The New Couple

Abstract

It seems to have been taken for granted by Japan’s defeated rulers that the arrival of the Allied forces would require the Japanese people to reform aspects of their behavior, particularly pertaining to male-female relations. Indeed, only two days before they were ordered by SCAP to disband, the Special Higher Police prepared a document entitled “Various aspects of American personality characteristics” that was intended to help Japanese interact in a friendly manner with their new foreign rulers. The report encouraged Japanese people not to be “overly polite” (which Americans, apparently, found annoying), to shave and keep their hair properly managed, not to expose themselves (especially women), for men to give women priority seating on transportation, not to smoke in front of women, to take their hats off in elevators, not to urinate in public, not to pick flowers from public gardens, not to spit on the streets, not to talk too openly about their mistresses, and not to be afraid to sit next to Allied forces on public transportation.¹