Japan’s Feminist Movement Within the Global Sisterhood

Abstract

This concluding chapter reflects upon the decades-long decline in the status of Japanese women that has gone mostly unnoticed by the global feminist movement. It suggests that Japanese activists have attempted to strengthen their position through forging connections with South Korea’s feminist movement, and the chapter notes a range of ways in which Japanese and South Korean feminists have collaborated. The chapter advises that feminists elsewhere should take the lead shown by Korean feminists in overseas efforts of solidarity, and it notes the many recent successes of the South Korean feminist movement. While South Korean ‘comfort women’ advocacy and anti-prostitution campaigning have been major areas of borrowing and collaboration by Japanese feminists, more recently the movement draws inspiration from Korean feminism across a span of ideas and topics, which the chapter touches upon in its second half. Even with support from South Korea, however, the chapter lastly returns to the task facing Japanese feminists in terms of exercising influence and reach in a country with a long history of institutionalised prostitution and pornography, and yet with limited feminist achievements in areas such as spy-cam filming. The chapter urges greater attention and support from feminists abroad in service of the efforts of Japanese feminists like those described in the book’s 6 chapters.KeywordsGlobal sisterhoodSexualisation of Japanese womenSuccess of the South Korean feminist movementAjuma BooksSouth Korean anti-prostitution activism4B movementAnti-beauty movementTokyo Summer OlympicsSpy-cam filmingJapan’s domestic pornography industry