Japan's New Women

Tanako Nakayama, a 61-year-old librarian, says that when she was young, woman rarely went to college. If they graduated, they became teachers or telephone operators. Single women in their 30s were called "loser dogs".

"I was one of the few special women who went on to university," Nakayama says. "After I graduated, I worked as a teacher in a private scho…