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My understanding is that 思われる, in addition to being the passive form of 思う, can also be used in the sense of "to spontaneously think; to appear".

北米では通常スカートは女性がはくものと思われている。
In North America a skirt is thought of as something a woman wears.

In which sense is 思われる being used here? Both seem reasonable:
Spontaneous: In North America, people spontaneously think a skirt is something a woman wears. Passive: A skirt is thought of by North Americans as something a woman wears.

I lean more towards the first one, since a passive sentence would normally mark the agent with に i.e.

スカートは北米人には女性がはくものと思われている。

Viridian
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  • related: http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/11534/what-is-the-relation-between-the-two-verbs-%E6%80%9D%E3%82%8F%E3%82%8C%E3%82%8B-and-%E6%80%9D%E3%81%86 – ssb Sep 17 '13 at 04:36
  • What source is your "spontaneous" meaning from? – yadokari Sep 17 '13 at 13:11
  • @yadokari I believe it's one of the four uses of （ら）れる identified in traditional grammar, called 自発. The other three are 受身 (passive), 尊敬 (honorific), and 可能 (potential). –  Sep 17 '13 at 15:15
  • @yadokari My source was the entry for 思われう in A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar, which describes it as "a verb that indicates what the speaker/writer feels spontaneously". They also explicitly distinguish this usage from the passive form of 思う. – Viridian Sep 17 '13 at 15:47
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    Somehow, I don't think the ている form can be the spontaneous kind, and I think the reason could be related to this question: http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/6538/%E6%80%9D%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A6%E3%81%84%E3%82%8B-%E8%A8%80%E3%81%A3%E3%81%A6%E3%81%84%E3%82%8B-with-third-person-subject . – dainichi Sep 18 '13 at 22:45

2 Answers2

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The 自発 (spontaneous) 思われる is a static verb (like いる and ある) and cannot take the ている form. So the 思われている in the example is definitely a passive.

The passive 思われる can take the 思われている form based on tense/aspect.

dainichi
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From your last comment (emphasis added):

a verb that indicates what the speaker/writer feels spontaneously

This does not match the translation you give for "spontaneous:"

In North America, people spontaneously think a skirt is something a woman wears.

Do you see the difference? If 思われる were supposed to indicate the author's thoughts or feelings, a better translation would be

It seems that in North America skirts are usually worn by women.

However, with no other context, there is nothing to indicate that this is a personal observation of the author, so the translation

In North America a skirt is thought of as something a woman wears.

seems most appropriate to me.

Also note that it is quite common to leave out the agent in passive sentences. Just a few examples:

今日学校でいじめられた。
I got bullied at school today.

政府は倒された。
The government was overthrown.

彼は殺された。
He was killed.

ThisSuitIsBlackNot
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