Evening star., 1938-12-11
Japanese Women Caught in Grip
OF Family Law and Traditions
Marriages Are Arranged for Them and If They
Fail Divorce Is Unable to
Support Herself
By Relman NORM.
Correspondence of the Associated Press)

TOKIO.-The double suicide recently
of a high-born japanese woman and
her daughter has again sharply illus
trated the tragically helpless position of
women in Japan.
Toxic newspapers reported the case
In full. They said that Viscountess
Toshiko Ozeki and her daughter, %,
drowned themselves in the ocean when,
despite all their efforts, the Viscountess'
brother refused to permit his niece to
marry an artist.
Seven years ago the ViscounteSs was
divorced Her sons remained with the
father, her daughter with her Under
japanese law, she thus was returned to
her own family. Her father having died,
the elder brother had become the head
of the family. AS such, he had almost
absolute control over the lives of his
sister and his niece.
He did not approve the niece's pro-
posed marriage, the japanese newspapers
said. For year mother and daughter
tried without success to persuade him.
Finally they gave him silent answer
when their cold and lifeless bodies were
found on the beach.
This is a case fairly typical to Japan.
where both the family system and the
legal code conspire to place the woman
In a completely inferior position. She
has few rights In legal theory, and al
most none at all in actual practice.
Marriages Are Arranged.
Among the aristocracy marriages are
arranged. A go-between negotiates for
the parents of the prospective bride and
bridegroom. There is no courtship be-
tween the young couple, and, indeed,
the only time they ever meet is during
the formal occasions when the arrange
ment is virtually concluded.
For a well-born Japanese girl to go
out unchaperoned with her future hus-
band would be serious breach of both
etiquette and morals.
At her wedding the bride wears
white kimono. White being the funeral
color in Japan, the costume symbolizes
her death" as a member of her own
family. When she enters her husbands
home she wears red. Red is the color
of birth, and the t.gnificance is that
family. Her name is withdrawn from
her own family register and entered in
the register of her husbands. There
after, inflexible family law which is en-
cysted in centuries of tradition, comes
into operation.
It demands, first of all, complete and
unquestioning obedience to the father
in-law the mother-in-laW and the hus-
band They take precedence over her in
everything, even to the most trivial
phases of domestic life Her primary
duty, and the object of her whole exist
ence, is to suit them.
One of the most common grounds for
divorce in Japan is the simple statement,
coming from the husband, this woman
does not suit my family"
Has No Claims on Children.
Her position improves slightly when
children are born. The care and rearing
of them is her exclusive province. But
even here, her will is subordinate to that
of her husband and his parents. The
children, particularly the sons. belong by
immutable right, to the paternal family.
She has merely given birth to them. She
also can be divorced if she is barren.
Desertion and infidelity, of course, also
are grounds for divorce But the per-
centage of divorce granted on these
causes is almost infinitesimal.
Technically, it is possible for woman
to obtain a divorce if her husband is
unfaithful. But in practice it is seldom
wives of his friends are not invited, and
the party does not gather in his home
Is usually Is held at a restaurant, where
the beautiful and professionally charm
ing geisha girls constitute the feminine
attendance.
II man makes Geisha his mistress,
his wife may divorce him. but she seldom
does. The reason for this is that there
Is no alimony, as such in Japan. A
court can compel husband to support
his children, but it does not provide that
he shall support his wife.
Geisha Provides Problem.
Thus. recently, Japanese newspapers
treated their readers to an interesting
case Of domestic dispute.
A poor man, married and with chill
dren, became moderately wealthy, over
night, through an invention Immedi-
Ately, he began frequenting geisha houses
and finally became, as it is euphemistic-
ally known, the patron" of a geisha.
Whether his wife objected to that is not
known, but she did object when he began
making arrangements for bringing the
girl to live in his home.
She did not sue for divorce. Instead,
the husbands family devised Solomon
like plan of arbitration. The house, it
self, the actual living quarters, was di-
vided. Mother and daughters had their
own rooms. Father, sons-and the
geisha-had theirs. Life went on.
The situation of the Japanese divorce
is unexpressibly bleak and dismal. She
returns to her own family. This "a