The function of the social network formed by Japanese sojourners’ wives in the United States

The current study investigated the function of the social network formed by Japanese wives who temporarily resided in the United States due to their husbands’ job assignment or academic training. Twenty-six Japanese wives in a rural community in the East Coast participated in this study. Grounded theory analysis revealed that Japanese sojourners’ wives highly valued resources that allowed them to continue mothering and homemaking in the Japanese way during their sojourn. Japanese wives perceived their own social networks as the only source for them to obtain the desired resources in the foreign community in which they resided. In this environment, Japanese wives' network investigated in this study functioned as a corporate body to ensure the desired resources to anyone in the network in the sense that the network members shared a common interest, recognized who their leader was, performed assigned roles based on seniority, and had a strong sense of responsibility for performing their roles. The similarities of the function of Japanese wives’ network to Japanese traditional household system called the ie are discussed.