1. THE FUNCTION OF
WOMAN-AUTHORED
MANGA IN JAPANESE
SOCIETY

2. Introduction
 In its year 2000 White Paper, Japan’s Ministry of
Education ranked anime (animation) and manga
(comics) “among the most important forms of artistic
expression in the modern Japanese cultural
environment” (“Education White Paper”). Some anime
and manga fans have praised this pronouncement
because they perceive it to mean the two media are
finally receiving the critical attention they so richly
deserve. However, along with official recognition can
come increased homogenization of the medium as it
becomes a cultural product ready for consumption; it
stands to reason that manga and anime would not be
lauded so highly if they did not represent sanctioned
cultural norms.

3.  It is common for manga to be divided into clearly marked categories, often by the sex
of the intended audience, such as shōnen manga (“boys’ comics”) and shōjo manga
(“girls’ comics.”) Manga specifically targeted at girls has a much shorter history than
manga targeted at boys. The first modern shōjo manga is generally considered to be
Ribon no Kishi (“Princess Knight”), begun in 1953 by Osamu Tezuka (Schodt 1986:
96). Although Tezuka was a male, since that time, shōjo manga has usually been
considered a genre written by females for a female audience. As one can see by the
sales and circulation figures, the market for shōjo manga is still small compared to
boys’ comics. The increased role of girls’ comics within the manga industry as a
whole could be a result of the new purchasing power wielded by girls and young
women in a late capitalist economy such as Japan’s. Japanese feminist Saitō Chiyo
admits that while “[Y]ou could argue that if women constitute a major market
force, then they have considerable influence” and that “[W]omen are gradually
finding their way into more and more senior positions of influence,” she fears that
such women would be unwilling to work to further the women’s movement because
they fear risking the social and financial security that have gained (Buckley 1997:
256). Thus the emergence of women as a powerful consumer force does not
necessarily mean there has been an emergence of women in other sectors as
well, nor does it necessarily mean there has been a change in media representations
of women.

4.  The purpose of this research project is to analyze how manga
written by women functions in Japanese society, including how
gender roles are presented. Sharon Kinsella (2000) argues that
manga has become another form of pro-establishment media. If
manga has become mainstream and “pro-establishment” as
Kinsella claims, then many of the customary depictions of women
found in general Japanese mass media and society should be
present in manga as well, even those created by female manga
artists. Manga could then be seen as another kind of acculturation
to society, much like Japanese daytime television functions to
promote intimacy (Painter 1996). Because manga is so highly
accepted by Japanese society, as well as being actively put forth as
a representative work of Japanese culture by the Japanese
government, it stands to reason that manga in general does not
present ideas that run contrary to the commonly held ideology.
Manga may actually serve as a way of presenting and reinforcing
such ideas to the general public.

5. Women in Manga
 There have been an increasing number of female
artists producing works in both the manga industry
and the amateur manga subculture since the late
1950s (Schodt 1983: 97). One may wonder if
stereotypical gender representations are perpetuated
in such works created by women. An initial inclination
would be to theorize that manga written by female
artists would have a much more positive attitude
toward the depiction of women. However, because of
the structured way in which the manga industry
operates, this may not necessarily be the case. While
there may be more female manga authors now than
before, their portrayals of gender types does not seem
to be as clear-cut as one might think.

6.  Part of the reason why, historically, so few women have
produced and consumed comics in America may be due to its
classification as both an infantile and macho-dominated
medium, although this situation is changing (Sabin 1993). On
the other hand, in Japan, the reason there is such a strong
market for manga written by women for girls is that such
manga does not rely solely on male-oriented violence but
rather concentrates on the relationships among the
characters. This is not to say, however, that the Japanese
manga industry does not have its share of sexist and violent
comics. It is interesting to note that, in both English-speaking
countries and Japan, female comic writers are much more
highly concentrated in the underground or avant-garde circles
(Sabin 1993: 230).

7.  However, in spite of the fact that Japanese manga written by women continue to sell well (to
which the combined sales figures of Rumiko Takahashi’s work can well attest), female manga
writers still continue to interact with the medium in a marginalized way. Perhaps the best way of
viewing this marginalization is by examining the amateur comics phenomenon and how it
interacts with manga publication through more mainstream avenues. The term for printed
amateur manga is dōjinshi, which first began in the 1970s and rapidly increased during the 1990s
(Kinsella 2000:105), and both CLAMP and Rumiko Takahashi were once dōjinshi artists.
However, the fact that they have become professional manga artists is the exception rather than
the rule; rather than recruiting new manga artists up through the ranks of the dōjinshi
artists, manga companies generally find new talent through a series of talent competitions
(Kinsella 2000: 52). Thus amateur manga can be seen as a separate cultural environment in its
own right, rather than people who are trying to make it big as professional manga artists. Dōjinshi
is unmediated by large publishing companies, meaning that they are freer to publish risky
material or material that does not necessarily advocate dominant Japanese cultural values. This
is especially the case with regard to the depiction of gender roles. “Many of the men involved in
the amateur manga medium perceive girls’ manga, and the female milieu surrounding it, to be a
progressive cultural scene within contemporary society” (Kinsella 2000: 121). Anne Allison does
not attribute the increase in female heroes in Japanese popular culture to a “greater feminist
consciousness in Japanese society,” but instead to an “increase in female manga artists in recent
years as well as to the large consumer audience of girls who read, watch, and even write their
own, fantasy stories” (2000: 268). Thus, the promulgation of female-written manga may be merely
an attempt to widen the fan base for manga in general, as well as increase sales of goods
associated with the manga.

8.  It is difficult to find consumption data on manga written by women. Because
of the way manga are categorized by intended audience, it is much easier
to find data on shōjo manga. Almost all of the shōjo manga being produced
have been written and drawn by women (Schodt 1996: 155). Currently,
there are few men drawing comics for girls, and one has even assumed a
female pen name (Schodt 1986: 97). Thus, when we discuss shōjo manga,
we are generally speaking of comics written and drawn by females,
intended for a female audience. Even though such demarcations as shōjo
manga and shōnen manga (comics for girls and boys, respectively) do still
appear, there is a growing amount of crossover readership with stories
appealing to readers of both sexes (Cooper-Chen 1997: 102). Additionally,
it has often been more common for girls to read boys comics than vice
versa, perhaps owing to the greater percentage of boys’ comics on the
market and in circulation (Shiokawa 107). Adding to the problem of
obtaining data on the readership demographics of certain manga are the
phenomena of tachiyomi (standing while reading manga in the store without
purchasing it) and mawashiyomi (passing an already read manga
magazine on to a friend or family member).

9. Japanese Media and Gender
Roles
 Manga are a unique form of communication
occurring in modern Japan; they are partly the
creativity of the individual artist (or artists), and
partly a result of the editorial decision making
process. Manga stories come out on a regular
basis and are subject to deadline pressures.
Because of this, are in some ways like
personalized forms of communication, such as
literature, and in some ways like more
commercially-driven periodicals such as
newspapers or magazines.

10.  Due to the manner in which manga is produced, its influence can be compared to that of other
forms of mass communication. Therefore, in order to determine how gender roles are depicted in
manga drawn by women, it is helpful to examine how gender roles are presented in Japanese
mass media in general. In Midori Fukunishi Suzuki’s study on women on television (1995), she
looks at the problems of how women are portrayed on Japanese television and what is being
done to combat the inadequacies. First, she says there is a lack of critical thinking about
television and especially television commercials among girls and women. On the television
itself, there are, generally speaking, two men for every one woman onscreen. When women are
onscreen, they are often shown in “traditional” roles such as housekeeping or shopping, and
mainstream gender role stereotyping is reinforced. Additionally, women are also used as sexual
objects, both in commercials and actual television shows. The age range of women onscreen is
also much more narrow that that of men. Through constant reporting on events surrounding the
emperor and the royal family, the media reinforces the idea of a deeply rooted patriarchy in
Japan. Finally, she says that women are not often on the staffs of Japanese television
stations, and end up in positions of negligible authority when they are. She then illustrates how
organizations such as Women’s Action Group and the Forum for Citizen’s Television are trying to
change institutionalized gender biases and ways of presenting women, but the pace of change
within the industry is very slow. This study corroborates another study on women in Japanese
media, which found five principles of how women are portrayed: Women and men are evaluated
differently, women are objects, women are subordinate, a woman’s ability is low, and a woman’s
place is in the home (Cooper-Chen 1997: 211-212). Even though these studies do not focus on
manga specifically, they are helpful because they work to establish the general climate and
attitudes toward gender role differentiation in Japan and help to put the portrayal of women in
manga in context.

11. Conclusion
 The liminal space of manga provides an excellent
forum for the discussion of gender construction in
Japanese society. Manga is an officially sanctioned
form of popular culture which must, because of its
official recognition, support the dominant ideology. On
the other hand, due to its liminal nature, it has the
potential to critique the standard perceptions of the
world. By reading manga, one is actually participating
in a dialogue based on how one perceives and
interprets the manga.
 In manga, a Japaneses dominatrix can be only a bad
character, almost never a good one. A good woman is
loyal, quiet, and the male domination is more than
obvious.