As Japan has risen as an economic and industrialized world power, so too have the issues that come with such a change in a society. One such issue is eating disorders, which, as of late, have become a silent epidemic in Japan. While there are several cultural influences which may be causing this, part of the issue is the ideal of Ryosaikenbo. In the culture, “Japanese women today… are troubled by the social expectations of females, because a great many working women have the additional pressure of doing housework and are expected to be a ‘good wife and wise mother” (Davies & Ikeno, 179).
A good wife and wise mother involves conforming to sex and gender roles of one’s society, which can be a stressful experience for many women, especially when dealing with body type and appearance norms in society. The social pressure of Ryosaikenbo influence women to base their worth on body image and sexuality, thus coincidently interfering with their ability to be good wives and wise mothers. It is imperative to understand the nature of eating disorders, which are characterized as a psychological disorder, and have the highest mortality rate of all mental health diseases.
The eating disorders can be broken into three subtypes, Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, and Binge Eating disorder. Anorexia Nervosa is the restriction of food intake, with intense fear of gaining weight. It is ten times more likely to occur in females. One must have a body mass index below 17, which is seven percent lower than a healthy body weight in women. Bulimia Nervosa is characterized by episodes of binging, or loss of control with high food intake, coupled with episodes of purging, or compensatory behaviors to rid the body of calories. This disorder is also ten times more ikely in females than males. The last type of eating disorder is Binge Eating disorder. This disorder is equally present in females and males, and is marked by frequent over eating, with distress occurring as a result. In this category, people are still attempting to lower weight, and have guilt and disgust as a result of overeating. When a person, usually female, receives any of the three diagnoses, she must be treated physically, to restore healthy weight, and psychologically, to restore healthy perception of body image and self-worth (Hartung & Stevens).
Next, Ryosaikenbo, is a Japanese cultural term which can be broadly defined as being a good wife and a wise mother (Davies & Ikeno, 179). While there are many ways that a woman can feel successful in life, one such way for Japanese women to feel this way is to follow this ideal, and be a loving, caring, and sensible wife and mother. The meaning of this has changed over the centuries since the term was first used, yet women still have expectations in their public and private lives that are influenced by this idea.
Feminism in Japan has been fighting for equal rights, including legislation for equality in education and the workplace, teaching girls about the dangers of sex work, and helping girls and women understand the control each female has over her own reproductive and sexual bodies (Mackie, 12). This work has changed the way women respond to the ideal of Ryosaikenbo, yet it still influences a woman’s everyday life. The ideal has clear sex roles set for women, including being submissive to husbands while caring for children, but also encompassing appearance, which should be as thin as a woman can make herself.
The thin ideal is causing wide spread body image issues. While many women’s issues are improving in Japan, body image in young women is reaching the lowest levels of all time, which is causing eating disorders that can be deadly if untreated. Women are influenced by advertisements daily, and such images depict the ideal body type for the culture. This body type is the one which is prized, thus shaping sex roles, and telling women how to look to be valued as a good wife as wise mother.
The media has one of the greatest influences on females, with more than 50 percent of young women viewing fashion magazines regularly in Japan (Davies & Ikeno, 183). Studies have been performed which, “test the links between media exposure to women’s body dissatisfaction, internalization of the thin ideal, and eating behaviors… the findings support the notion that exposure to media images depicting the thin-ideal body is related to body image concerns for women” (Grabe, Ward & Hyde, 471).
Women feel pressure to reach an ideal weight, which is directly related to the sex role concerning Ryosaikenbo. The social expectation for women in Japan is to be thin in order to be beautiful. This thin ideal is what women are told will make them desirable, they are told that it will improve their value as a human being. A staggering 94 percent of women in Japan say they wish to be thinner (Davies & Ikeno, 183). This puts pressure on women, regardless of body type.
This pressure causes excessive dieting, which has led to a 100 percent increase in eating disorders in Japan over the past decade, with three percent of women meeting criteria for Bulimia Nervosa, 13 percent of women meeting body mass index criteria for Anorexia Nervosa, though not all are clinically diagnosed with the disease, and four percent of young women self-reporting to binge eating disorder in the country (Pike & Borovoy, 497-478). There is clearly an eating disorder epidemic in the country. When any disease increases by more than 100 percent in a ten year period it is cause for serious concern.
This epidemic is causing issues in Japan. Ironically, though if women are feeling the pressure to be thinner in order to meet the ideal of Ryosaikenbo, the exact opposite happens in reality. While a women is dealing with the illness of an eating disorder, she cannot truly fulfill the ideal of Ryosaikenbo. The psychological disease does not allow one to be a good wife or a wise mother, because the eating disorder is the woman’s main focus in life; this is one way which eating disorders are harming the social life of a woman.
She is dealing with the issues and cannot fully care for herself or her family. A normal functioning person will draw self-image from many sources, including family relationships, educational or occupational advances, and other personal experiences; when a person is functioning with an eating disorder, one’s self-worth comes solely from how one’s body looks (Hartung & Stevens). If a person is too focused inward, it is difficult to be virtuous in other aspects of life, including relationships with family.
When a woman becomes too focused on how she looks, she can neglect her family and forget that she has worth that goes far beyond outward appearance. Unfortunately, when suffering from an eating disorder a woman can neglect being a good wife or mother. Fortunately, there are ways to help combat eating disorders, through extensive physical and mental health treatments. Clearly, a person must first be willing to admit there is a problem with their eating habits, and that person must be willing to enter treatment.
Once this is accomplished, the first priority in treating eating disorders, is ensuring that the patient recovers to a healthy weight (Hartung & Stevens), this can limit the physiological issues that are caused by being underweight. The next steps can often be the most difficult, which is dealing with the mental issues and helping the patient to recover healthy self-worth and self-image. The next step of treatment, once low weight is not causing imminent danger, is psychological treatment of the disease.
The evidence based treatment, is the case of all three eating disorders is, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which addresses the fact that the woman with the disease is overevaluating herself based on body weight and shape (Wilson, Grilo & Vitousek, 201). When treating any person with a mental disorder, it is important to help him or her to think in a healthy way, and to ensure that it will continue far in to the future. If only the physical symptoms of the disease are treated, the person will relapse soon after leaving treatment for the disorder.
While these treatments work for many patients, helping to improve quality of life, there are still patients which have relapse of eating disorder symptoms. More treatment options must be researched, and ways must be found to reach women who are not responsive to the current preferred treatment methods. Once a woman has received adequate treatment for the physical and mental aspects of the disorder, she is free to return to daily life, and to become a better wife and mother than she was while suffering from the disease.
Undoubtedly, facing the struggles of an eating disorder interferes with a woman’s ability to fulfill the ideal of Ryosaikenbo, yet the societal pressure that a woman feels to be a good wife and wise mother, in Japan, can be a factor in etiology of the eating disorder to begin with. There are many ways a woman can feel successful, one of which is to be a good wife and a wise mother. Eating disorders have been on the rise in several countries, but the rise of more than 100 percent in ten years (Pike & Borovoy, 497-478) is something that Japan must pay attention to in order to help the women suffering in the country.
There are treatment options to help people recover from this mental health issue, but the society must admit that there is a major issue in order for this to happen. Women must realize that in order to be a good wife and wise mother, following the ideal of Ryosaikenbo, she must take care of her body and her weight. She must realize that there are far more factors to one’s self-worth than simply body weight and size. The country will have more successful women, including mothers and wives, when the eating disorder epidemic is faced and dealt with in a healthy manor.
