“Familial Harmony” and “Familial Affection”: Making of the Exclusive Intimacy in Modern Japan

The purpose of this paper is to examine characteristics in the human cognition of intimate relations, using the historical formation of the social cognition that defines the “family” as an irreplaceable site of “exclusive intimacy” in modern Japan as a backdrop. The subject matter is examined from two aspects : the first is conservative family-state ideologues, who created the notion of “familial harmony”; the second is socialists. We study the structure of the socialists' idea of “reformative” exclusive intimacy and its impact. Family-state ideologues justify affective relations by calling it a human instinct. However, what they take as “instinctive” behavior takes place only when acted out intentionally by members of a family. On the other hand, opponents find in “familial harmony (or affection)” their ideology's point of contact with reality. Family-state ideologues and socialists were in competing camps, but they were exactly alike in terms of their “contribution” to the creation of the notion of exclusive intimacy. We find that the dual structure formed from the ideologies of “conservative” family-state ideologues and “reformative” socialists provided a flexibility that maintained the duality of “ie” and “katei” of the Japanese family in different situations. It is perhaps difficult for us to imagine harmony and affection without oppression, at least in the framework of modern family.