ABSTRACT
Sexual assault, murder, and violence occurring in the ordinary domestic space of the home have become commonplace in morning ‘wide shows’ (waido shō), a subgenre of jōhō bangumi (information programs) on Japanese television. Although scholars have trivialized them for underscoring ‘female interests’, these programs are significant for targeting housewives – the bulwark of the Japanese heteronormative nuclear family – as their primary audience. Based on interviews and discourse analysis of popular wide show Sukkiri!! (Freshen Up!!), this chapter argues that representations of women as victims and perpetrators in its crime narratives both transgress and reinforce the housewife’s social role as ‘good wife, wise mother’.
