounting and their relationship with it changed again.

Post-war Japan: the Corporate Society and household accounting

Post-war Japan has witnessed another change in women's social position. Women have started to build independent lives outside their traditional household role and the opportunities available to them to participate in the economy and politics have increased. As opportunities for women have expanded, the country has witnessed the emergence of housewives into broader Japanese society. This phenomenon arose as a result of the establishment of the Corporate Society and the development of the "Japanese Contemporary Family".

Post-war Japan was faced with the urgent need to reconstruct society, and to rebuild and revitalize its economy and industry. The social structure was reconstructed in such a way that Japanese enterprises played a central role. The so-called "Corporate Society" was accompanied by strong gender demarcation; men were positioned as the core members of corporations and women in the domestic role supporting the male corporate warriors. New social significance was also given to the newly created family model. The majority of farms were broken up and young people from rural areas moved into industrial cities (Kimoto, 1995a). These young people gradually established their own families in urban areas, typically nuclear families made up of a single couple and their children. This new type of family has been described as the "Japanese Contemporary Family" (Kimoto, 1995a,b, 2002), and it remains the predominant type of family unit in Japanese cities. Since the wave of urbanization that occurred between 1955 and 1965, the percentage of rural households has fallen from 26.9 per cent to 18.7 per cent, while the percentage of employed households has risen from 19.0 per cent to 60.1 per cent. At the same time, since 1955 the number of three-generation households has declined and the number of nuclear households has risen (Miyajima, 1994).

The Japanese government and businesses emphasized the significance of the new model family as a site for the reproduction of the human resources essential for Japanese companies and the generation of the savings that provided a major source of funding for corporate investment. Japanese companies played an active role in promoting the new lifestyle and marketing the new family model in Japan. The labourers coming out from their village and building a new type of family in the city needed an idea of how to establish their new lifestyle. Companies were happy to give instruction and guidance to help them (Kimoto, 2002, p.70). The government was simultaneously proactive in promoting saving. Its "savings promotion movement" led to the establishment of the Central Council for Savings Information (CCSI, 1992). Lectures and study groups were organized to enhance popular understanding of the economic and social issues important in practical family life. Officers were sent to districts throughout Japan to spread the idea of lifestyle planning and proclaim the fundamental importance of savings (CCSI, 1983).

The government set out to promote household accounting as a way of establishing a healthy and happy family, while simultaneously continuing to use it to shape the role of women in the Corporate Society. Women in Japan were given the significant economic role of supporting corporate activities by increasing savings, but rather than encouraging their economic independence, this role effectively served to contain women at home, limiting their opportunities for career progression. Even today, the number of women in managerial positions in the corporate hierarchy remains extremely low (8.9%) compared to the UK (30%) and USA (45.1%) (The National Council for Women's Education, 2003). Sixty-one per cent of women in Japan are employed in clerical and related posts (Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, 2005). Women are not regarded as "core members" of the workforce, being expected to leave the workplace when they get married and have children and return as part-timers after having a family. Although the employment rate among women has risen steadily since the 1950s, it continues to follow an M-curve, reflecting the significant number of women who leave the workforce to raise children.

Despite such barriers, housewives proactively responded to their role at home, and had a significant impact in different sectors of society by means of their household accounting practice. Various publishers of women's magazines produced household accounting books, which greatly contributed to the popularization of household accounting after the Second World War (see Miyokawa, 1997a). The four major women's magazines publish their own household accounting books in the New Year and have been one of the major sources of these books for housewives, a phenomenon unseen in other countries (Yasukawa, 1995). As in the war period, these magazines provided women with a place to share their household accounting experiences and discuss household management.

Household accounting records also helped to inspire the growth of the consumer movement in Japan. Housewives have established a number of consumer groups and challenged the policy of powerful institutions and industry, particularly in the 1970s when Japan experienced escalating inflation and a serious deterioration in quality of life (Robins-Mowry, 1983, p.195). One of the major consumer organizations, the Japan Housewives Association (Shufu Rengo Kai, popularly called Shufuren), was established by housewives as early as 1948. The total membership of the organization then amounted to ten million, mostly women (Robins-Mowry, 1983, p.205). Its symbol is the apron and the rice paddle, signifying the control over the rice supply that was part of the role of women in traditional Japanese households (The Japan Housewives Association, 2005). It has an influential role in the Consumers' Advisory Body, the government body that advises on how to protect the interests of the consumer. The Association has used household accounting records to support the legitimacy of its campaigns; for example, it won the cooperation of the government by using household accounting records to demonstrate how the price of beef could be cut by breaking the multilayered distribution system (Robins-Mowry, 1983, p.211). The group also lobbies corporations to display greater social responsibility, and has led keidanren, the most powerful industrial organization, to become more conscious of the voices of consumer advocates (Robins-Mowry, 1983, p.211). Thus in Japan, housewives have used household accounting to pursue political aims and to exert an influence over mainstream political activities.

Housewives' associations across Japan have been a driving force in the consumer movement, acting collectively to achieve political aims. The common thread binding these associations together is their confidence in both the domestic and, by extension, the wider social significance of their household accounting practice. They have provided women with a valuable social network and have been a means through which women have gained self-confidence. Since 1957, the National Women's Council within the Japanese Consumers' Cooperative Union has monitored living costs on a monthly basis by analysing the household accounts from users of the "COOP Household Accounting Book". More than 400,000 people use this household accounting book, and more than 2,000 voluntarily send in monthly reports on their household accounts to the head office (The Japanese Consumers' Cooperative Union, 1987). Table 1 shows a household accounting monthly report form to submit to the CO-OP.

In 1946, the readers of Fujin no Tomo set up "The Household Accounting Union" (Kakeibo wo Tsuketousu Kai) with the aim of monitoring inflation rates by means of the careful scrutiny of household accounts. There were initially 523 members, rising to a peak of 1,000 in 1975 (see Figure 1). The members present their monthly accounts to the Union where the reports are aggregated and disclosed in Fujin no Tomo. These housewives' activities show how they use household accounting to understand changes in the economy and society and to identify any underlying problems (Fujin no Tomo, 2006, p.68). By paying attention to their expenditure on items such as tax, social insurance, housing and health, they attempt to influence the Japanese economy at the micro-level (The Japanese Consumer's Cooperative Union, 1999). Many of the Union's members have kept household accounts for more than 40 years, handing the responsibility from mother to daughter. Their household accounting records yield valuable insights into both personal and social history.

Conclusion: the relationship between women and accounting in Japan

In their discussions of accounting history research, Kirkham and Loft (2001) emphasize that the meanings of terms such as 'private' and 'public', 'family' and 'work' vary both historically and contextually. This historical examination of the relationship between women and accounting in Japan seeks to explore women's role in accounting and its significance within the changing social context, illuminating the relationship that has existed between women and accounting across several historical periods and revealing the history of accounting in Japan in terms of the respective roles of men and women and gender relationships. The studies in the UK have highlighted that accounting has served to institutionalize male domination in the domestic arena (Walker, 1998, 2003a; Walker & Carnegie, 2007). This study demonstrates Japan experienced similar developments in the relationship of men and women in regard to accounting. Japanese women have had a long-standing association with accounting, through their accounting work at home. Their role in accounting has been closely linked with the changing role of the household in different periods as well as with the ways in which the state has defined gender roles and women's position in society. The state's use of accounting has served to construct the patriarchal family system, which operated as a social infrastructure to collect funding necessary for the country's business and military development.

In the commoner class in pre-modern Japan, the household played a major role in defining women's role and position. Within the household, accounting was part of the woman's role, a way of managing internal household activities and maintaining the continuity of the household. Their accounting role allowed women to manage their husband's behaviour and justified their authority within the household. In the modern period, the role and position of the household was redefined by the government, who positioned men and women within a patriarchal family system under the rule of the state. Women's accounting role was also redefined under the "family-state" structure posited by the Meiji government; women were contained at home and expected to play the role of good mother and wife, serving the nation by accumulating savings through frugal household management. However, during the industrialization process, the newly created occupation of bookkeeping widened the opportunities available to women and eventually helped to raise women's awareness of their independence. The feminist movement imported from the West at that time also inspired many young women in urban centres to seek personal fulfilment and social freedom. This trend eventually came into conflict with the role and position imposed on women by the Meiji Government. When this conflict intensified during the war period, the government recast women's role as "mothers of the nation", highlighting once more the importance of their service to the state. State propaganda promoted frugal accounting practices as a way for women to contribute to the national aim of accumulating savings. Thus, household accounting accommodated both the state's need for women to be "good and wise mothers" and women's own increasing awareness of their gender identity and of feminism.

The unique feature of the relationship between women and accounting in Japan highlighted in this study is the way women responded to their accounting role. Although the government was effectively co-opting women into the war effort, women in Japan committed to their role, establishing their own networks and associations and making a vital contribution beyond the household. While household accounting in the Meiji era had served to contain women at home, household accounting in the war period gave them the opportunity to come together and organize themselves for action. In the post-war period, women used accounting to effect political change through the consumer movement. Post-war Japan was reorganized as a Corporate Society, one in which Japanese companies were positioned in a central role. The Meiji government's role as the arbiter of the respective positions of men and women was taken over by society; gender roles were embedded in a social structure designed to support corporate activities. The government and businesses took the initiative by publicly allocating the job of household accounting to housewives, encouraging them to accumulate savings that could be used to fund corporate investment. Women in Japan not only proactively engaged in their role but also used accounting to help enhance their power as consumers and to challenge the policies of powerful institutions. In contrast to earlier periods, when accounting legitimized women's role and position within the household as set by the government, women in the post-war period used it to enhance their power in the public domain.

The role of accounting for women and its effect on women's lives are particularly significant in the Japanese social context. Feminist thought did not take root in Japan as a way to achieve independence and equality, as was generally seen in the Anglo-Saxon countries, but as a way for women to achieve personal fulfilment and explore their feminine identity. These aims made it easier for the government to appeal to women's sense of nationalism and draw them into the war effort, as it encouraged women to find fulfilment by serving the nation. Their relative lack of a sense of independence was evident in their willingness to accept the state's advocacy of "motherhood" during the war period. This historical study reveals that this lack of a sense of independence was rooted in the fact that the household has historically defined women's role and position. Since modern times, this function has been handed over to the state, which has shaped gender roles to support its economic aims. In such a social climate, where collective social progress has taken priority over gender, accounting has played an important role in enabling women to exert pressure in the public domain through collective action and helped raise women's sense of their feminine identity.

Japanese women are still in the process of defining their identity and accounting is playing a key role in this process, supporting their sense of independence. The US model of independent auditing and disclosure imported in the post-war period offers good careers to women seeking to escape from their conventional role within the household and work in accounting in the public arena. Loft (1992, p.376) emphasized that in considering the changing nature of women's occupational involvement in accountancy, it is important to be aware of a wider social and political context that affects the working lives of women and their career progression. As the impact of nationalism becomes less obvious under the influence of globalization, it is worth examining to what extent accounting in the corporate arena in Japan continues to help to develop the women's sense of independence and their feminine identity as it has done so beyond the workplace.