Here is this week’s Media Mix, which is about two recent Fuji TV documentaries. The subject of one of them, Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Seiko Noda, has been discussed in this column before, and more than once. Noda is a controversial public figure, but most of the media that “bash” her–basically the weeklies–do so, I think, because she fits their idea of a striving woman. She’s a tireless self-promoter who connects her personal struggles to a larger social purpose, usually in the area of family law and the Civil Code, but the immediate issue illuminated by the TV program “I Wanted to Be a Mother” has no real social-political relevance. Her son, Masaki, was born with multiple serious health problems. As one doctor implies, he should not have survived, and that is the basis of the program’s appeal, if you can call it that. Nevertheless, Noda, who is the real subject of the documentary, not Masaki, insists on justifying everything that led up to Masaki’s conception and arrival in the world. Since Noda has chronicled her decade-long road to motherhood in books and TV specials, those of us who have followed her journey already know why she has put herself through all these difficult, expensive medical procedures to produce an heir. The title of the show makes the case that her most pressing need was maternal, that she always wanted to have a child, “have” being the operative word here. Though she has discussed in the past adoption when it became obvious that her physical situation made it difficult to conceive and give birth under normal circumstances, her reluctance to marry her partner made that option almost impossible since single persons or cohabiting couples can’t adopt in Japan. And, of course, the reason she didn’t want to marry her partner was because she didn’t want to change her surname, and in Japan legally married couples must share the same name. Her previous partner, also a politician, didn’t want to change his name, but her present partner, a restaurateur, eventually agreed to change his, but apparently he did so after the adoption option was already discarded and his sperm was used to fertilize a third-party ovum, which was implanted in Noda’s body. Another piece of information that’s really none of our business is the race of the ovum’s producer. Noda understands the gossipy nature of the weeklies that have followed her saga and so preempts speculation by stating outright in the program that the donor was a white American woman. In fact, Noda seems to have insisted that she not be Asian so that it would make it easier for her to explain to her child later why she did what she did. To Noda, this sort of candor, toward both the public and her child, is an integral part of her responsibility as a public figure on the one hand and as a mother on the other, but as far as the latter goes it seems a huge burden to put on the child. Though she may want us to believe that Masaki will accept this explanation as proof of his mother’s determination to be a mother, the calculation involved would seem to indicate that it had more to do with achieving the goal of passing on her family name, which she received from her paternal grandfather, a powerful political figure in his own right who adopted her as his heir. Thus, Masaki will be expected to pass on the name himself. Hasn’t he gone through enough already?
-
Recent Posts
Archives
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
Categories
Meta
Blogroll
Oh, this is distressing. Noda’s fearlessness and candour are admirable in some ways, but her selfishness and naivete (regarding motherhood) are not. She has money, which in this world can cover a lot of shortcomings, and probably a great deal of love for her child, but sometimes the power of money and even the strength of maternal love are just not enough. Poor Masaki.
Oh, this is distressing. Noda’s freelassness and candour are admirable in some ways, but her selfishness and naivete (regarding motherhood) are not. She has money, which in this world can cover a lot of shortcomings, and probably a great deal of love for her child, but sometimes the power of money and even the strength of maternal love are just not enough. Poor Masaki.