Introduction

Exposing the problem of domestic violence has been one of the most important and also difficult policy areas that many societies have faced at the end of the 20th century. This is especially so since the special nature of domestic violence is that it is often hidden behind the private relationships between individuals. Now, positioned clearly as an issue on the agenda of the UN, the seriousness of the problem has been recognised in many societies, requiring urgent policy responses. In this context, policies and legislation aimed at the eradication of domestic violence have been put into practice in various forms in several societies. In Japan, however, it has only been in recent years that domestic violence has come to be recognised as a social problem (see Otto [Koibito] kara no Boryoku Chosa Kenkyukai, 1998). As a result, special legislation to cope with the issue has yet to be enacted by the Japanese authorities.

There is a significant gap between Japan and Western societies (such as Britain, for example), where domestic violence was put firmly on the social agenda by the women's movement of the 1970s and became an important issue on the policy agenda in the 1980s. Consequently, legal systems to tackle the problem have been developed (for more discussion, see Chapter Five of this volume). This discrepancy cannot be attributed simply to the characteristics of family relations in Japanese society. Nor can it be explained by the Confucian traditions specific to East Asian culture, since other similarly situated countries, including Korea (Republic of Korea) and Taiwan, enacted special legislation concerning domestic violence earlier than Japan (Asia Taiheiyo Jinken Joho Center, 2001). In this context, this chapter investigates the reasons behind the delayed action by the Japanese government in tackling this problem, and then will move on to discuss how to develop methods to deal with the issues of domestic violence.

In order to set out the background to domestic violence in Japan, this chapter first presents the prevailing situation. A careful analysis of the occurrence and outcomes of domestic violence – which is in fact more common than is commonly understood – is important particularly for two reasons. First, many people in Japan – including policy makers and implementers – currently view domestic violence as rare or special incidents, and therefore negligible.