Desperate Housewives in Modern Japanese Fiction: Three Novels by Sawako Ariyoshi

While Sawako Ariyoshi (1931-1984) is widely recognized as one of modern Japan's most influential and important writers, little research has been devoted to her accomplishments. This article focuses on three of her novels which have been translated into English, adopting the approach of a socio-literary analysis. Ariyoshi's work vividly illustrates Japan's historic and contemporary gender discrimination. Her emphasis on putting women's issues at the forefront of her stories has arguably influenced Japan's contemporary crime writers, who differ from their western contemporaries in focusing on the private lives of their female protagonists.