In 1990, in an article in the Annual Review of Anthropology entitled “Women's Voices: Their Critique of the Anthropology of Japan” Mariko Tamanoi argued forcefully that the perspectives of Japanese women have received shockingly little attention in the academic literature:

Tamanoi's call for closer study of Japanese women's perspectives is still relevant today. Although a growing number of anthropologists, political scientists, and sociologists have focused on recent changes in the Japanese family, relatively few have focused directly on the voices of contemporary Japanese mothers. As a psychologist, I wanted to focus on women's perceptions of what the role of mother entails and how they evaluate themselves in that role. In light of the initial evidence that many Japanese mothers perceived themselves as inadequate, I also hoped to uncover what types of experiences bolstered (or diminished) their sense of confidence – referred to by psychologists as self-efficacy – in pursuing this role.