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Naomi, a Symbol of Womens Liberation?
The modern girl, popularly known as Moga Garu or moga was heavily influenced by
Western ideals and culture. She was confronted by the media at home for relinquishing
traditional ideals of a Japanese woman, and seen as a cultural celebrity to other nations as the
modern face of Japan.
No greater example of this comparison between the Moga and Japanese modernization
can be seen than by Tanizaki Junichiros novel Naomi. The novel is told as an autobiography of
a man, Joji, and the love affair he has with a young girl by the name of Naomi. Naomi is brought
to us at the beginning of the novel as a pure, unspoiled example of a future wife whose manners
exemplify the quiet and chaste manner of a proper Japanese wife. As the story progresses, we
see Joji spoil Naomi with Western clothes, movies, and entertainment until she has transformed
into the stereotypical Moga who is spoiled, adulterous, and completely ambivalent to any
responsibility to work or become Jojis obedient wife.
Naomi not only defies the expected conclusion of marrying Joji and becoming his wife
but instead becomes unfaithful to Joji sleeping with countless other men, Japanese and Western,
usually with more than one in a single day. Ultimately, by the end of the novel we see the full
extent of Naomis Moga identity as she sleeps until well into the afternoon, does no domestic

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work or labor, enjoys constant entertainment every evening, and has made the male protagonist
of the story subservient to her. The moral of this story as expressed by Tanizaki is that Japan,
like Joji, is being dominated by foreign culture that is far beneath that of Japans traditional
culture, and the Moga being the epitome of this modernization is the greatest threat.
The dual image of the modern girl, both alluring and ruinous, serves as a two-edged
sword. It reflects the Japanese male positive sentiments in relation to the Western civilization, as
fragmented, ambiguous, often contradicting and stratified. It portrays the outrageous graveyard
that buries the traditions of the Japanese people as well. The narrative of Naomi creates an
impression that the story is about love. On the contrary, it is not simply a romance narrative
between Joji and Naomi. Rather, it is an emblematic romance between the protagonist, Joji, and
his Western imagination. It clearly depicts a Western material civilization refined through a pair
of Japanese eyes.
Modernization during the interwar years was seen as a great threat to many conservatives
within Japans higher bureaucracy. The Moga was the spawn of modernization and was feared
as a threat to the traditional culture and morality of the Japanese women, or at least, that was how
she was portrayed to the general populace. In actuality, many scholars believe that the Moga
portrayed by the media represented only a small percentage of actual women who would be
considered modern. So why would the bureaucracy create such a fearful image of such a small
group? It was because the fear of the Moga was not her basis in reality, but instead her potential
for inciting other Japanese women to become Moga.
In the atmosphere of the times, new ideals encouraged by an expansion in education and
foreign contact spread across all social classes with expedited speed. Japan had already shown

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its power with defeats of China and Russia and was now looking to experience the cultural
splendor of American and European Jazz culture. Ideals of democracy, socialism, and gender
equality tagged along with the importation of the Jazz culture, and with the aid of compulsory
education, were being discussed at all levels of Japanese society.
The Aspect of Women Liberation
Naomis language on Joji increasingly gains masculinity and becomes conceited in
contrast to earlier stages of their relationship when she addressed him as papa. Such a lexical
shift portrays the power dynamic metamorphosis between Joji and Naomi culminating in
Naomis successful ascension to power and the ultimate dominance. She uses her body as a
weapon to convert men into her playthings. Naomis insatiable sexual desire manifest and her
obstructive sexuality disclose the danger of modernity on a metaphorical level. Naomi is a mirror
created by Joji. It reflects a mans desires and fears.
Through immigration of Western women and the importation of Western movies, music,
and fashion, Japanese women were exposed to the female gender as a liberated force equal to
that of men. Biologically there was no difference between the Japanese and Western woman, but
in lifestyle the Japanese woman was restricted to the home and the management of its affairs, to
providing the next generation of imperial subjects and educating them as such (Lu 398). In
contrast, the Western woman was not bound by the same restrictions. She could go wherever she
pleased, earn her own income, own her own property, and be sexually intimate with her husband
for pleasure instead of the purpose of reproducing. In retrospect, one can see how the Japanese
bureaucracy created the Moga by taking the characteristics of the modernized Western woman.

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Further, according to Lu (401), evidence of the osmosis that occurred as Western ideals
were imported in Japan was the modernization of subject matter in the movie industry. The film
industry and its portrayal of female identity were the most influential source for inventing the
public persona of Japanese women. During the 1920s and 30s, the image of the Moga was a
sensation on the screen. It was an image that was popularized due to its prominence in the media
and its controversial nature but was yet another example of the media Moga instead of the
realistic figure. Japanese actresses portrayed an image of aggressive sexuality and confused the
ideology of womens liberation as liberation of flesh.
In contrast, other images portrayed by actresses included subtle techniques such as
avoiding eye-contact and vagueness in facial expressions that promoted the ideals of femininity
and the traditional appearance of the Japanese woman. The negative image of the Moga was
promoted at all available time in Japanese society, and even the modern aspects that the Moga
stood for were used to create prejudice towards the social group.
What was it that so greatly terrified the bureaucracy about the effects of modernization on
Japanese women? Clearly it was a fear of loss of tradition as embodied in, but in what ways did
they believe tradition was threatened? As mentioned before, the importation of American
ideologies during the interwar years created a surge of discussion that questioned the accepted
beliefs and roles of Japanese society. Feminism questioned the subservient role of women in the
family system, and the political restraints placed on women. Socialism brought to light the
inequality between classes, and the need for land reform in rural Japan. The social tension was
on the rise, and so the bureaucracy in order to avoid a popular uprising, created an enemy to
unite the people behind. The Moga and her deviant ways became the source of all social
disruption and direct threat to the sacred institutions of traditional Japan. Her opposition to

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tradition, marriage, chastity, and obedience was used as a spark to ignite the fears of the masses
that Japan was losing its unique beauty to the powers of the West.
The government retained its support for the traditional woman because it was afraid of
losing the essence of Japan that was found in the structure of the family system and was scared
that modernization would only lead to social unrest and protest. Since the government could not
legally force Japanese women to remain within the domestic realm, bureaucrats employed a
media campaign against the Moga to influence the populace to fear and hate the modern
Japanese woman. They used negative images of sexual deviancy, defiance of tradition and
obedience, and a loss of Japan to the West that sought to subconsciously and forcibly turn
modern women back to their roles as the home manager.
The traditional Japanese woman and the Moga were two very opposing views present
during the Taisho era and the interwar years. In regard to the traditional Japanese woman, her
expectations for herself were the same as those of her husband and so confrontation between the
two genders was extremely low to non-existent. It was a situation defined by the formal
superiority of men and the informal dominance of women, where although the man was
superior socially, politically, and economically, his wife still retained dominance over him
because she managed the domestic realm and the children. For many traditional Japanese
women, this was enough satisfaction and fulfillment in life, but for many others the call of
Western ideology promised a different type of satisfaction and fulfillment some women could not
find in her.
While the exaggerations about the modern girl by the bureaucrats depicted Moga as a
promiscuous and one consumed by the western culture, the real Moga was not sexually deviant

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or out to destroy Japanese culture. She worked for an intellectual and economic independence
she could never have imagined before. The creation of the popularized negative view of the
Moga was a direct result of conservative Japanese initiative to return to the traditional female
identity.

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Work Cited
Lu, David J. Japan: A Documentary History. , 2015. Internet resource