Japanese Woman Stereotyping in the Novel Konbini Ningen

Paper Abstract: Konbini Ningen, a novel writtwn by Sayaka Murata, is a Japanese novel that won the Akutagawa Award, a prestigious literature award in Japan, in 2016. The main character is Keiko Furukura, a 36 yeras old singe woman, who has been working for last 18 years as an part timer at a convenience store since she was undergraduate student. The story tells about her struggle as a single woman to face the expectation of the society, such as her family members, friends, and coworkers about the expected normal life for woman in Japan. The purpose of this reseacrh is to identity the expectation of Japanese society toward woman and the problem solving related to gender inequality in Japan proposed in the novel. I hope the results of the research can contribute to increasing awareness of gender equality in Japanese society in particular and other societies in general.