From Women’s Liberation to Lesbian Feminism in Japan

Abstract

The Ūman ribu (women’s liberation) movement in the first half of the 1970s and the feminism that was to follow have long been regarded as hostile spaces for lesbians in Japan. And yet strong support for women’s sexual autonomy, including attention to sexual and reproductive health as well as sexual pleasure, were central to ribu philosophy and some subsequent strands of feminist discourse. This attention to women’s sexuality in fact helped set the stage for the development of rezubian feminizumu (lesbian feminism) in Japan. Drawing on analyses of commercially published books, translations, and magazine articles, as well as newsletters, booklets, and other ephemera from the 1970s and 1980s, and recent interviews, this chapter situates the emergence and development of lesbian feminism in Japan within the context of ribu and other feminist activism, as well as transnational flows of (lesbian) feminist discourse.