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February 28, 2025
The 'Marriage-Hunting' Market and Gendered Governance in Japan, Talk by Anna Wozny at Waseda University, 4 p.m., February 13
From: LEHENY David <dleheny@waseda.jp>
Date: 2025/02/06
Dear SSJ-Forum members,
Dr. Anna Wozny (PhD, University of Michigan) will speak at Waseda University's Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies at 4 p.m. on Thursday, February 13, on "The 'Marriage-Hunting' Market and Gendered Governance in Japan." All are welcome. Dr. Wozny, currently a joint postdoctoral fellow at the University of Tokyo's Tokyo College and at Princeton University, is one of the up-and coming stars in sociological accounts of gender and governance, and her work draws deeply from field in Japan. All are welcome to the talk, which will be in English. It is part of the Waseda Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies (WIAPS) Colloquium Series and co-sponsored by the History, Memory, and Narrative in Contemporary Japanese Politics Research Group.
The 'Marriage-Hunting' Market and Gendered Governance in Japan
Thursday, February 13, 2025
Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies
Room 711, Building 19 (Nishi-Waseda Building)
Waseda University
Abstract: Commercial dating services known as "marriage-hunting" (konkatsu) are an increasingly popular means of finding a romantic partner in Japan. With marriage remaining an important precursor to childbearing (only 2 percent of children in Japan are born to unwed mothers), the Japanese government has increasingly invested in "marriage support" to address population decline and aging. In this talk, I draw on twenty-seven months of ethnographic research, including participant observation of marriage-hunting events and more than 150 interviews with industry professionals and their and clients, to explore how this market relies on gendered and classed tropes of marriage that uniquely target young women. I suggest that marriage-hunting constitutes a form of gendered governance that regulates women's roles as wives, workers, and consumers.
Anna Woźny is a joint postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University and Tokyo College. She received her PhD in Sociology from the University of Michigan and her BA in East Asian Studies from the University of Tokyo. Anna's research examines how political and economic forces shape experiences of intimacy, family, and reproduction as well as everyday practices of gender and sexuality. She is currently working on a book project entitled Marriage-hunting: Dating Markets and Intimate Governance in Japan.
Please email me (dleheny@waseda.jp) with any questions. Hope to see you there!!
Best wishes,
Approved by ssjmod at 05:39 PM