| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

Housewife Movement

This version was saved 18 years ago View current version     Page history
Saved by PBworks
on March 12, 2006 at 7:32:26 pm
 

Grassroots politics and the Housewife Movement in Japan


The Mothers' Movement for Peace

 

From the moment of their liberation from the traditional ie (household) system under the American occupation in 1945, Japanese women began to form their own political organizations on the grassroots level. The focus of these movements was promoting peace and opposing rearmament of Japan. The end result was a movement of mothers of Japan that petitioned and rallied for peace. Issues ranged from the American occupation and the Korean War to atomic and hydrogen bomb testing. This movement was at first relatively non-partisan, with women of both conservative and liberal persuasions cooperating to achieve common goals of peace. Depending on whom you ask cooperation failed for any number of reasons. According to the Leftists, conservative women were too averse to politicizing the issues out of a reluctance to directly challenge the government. Conservatives cited anger at liberals for allegedly forcing the theory of class struggle into the women’s peace movement.

 

The Bikini Atoll h-bomb test galvanized thousands of housewives into political action. Before this event, many housewives who became involved in peace activism thought of these issues only in terms of their own personal stake in the issue. Mothers protested against war out of fear that their own children and their own livelihoods would be threatened. The Mothers' Congress was one organization that helped to increade the level of ploitical consciousness among housewives by educating women on the intrinsic connections between economic hardship and sexual inequality and the fundamental structure of Japanese politics and society.

 

  • 1945- Japan is occupied by American forces, SCAP abolishes the traditional ie system. Women now have the legal right to inheritance and choice of marriage/divorce. Women are also granted equal rights as parents. SCAP also abolishes laws which prevented women and minors from engagement in public protests and political parties. Women’s political groups such as the League of Women Voters of Japan and the Women’s Democratic Club were formed late 1945 and early 1946. These organizations were the main tools for the mobilization of women in the immediate post-War years. The groups had the initial support of SCAP and were counted on to spread democratic and pacifist ideals. SCAP’s support waned with the onset of the Cold War.

 

  • 1948- As the possibility of a new war looms on the horizon, Japanese women begin to organize grassroots campaigns promoting peace and the rejection of all war. Public fears are reflected in feature pieces on the consequences of WWII in the magazines Fujin and Fujin Minshu Shimbun. Write Miyamoto Yuriko states:

“Mothers of Japan, be strong. Aspire to become a member of world motherhood. If each woman possesses the qualities of a mother, she will follow her instincts to nurture her child and protest from the bottom of her heart the forces that destroy peace.” (Fujin Minshu Shimbun, 12 August 1948)
In August conservatives and liberals plan to hold a joint peace rally, but a conflict over leadershop leads to the withdrawal of the left-wing activists. The two camps subsequently hold separate rallies.

 

  • 1949- In an attempt at reconciliation, left and right-wing activists form a joint organization called Fudankyo (the Association of Women's Organizations). Forty-four groups enters into the umbrella organization and participates in a large peace rally in August. A statement issued by Fudankyo takes the militant stance that "We must act in solidarity to oppose those who try to destroy peace." (Nihon Fujin Shimbun, 19 August, 1948)

 

  • 1950- Fudankyo organizes a large demonstration in celebration of Women's Day on April 10. There is disagreement over slogans, with Leftists seeking to protest American bases and worker layoffs. After leftist hoist red flags and radical slogans during the demonstration in violation of a compromise agreement, the two camps split. With the breakout of the Korean War in June, conservatives and liberals give up on any further collaboration. The day after the start of the war, Hiratsuka raicho and others send a request to John Foster Dulles that the US create a system wherein Japan could remain a pacisfist nation after the return of sovereignty.

 

  • 1954- The testing of a hydrogen bomb at Bikini Atoll inspires the rapid growth of women's anti-bomb and other peace movements. Groups of housewives around Japan initiate petitions against atomic arms. One group in Umegaoka collect 1,500 signatures within a matter of days. By the end of 1954 almost 20 million anti-nuclear signatures have been collected. The national government is forced by public opinion to back off from its previous stance in support of the nuclear tests by the US.

 

  • 1955- The first Mothers' Congress is held in Japan as a precursor to the world Mothers' Congress in Switzerland. This could be taken to signal the official beginning of the mothers' movement, whose slogan was "It is the earnest desire of all mothers that the life they have created be nurtured and protected." (Yamamoto 168)

 

  • 1959- Debates on peace become a major event at the 1959 Mothers' Congress due to the controversy of the Japam-US security treaty. Although conservative and leftist groups had begun to cooperate again after the Bikini test, by this point rightists and liberals are agains split.

 

  • 1962- Hiratsuka Raicho and others found Shinfujin (New Japan Women's Association. Their stated objectives include the protection of women and their children from the ravages of nuclear war, the protection of the Peace Constitution, and international cooperation for the achievement of women's equality.

 

The Seikatsu Club and the Netto Movement

 

Chronology from the official English language website of the Seikatsu Co-op

  • 1965- The Seikatsu Club formed, collective purchase of milk begins

 

  • 1968- The Seikatsu Club Co-operative Established. Pre-ordering collective purchase in “han” (small groups) begins

 

  • 1972- Development of the first consumer material, miso (soybean paste) according to SC independent standards

 

  • 1978- Political “Group Seikatsusha” (now Seikatsusha Network) formed in Tokyo

 

  • 1981- Co-operative Soap Movement Liaison Group set up

 

  • 1982- 5 representatives sent to participate in Second UN Special Session on Disarmament Workers collective “Ninjin” established

 

  • 1983- “Memo on the Promotion of Inter-Co-operative Partnership” exchanged with National Credit Union Federation of Korean(NACUFOK)

 

  • 1986- SC Mutual Assistance System “Ecolo Mutual Assistance” founded

 

  • 1989- Honorary recipient of the Right Livelihood Award, the alternative Nobel Prize

 

  • 1990- Establishment of the Seikatsu Club Consumers’ Co-operative Union holding of symposium on “Creating the 21st Century with the People of Asia” commemorating the 1st Anniversary of receipt of RLA

 

  • 1993- “Food Specialist Co-operative” policy initiated by SC to work towards the improvement of Japan’s food self-sufficiency glass container reuse Green System begins

 

  • 1997- Principle of non-use of GM crops and food affirmed. Independent Control and Auditing System begins

 

  • 1999- Monitoring movement to eliminate dioxin pollution begins use of super-light milk bottle (winner of Ecolife Lake Biwa Award) begins Countermeasures to packaging environmental hormones gets underway Three-way sister partnership with the Women Link of the Republic of Korea and the Homemakers’ Union and Foundation (HUF) of Taiwan signed

 

  • 2000- Implementation of unified campaign activities “Stop!! GMO Declaration” including a full-page newspaper opinion advertisement aimed at the Codex Ad Hoc Intergovernmental Task Force on Food Derived from Biotechnology (BT Task Force), which formulates international standards on GM food. “Petition to the National Assembly Demanding Restrictions on GM Crops and Food” adopted by the 150th National Assembly Dr. Ian MacPherson invited to the International Symposium in Commemoration of the 20th Anniversary of the Laidlaw Report “Stop! GM Rice Co-operative Network” formed

 

  • 2001- Representatives sent to the International Co-operative Alliance General Assembly Survey of GM Food Labeling and demand for the improvement of food labeling submitted to the minister of agriculture, and the minister of health and welfare. “Declaration Opposing All Forms of Terror and Demanding an Immediate Cessation of Military Action,” submitted to both the Japanese and American governments. Fund-raising campaign activities for “Afghan Life Fund,” Invitation of Maria Mies to the “Stop! GMO Assembly” to work towards resolution of the GMO and BSE problems

 

  • 2002- Distribution of Demands to the member countries of the Codex BT Task Force

 

Relevant Links

 

The official English language website for Shinfujin. The organization lays out a brief hsitory of their founding, a summary of their goals, and provides news updates on women's and peace issues. The site does not appear to have been updated since 2004.

 

An interview from 1999 with Mataki Kyoko, a leader of the Kanagawa Netto and prefectural assembly member. Mataki describes some of the Netto movement's history, as well as her own path into politics.

 

An official page of introduction to the Seikatsu Club Co-op, of which the Netto movement is the political arm. The page explains the economic foundations of the co-op system and the advantages it offers for both consumers and producers.

 

Books and Articles

 

Gelb, Joyce and Margarita Estevez-Abe. Political women in Japan: a case study of the Seikatsusha network movement. Social Science Japan Journal, Volume 1, Issue 2: October 1998. p263-279.

 

Leblanc, Robin. Bicycle Citizens: The political world of the Japanese housewife.University of California Press, Los Angeles, 1999.

 

Peng-er, Lam. Green Politics in Japan. Routledge, New York, 1999.

 

Yamamoto, Mari. Grassroots Pacifism in Post-war Japan: The rebirth of a nation. Routledge Curzon, New York 2004.

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.