Representing Women from Regional Areas in Metropolitan and Local Cities: A Case Study of It’s Boring Here, Pick Me Up by Mariko Yamauchi

Abstract

The Japanese author Mariko Yamauchi consistently explores feminist concerns and the dynamic relationship between spatial settings and female characters. This article examines the spatial representation of women from regional areas in metropolises and local cities in her novel It’s Boring Here, Pick Me Up (2012). Female characters from regional backgrounds see metropolises as spaces of life-giving opportunity, especially for education, employment, freedom, and virtually unlimited consumer potential. Yet despite these attractions, the women ultimately fail to fully assimilate into metropolitan society. They remain social misfits in urban settings before eventually deciding to return to their hometowns. Conversely, the local city of origin functions as a secure space for these characters where they renew familial and friendship ties to prepare new phases of life. Nevertheless, local cities remain socially conservative patriarchal societies where women are expected to fulfill traditional maternal and wifely roles, limiting their futures. Yamauchi depicts young women laboriously building new identities in these regional spaces. Such portrayals show the possibility of wider social change in regional sites, suggesting that female identity accommodations may foretell future cultural and gender dynamic shifts in provincial Japan.