WOMEN ON THE VERGE: Japanese Women, Western Dreams, by Karen Kelsky. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2001, pp. 294, $18.95 (paper)

The pursuit of "things foreign" has become an increasingly common activity of Japanese women in recent decades. Whether it be through study and work abroad, or through romance with Western men, the fascination for and idealization of "the West" has also led to a proliferation of debates about what it means to be a woman in contemporary Japan, and a questioning of why so many young Japanese women attempt to escape or turn away from the life courses expected of them.

In this thought-provoking book, American academic Karen Kelsky explores the historical and psychological reasons behind this attempted escape and questions why Japanese women have idealized and eroticized the West.

Kelsky begins her book by commenting on the precipitous slide in the birthrate in Japan, which plummeted to a low of 1.39 in 1997. She also notes the recent trend toward later marriage, rising to 29 years for men and almost 27 for women in the late 1990s, the highest in the industrialized world. Over a similar time frame, Japanese men, particularly those in rural areas, began experiencing so-called marriage difficulty, as men from urban areas seemed to become more attractive marriage prospects. Since the 1980s, young Japanese women have also been traveling abroad in ever-increasing numbers. In fact, Kelsky notes that by 1990 the number of young Japanese women engaging in foreign travel surpassed that of young Japanese men by a margin of two to one.