The Association of New Women and its contribution to the Japanese women's movement

Abstract

This article is an assessment of the Shin Fujin Kyōkai (the Association of New Women), a women's political organization founded by the leading Japanese feminists Hiratsuka Raichō, Ichikawa Fusae and Oku Mumeo in 1919. It surveys the main objectives, activities and membership of the Association. The contents and characteristics of its magazine, Josei Dōmei (Women's League), will be also investigated. The article explores how the political and social climate of its period contributed to the foundation of the Association and how it was greeted by the public and press. The tactics, strategy and development of the Association's parliamentary campaigning and lobbying will be discussed together with the Association's limitations and its achievements in bettering the social, political and legal position of women. This article compares the Association with the Seitō Society, and also makes further comparisons between the Association and other contemporary Japanese and Western women's associations. It evaluates the impact the Association's activities had both on society and on the women's movement, and finally assesses the Association's key role in the history of the Japanese women's movement.