Japanese Feminist Research Articles

Language and Gender: Insights from Japanese Feminists in the 1980s

This essay examines how language contributed to the feminist movement’s decline in Japan in the 1980s, a period that witnessed major legal reforms and socioeconomic shifts. While earlier studies have linked the sluggish progress of feminism in Japan to legal deficiencies and the shortcomings of capitalist regime, this paper clarifies that few achievement in feminist campaign during this period can be mostly ascribed to the linguistic distinctions between men and women. By analyzing the works of prominent feminists Aoki Yayoi and Ide Sachiko, the essay illustrates how gendered linguistic conventions perpetuated the marginalization of women and brought the destruction of feminist progress in the 1980s. The research underscores the importance of recognizing language’s role as an obstacle in the development of feminism and proposes that changing linguistic conventions could support feminist movements in Japan and elsewhere.

Deadlock of Japanese Feminism’s Dscourses and Solution

Deadlock of Japanese Feminism’s Dscourses and Solution

NOVEL SUSU DAN TELUR KARYA MIEKO KAWAKAMI TERJEMAHAN ASRI PRATIWI WULANDARI: KAJIAN FEMINISME RADIKAL

The topic of feminism in Japan is something that society has not yet fully accepted. This is the reason why researchers chose the novel Susu and Eggs to be used as the object of study. The discrimination that occurs against female characters in the novel leads to extreme actions and thoughts regarding women's freedom regarding their rights. Therefore, the novel Susu and Eggs is studied using radical feminism theory. The aim of this research is to describe the structural analysis and aspects of radical feminism in the object of study. Data discovery was carried out using the library study method, namely reading the novel in its entirety. The description of the data is carried out through qualitative descriptive methods. The research results show that there is a relationship between the title, theme and characterization in the novel. The title relates to the major theme which is supported by the minor theme. The theme is depicted through events that support the characters' characters. On the other hand, the aspects of radical feminism found are divided into five parts, namely: (1) women and their bodies which are related to Midoriko and Natsuko. Midoriko as a teenager who hates the nature of women, then Natsuko as a single woman who cannot find pleasure in sex, but wants to have children through a sperm donor; (2) the inequality of roles in the household which is depicted through the character Yusa Rika who hates her ex-husband; (3) women's beauty standards which include women's body shape and nipple color; (4) stereotypes about women's bodies that discuss women's instincts to get pregnant and societal stigma that prioritizes the penis over the vagina; (5) and sexual violence which includes the act of rape against the character Zen Yuriko.

Examination of three postcolonial African writers' perspectives on third world feminism

A variation of feminism known as postcolonial feminism emerged in opposition to feminism that exclusively addressed women's experiences in Western societies. In order to demonstrate how racism and the lasting political, economic, and cultural repercussions of colonialism affect non-white and non-Western women in the postcolonial globe, postcolonial feminism examines these issues. African feminism is a subset of feminism developed by African women that is focused on the issues and concerns of women in continental Africa (African women residing on the African continent). These feminism movements do not all represent the realities of African women because Africa is not a homogeneous continent. Some feminists are particularly focused on particular subgroups of African women, including movements with a national foundation, such as feminism in Sweden, feminism in India, feminism in Mexico, feminism in Japan, feminism in Germany, feminism in South Africa, etc. The concept of feminism for many African writers in the post-colonial era in the Third World has been the subject of widespread controversy, as it is seen as a feminist movement in line with and for African women in the diaspora instead of African women in the African continent. In this study, we present the perspectives of three African writers interested in the feminist movement about their vision of the concepts and role of the feminist movement in the post-colonial era in the Third World by shedding light on African feminist movements and the challenges they face. The study presents the vision of three African writers for the women's movement in the Third World in general and the African continent in particular in the post-colonial period through the emergence and development of the African feminist movement, and the three writers selected in this study are activists of the feminist movement inside Africa through their literary activity. Delusion: Molara Ogundipe-Leslie, Assia Djebar and Robert C.J.Young.

The Evolution of Feminism in Japan: Issues of Gender and the Perception of Japanese Women

The history and specifics of the feminist movement in Japan have been a topic of interest in the research world for many years. Asian and Western scholars also acknowledge that feminism has a long history in Japan. Although Japan has spent more than 150 years trying to address social issues, the problem of gender inequality remains unresolved. Therefore, this study primarily illustrates the evolution of the feminist movement in Japan, comparing two “waves” of the feminist movement. Furthermore, this paper examines the development of female and male roles as well as gender bias in modern patriarchal society. It provides examples of the most common ideologies, Japanese femininity and masculinity, and the system Fu-you. It also illustrates and explains how traditional roles, Japanese patriarchal ideology, and modern trends coexist in contemporary Japan. Moreover, this study proved that for a significant number of women (65%) in 2021, the so-called "escape route" (i.e., successful marriage) remains a solution to their financial stability. In this study, the following research methods were applied. A thorough historical context analysis (qualitative approach) was required to comprehend the dynamics and specifics of feminism and examine social issues. The principle of historicism (qualitative method) helped to illuminate and compare the impact of the feminist movement and analyze how feminism developed after the Second World War, in the 70-s, in the 90-s, and in contemporary Japan, investigating each period separately or comparing it. Finally, the data analysis and data interpretation research method helped to organize or categorize data.

Loss and Pursuit: A Greimas Structuralist Analysis of the Japanese Anime Violet Evergarden in the Feminist Perspective

Anime can, to a certain extent, symbolize the growth of Japanese feminism as one of the most significant literary creative forms in contemporary Japan. Although the trend of female characterization in anime in recent years is diversified, there is a lack of independent female characters that break through the traditional gender division. A hugely popular anime called Violet Evergarden in 2018 tells the story of a young girl named Violet who lost her arms in a war, but fortunately regained robotic arms and started to help others write letters. In the process, she, who once knew only combat skills, gradually learned to express her emotions. Her story is a journey of seeking out the true meaning of love. The anime adaptation focuses on her growth and inner self, breaking the gender stereotype and showing Girl Power. This essay examines the feminist implications of Violet Evergarden, revealing its role in the growth of Japanese feminism by using Greimas' actantial model and the semiotic square following structuralism's theoretical thinking.

The Issue of Gender Sensitivity and Youth Feminism in South Korea

The concept of “gender sensitivity” serves as one of the political currencies for the emerging Korean MZ generation of women to censor a variety of words and activities of public figures from all walks of life. However, the imported term “gender sensitivity” has not yet been consolidated in the Korean socio-cultural practices, thereby causing adverse chain reactions among users. Given language is a social contract reflecting the history of the source language, this paper raises a necessity to examine how such concepts as “feminism,” “gender sensitivity,” and “woman-hatred” came to serve as key currencies among Gen. MZ’s women and/or feminists. While citing most of Adrienne Rich’s feminist perspective and poems, this paper also provides a Japanese feminist, Ueno Chizuko’s perspective, while giving a voice to Korean youth feminism. Further, it illuminates a senior liberal Korean feminist’s perspective, providing a historical continuum of smart, stong, and self-reliant women and the unique Korean language that provided some space for women’s autonomy. Finally, it suggests a future direction of Korean youth feminism, taking an example of Rich’s feminist vision of a doorframe, asking for the MZ generation of women to adapt it to the lived reality of ordinary women and envision an inclusive and constructive future for the entire generations rather than to exclude and shut down the rest.

Tawara Machi’s Bisymmetrical Self

Tawara Machi is one of the most famous contemporary Japanese poets after the success of her collection of poetry titled Salad Anniversary. This collection of poetry utilized vivid imagery of everyday activities and revitalized the traditional Japanese tanka poetic form. While literary critics often view her poetry as anti-feminist writing that relies heavily on the “waiting woman” trope popularized by early tanka poetry, I argue that her work is multi-dimensional and expands on this trope. Although her writing involves more passive feminism than famous Japanese feminist poets such as Hiromi Itō, it should not be dismissed as docile or unprogressive. Critics also claim her poetry is flat and one note, likely due to its accessible language and short format. However, I believe that her poems are more layered than one might think and that critics should re-examine her work, despite its overwhelming mainstream popularity. In this short essay, I analyze a selection of Tawara’s poems from her collection Salad Anniversary and prove their duality and nuance.

Engaging the World as Onna and Religious Minority: Second-Wave Feminism and Christian Social Activism in Japan during the 1970s

This paper examines Japanese female Christians’ writings published during the 1970s in a Japanese ecumenical periodical, Gospel and World, to explore their relationship to second wave feminism in Japan, ūman ribu, as a religious minority’s complex way to engage politics and other Asian women. These feminist Christians are an example of women located in-between colonizers and the colonized as well as among the racial and religious majorities and minorities of the time; illuminating their activism allows us to consider effective and discursive forms of engaging women, politics, and religion. On the one hand, Japanese Christian feminists expanded their sense of agency both by relocating the oppression of women in the church within the larger issues of Japanese colonial legacy and by reimagining social justice within sacred space. On the other hand, their lack of reflection on race and their reliance on the majoritarian identity of onna (middle-class Japanese women) blurred their vision and invitation to activism around “pan-Asian solidarity.”

Representing victims and victimizers: An analysis of #MeToo movement related reports

In 2017, the #MeToo movement swept across the world. This paper attempts to analyze the social context of the Japanese #MeToo movement and how the patriarchy-centered Japanese media reported on the #MeToo movement. Our study's findings are as follows: Gender domination in Japan is reflected in the gender inequality seen in political and economic spheres, and also the social consciousness of female reification. News reports reflect this. The Mainichi represented victims and victimizers in different ways and devote particular attention to the power relationship that exists between Japanese victims and their victimizers. The media represented domestic victims as weak and in need of protection. Although the #MeToo movement has struggled in Japan, it has promoted the awakening of Japanese feminists, leads to a series of feminist movements, and gives us hope of equal rights for men and women.

From Women’s Studies to Queer Studies: bending epistemology

In the decades following the emergence of what are now called queer studies, LGBT studies and lesbian and gay studies, Japan has seen a flourishing production of scholarship exploring gender, whether cross-disciplinary or hailing from the fields of history, sociology and literature. Analysing the origins of these new fields of inquiry will provide a clear understanding of the concept of gender, how it is used within academic circles and how the LGBTQ viewpoints irrigating certain feminist and activist movements were shaped. In turn, this will reveal the links between gender, LGBT and queer studies, and how gender studies is linked to the history of Japanese feminism.

Occupied Imperial Women: Japanese Feminists Making the US “Liberation of Japanese Women” Their Own Cold War Propaganda

Occupied Imperial Women: Japanese Feminists Making the US “Liberation of Japanese Women” Their Own Cold War Propaganda

Feminism in Radical Democracy and Japanese Political Theory: Mouffe, Pateman, Young, and “Essentialism”

Abstract This paper examines feminist arguments in radical democracy and Japanese responses to them. Although feminist insights are significant intellectual sources of radical democracy, recent political theorists have tended to exclusively consider radical democracy as agonistic pluralism. The radical democratic thinker Chantal Mouffe, who is very popular among Japanese political theorists and philosophers, criticizes the “essentialist” tendency of two feminist political theorists, namely Carole Pateman and Iris Marion Young. First this paper examines Mouffe’s critique of the two theorists. Second, it evaluates the relevance of Mouffe’s criticism of Pateman and Young by reconsidering their ideas on democracy and citizenship. Third, it engages the works of a few Japanese political theorists who respond to the issue of essentialism and points out the problems involved in the introduction of radical democracy in Japan and in Japanese feminist political theory. Finally, this paper concludes that we are still in the early stages of introducing and absorbing foreign feminist political theories into Japan as opposed to developing original Japanese feminist political theory to share with the world.

Drawing Dangerous Women: The Monstrous-Feminine, Taboo and Japanese Feminist Perspectives on the Female Form

During the twenty-first century, global developments with graphic texts have seen positive changes in the representation of characters and storylines representing female-led narratives and perspectives. Recent Japanese graphic texts offer an instructive window into concerns about feminist comics and graphic novels which not only represent a vital intervention in terms of contemporary Japanese feminist politics but also reinforce their relevance as feminist art activism within a global frame. Taking into account the popularity of manga worldwide this article argues that the growing range of Japanese texts with clear feminist messages marks an intervention on behalf of female creators in keeping with the theory and practice of contemporary feminist discourse. Additionally, this Japanese evolution illustrates the ways in which second wave feminism, particularly feminist art, has impacted women on a global scale. Consequently, the article explores the important role of intersectionality alongside themes relating to the body and sexuality, subversion of the monstrous feminine, feminist activism by considering the narrative of Rokudenashiko’s graphic memoir What is Obscenity?: The story of a good for nothing artist and her pussy (2016).

Japanese Feminist Debates: A Century of Contention on Sex, Love, and Labor by Ayako Kano

Reviewed by: Japanese Feminist Debates: A Century of Contention on Sex, Love, and Labor by Ayako Kano Andrea Germer (bio) Japanese Feminist Debates: A Century of Contention on Sex, Love, and Labor. By Ayako Kano. University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 2016. x, 320 pages. $80.00, cloth; $28.00, paper. In the past three decades we have seen a fair number of new monographs and essay collections in European languages that contribute to an intellectual history of feminisms in modern Japan. The Anglophone publications receive greater attention than others as they are the most numerous and within the linguistic command of most scholars. Of these, the works of Gail Lee Bernstein, Vera Mackie, Barbara Molony, Sally Ann Hastings, and Setsu Shigematsu stand out. While there are many more publications on gender history, including recent masculinity studies collections and new queer studies anthologies, Ayako Kano's book Japanese Feminist Debates of 2016 needs to be seen within the trajectory of research that explicitly takes the specter of feminist discourse, thought, and theory into focus. And while her research draws on the discussions of all the above authors, her book uses a fresh approach in outlining some of the crucial conceptual threads of thinking that feminists in Japan have struggled with in the face of ever-changing yet curiously persisting societal norms and ideas of gender. As Kano explains, "various anthologies of Japanese feminism … attest to a process of selection and canonization. Such a process is full of contentions and contradictions" (p. 26). It seems that Kano is the perfect researcher to tackle the paradoxes emerging within "A Century of Contention on Sex, Love, and Labor," as indicated in the subtitle of this book. Hers is a soft-toed entry and an extremely careful and nuanced approach to conflicting ideas of different feminisms, laying open also the U.S. paradigm from which she observes and sometimes compares the Japanese feminist struggles and their antifeminist adversaries. Kano's prose provides an entry into the diversity of feminisms and invites readers to glide into the thought and rationales of different actors [End Page 523] within women's movements in Japan. Moreover, her monograph of 2016 opens up to us the feminist discursive space of the 2010s which has subsequently been followed up and pursued with closer scrutiny of (sexual) diversity in yet another anthology, Rethinking Japanese Feminisms, which she coedited along with Julia Bullock and James Welker in 2018.1 Kano lays out the structure of her book in the first chapter "Debates? Feminist? Japanese?" by defining each of these major tropes that govern and guide her text. Debates, termed ronsō in Japanese, are written intellectual exchanges and contestations over any sort of political or cultural topic; and rondan is the related expression for the public sphere of such discourses. Historically, rondan have marked a male-dominated space. In a rapidly modernizing society such as post-Meiji Japan, the feminist rondan that Kano unfolds in her discussion emerge as a lively and highly complex sphere of feminists' search for gendered rights and identities. Kano's book then is "about feminism as a thoughtful and contentious practice, about women thinking, reflecting, analyzing, and verbalizing" (p. 13). Yet the shifts in media over the past century have been crucial for the possibilities of this sphere of feminist communication and practice. The recent changes engendered by online debates enhance the basis for critical participation of all men and women, but they are disproportionately used by reactionary, populist, and backlash organizations, individuals, and bots, signaling indeed a new era of vilifying debate that is often more adequately termed harassment and is changing, as Kano writes, "the nature of the thing" (p. 22). The topics of debate that Kano identifies and traces in the core chapters of her book are sexuality, reproduction, and the relationship between motherhood and work, each involving the discussion of multiple intellectual actors, organizations, and transnational theoretical trajectories. Central to the chapter on sexuality (chapter 2) is the contention of "sex for sale" or "sex for self," where Kano identifies the term sei no shōhinka (commodification of sex) as a key concept within Japanese feminisms that captures to a fuller extent the capitalist...

Mary, Mothers, Lament, and Feminist Theology: The Dead Non-War Heroes of Nagasaki

In this essay, McClelland introduces some reflections of Nagasaki atomic bomb survivors about the loss of their mothers and some of their experiences of motherhood in the aftermath, utilizing a feminist lens to analyze the effects of the bomb. Japanese feminist Chizuko Ueno has written that those women who died might be signified as "non-war heroes" in an East Asian context where the "war-heroes" are traditionally male. The author draws on Kwok Pui-Lan's postcolonial theology of religious difference and Shelly Rambo's mixed terrain of remembering to discuss how and to what degree the violence and rupture of the atomic bombing is contested in the memory of the survivors. McClelland describes how the narratives of the Catholic survivors contain a common thread about Mary, whom they implicitly perceive as an expression of a "female face of God." The interviews considered here were collected between 2014 and 2016 as part of a larger historical project that employed a theological lens in describing the interpretation of Catholic memory of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki.

(Im)possibility of Mutual Communication between the Japanese and South Korean Feminisms : Focusing on Ueno Chizuko’s ‘Comfort Women’ Discourse

(Im)possibility of Mutual Communication between the Japanese and South Korean Feminisms : Focusing on Ueno Chizuko’s ‘Comfort Women’ Discourse

Linking Disaster to Natural History, A Visit to Sasaoka Keiko’s Exhibition: Tanesashi, Ninoshima (Hachinohe City Museum of Art)

Linking Disaster to Natural History, A Visit to Sasaoka Keiko’s Exhibition: Tanesashi, Ninoshima (Hachinohe City Museum of Art) Kuraishi Shino (bio) Translated by Daryl Maude (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution Sasaoka Keiko, ninoshima, 2015. © Sasaoka Keiko. Courtesy of the artist. [End Page 186] At a talk during the opening of her exhibition, the photographer Sasaoka Keiko remarked, “For me, Ninoshima is an untouchable.” Ninoshima is an island to which large numbers of the dead and badly wounded were transported after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. In Sasaoka’s words we can glean—to the extent that such a thing can be expressed—the weight of what she has learned from studying the history of her hometown Hiroshima, as she wandered around ground zero of the bombing and took photographs. Sasaoka digs into the challenges of relating an event that rode roughshod over the individuality of each person’s death and does not stop in her attempt to communicate it. And she does so without seeking any sort of streamlining under the pretext of forging new methods of preservation or communication. That decision brings a certain darkness into her photographs. In this exhibition, Sasaoka captures Ninoshima using two techniques. The first is an image of a negative seen between the heads of passengers on the ferry to the island. The second is a series of five photographs that feature a distant view of the island hazed in rain, with countless raindrops piercing the pleats of ocean waves in the foreground. Sasaoka represents the memory of Ninoshima, which lies hidden behind the “untouchable” water’s edge as a tangible “scape.”1 In the “Hiroshima” section on the second floor of the museum, Sasaoka has thoughtfully mixed both older and more recent works, including these latest ones. Her sincerity in resolutely recalling the horrors that human beings have inflicted on others is moving. The first-floor exhibition room displays enlarged photographs of the Tanesashi coastline in the background, with photographs of the areas damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake displayed on a small monitor, creating a gentle correspondence between the images. The Hiroshima series investigates what remains after the devastation of [End Page 187] modern civilization, which has trampled on individual human life from the date of August 6, 1945 and continues through to the present day. According to Sasaoka, photographing the landscapes of the regions of both Tanesashi and the areas damaged by the disaster, employs the shock of March 11, 2011 to link modern history to that which transcends it: natural history. To do so, she looks unblinkingly at the areas of life that were destroyed by the disaster. Therein we find, with limitless empathy, the present and past histories of the many generations of people who were born and lived by the shore. Artworks on display at Hachinohe City Museum of Art (including five works from the Ninoshima series) © ICANOF The exhibition was held as Citizen’s Art Support ICANOF 13th Exhibition, Sasaoka Keiko—Ninoshima, Tanesashi, Hachinohe City Museum. Kuraishi Shino Kuraishi Shino is a Professor at the School of Science and Technology, Meiji University. He specializes in the theory of art practice and the study of cultural assets in modern art and photography, among other areas. He graduated from the Department of Art Studies, Faculty of Fine Arts, Tama Art University, and is a member of the Association Internationale des Critiques d’Art, the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment in Japan, and the Japan Society of Image Art and Sciences. He has also been a Visiting Researcher at the University of Hawai’i. (kuraishi@meiji.ac.jp) Daryl Maude Daryl Maude is a Ph.D. candidate in Japanese literature at the University of California, Berkeley. His research is on intimacy and futurity in Japanese and Okinawan literature, using queer and feminist perspectives to examine imaginations of the future after the American Occupation. His review of Akiko Shimizu’s work on transphobia and feminism in Japan, “Queer Nations, Trans-lations,” was published in Postmodern Culture (30:2), and his translation of Shinjō Ikuo’s article “Male Sexuality in the Colony: On Toyokawa Zen’ichi’s ‘Searchlight’” was published in...

Rethinking Japanese Feminisms ed. by Julia C. Bullock, Ayako Kano, and James Welker

Reviewed by: Rethinking Japanese Feminisms ed. by Julia C. Bullock, Ayako Kano, and James Welker Marnie S. Anderson (bio) Rethinking Japanese Feminisms. Edited by Julia C. Bullock, Ayako Kano, and James Welker. University of Hawai'i Press, Honolulu, 2018. viii, 301 pages. $65.00. Rethinking Japanese Feminisms is a groundbreaking volume that emerged out of a conference on the same topic at Emory University in 2013. Consisting of 14 chapters plus a marvelous conclusion by Ayako Kano, the volume appears slightly longer than most of its kind, yet the essays are on the short side. The editors have divided the book into four parts, each centering on a set of themes and paired with a concise introduction. The contributors, who come from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds including literature, history, anthropology, sociology, and feminist studies, take on topics ranging from the activism and translation work of socialist feminist Yamakawa Kikue (1890–1980), to the opportunities available to postwar women teaching ikebana (flower arranging) and working in ryokan (traditional Japanese inns), to reflections on the legacy of the ūman ribu (women's liberation) movement of the 1970s. The book joins other recent collections on women and gender in Japan including Gender, Nation and State in Modern Japan (2014), Modern Girls on the Go (2013), and Recreating Japanese Men (2011). What makes Rethinking Japanese Feminisms stand out is its sustained attention to feminisms; feminism hovers in the background of many studies of women and gender, but here it is foregrounded. The plural feminisms is crucial as the editors and contributors do not adhere to a single definition of feminism. Rather, they embrace debate and contestation as they sort through "our interpretations of the past, our engagement with the present, and our outlook for the future" (p. 8). Part 1 focuses on activism and begins with Elyssa Faison's chapter on Yamakawa Kikue's work as an activist and bureaucrat rather than a theorist [End Page 121] as Yamakawa normally appears in English. Faison highlights Yamakawa's understanding of women's rights as a crucial part of proletarian rights, distinguishing Yamakawa from her contemporaries in the suffrage movement. Yamakawa, Faison explains, "refused to trade off considerations of class for those of gender, or vice versa" (p. 16). Hillary Maxon examines the first Mothers' Congress of 1954, a moment when Maxon argues that members contended with the legacy of the Asia-Pacific War. They "rebuked the state-constructed ideal of martial motherhood … and reimagined an empowered, pacifist, and politically engaged motherhood" (p. 39). James Welker traces the emergence of lesbian feminism in Japan, especially in the 1990s. He finds that the ūman ribu movement of the 1970s and 1980s enabled the rise of lesbian feminism even as the movement itself did not address—and sometimes actively suppressed—lesbian issues. Tomomi Yamaguchi's chapter takes on the last two decades and analyzes the backlash to the mainstreaming of feminism in the early 2000s. It is a tour de force and, therefore, I offer a few additional comments on it. Yamaguchi interviews the people who were at the center of the backlash against feminism and asks what motivated them. Her analysis focuses on the publications of two religious groups: Shinsei Bukkyō ("New-born" Buddhism) and the Tōitsu Kyōkai (the Unification Church, known derisively as the "Moonies" in the United States). She finds that much of what feminists had assumed about the activists was wrong. Antifeminist conservative activists did not take marching orders from a central conservative organization: rather, "Leadership came from small-scale organizations with deeply committed members" (p. 75). What's more, some activists were not opposed so much to gender equality ordinances as to ideas about sexuality and sex education. Yamaguchi suggests that feminists would do well to learn from what has happened with attempts to mandate feminist policies and to avoid using the language of "women's active participation in society" which has been "co-opted by conservatives" (p. 80). Part 2 on education and the labor force begins with Julia Bullock's essay on educator Koizumi Ikuko (1892–1964) and the latter's 1930s treatise on coeducation that was "radical for its time, and remarkable for its anticipation of Occupation...

Womenomics and Acrobatics: Why Japanese Feminists Remain Skeptical about Feminist State Policy

Neoliberalism and conservative ideology have come together in Japan as ‘womenomics’, a state policy to boost women’s labour productivity as well as the nation’s birth rate. Feminists have responded with scepticism to this policy, proposed by the strongly conservative and nationalist Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe. The content of ‘womenomics’ includes a new law to promote the advancement of women to leadership positions, and reflects the government’s concern for Japan’s international standing. The demographic crisis of a rapidly aging society with a declining birth rate is another background to the policy. Policies to boost the birth rate have been hard to reconcile with policies to promote women in leadership positions in corporate life. The gendered division of labour and the structure of the labour market exacerbate problems as neoliberal reforms are introduced belatedly to Japan. The resistance to neoliberalism has come from conservatives, and thus feminists in Japan have had to perform complicated acrobatics. The long-term prospects depend on finding ways to promote equality in a potentially shrinking nation while continuing to resist the seductions of neoliberal state policies that purport to advance the interests of women.