Popular Culture Review Vol. 8, No. 2, August 1997 | Page 49

Prom Rapeman to Mother Superior

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In the premier episode, Natsuko, the founding partner,
explained why she recruits only women lawyers: "We want to help
women, and only women can really understand women." The themes of
"women issues" and "women understand women" are sustained
throughout the series. A good example of this is an episode involving
a custody battle between a birth-mother and a woman who legally
adopted her child. The birth-mother recanted and stole the child
back. This case caused deep dissention in the law firm and almost
broke the group up as the lawyers took sides for one mother or the
other. Through the infighting among the lawyers over the relative
merits of the birth-parent and the step-parent, the issues of
motherhood and adoption were played out from both the legal and
personal points of view. In the end, two of the lawyers, one who was
adopted and the other who had given up her own child for adoption,
were able to change the mind of the group. United once again, the
lawyers persuaded the birth-mother to return the child to the step
mother in the best interest of the child.
While the series focuses on issues that are of special interest
to women, it also provides a forceful image of women in a profession
that is dominated by men. The plots sometimes go to the extreme in
dramatizing the special advantage of women lawyers, as in a number
of episodes where they accepted the words of female clients without
further corroborations on the ground that "women understand women."

Role Model and Reversal

One of the most common non-traditional roles for women on
Japanese television in the '90s is in police work. Two of the best police
stories are Murder on Snow Mountain (Dai Yuki-Yama Satsujin Jiken)
and Murder in Ose Marsh Land (Ose Shitsugen Satsujin Jiken). In both
shows, Ito Kazue, a popular star on Japanese television, plays
Midori, a rookie detective in Asahikawa. While the main thrusts of
both programs deal with complex murder cases, they also remind the
audience that Midori is a role model. Shortly after each show starts,
the viewers are told that Midori is 25-year-old, single, does not have
boyfriends, and is the only woman detective in Hokkaido, the
prefecture where Asahikawa is located. In Murder in Ose Marsh
Land, Midori also gives herself encouragement in a tough situation by
saying, "I must not fail because I am the first woman detective in
Hokkaido."