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Women's Lib in Japan

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on March 12, 2006 at 8:46:27 pm
 


 

 

 

Overview

 

This page owes much to Muto Ichiyo's article (quoted often), “The Birth of the Women’s Liberation Movement in the 1970s” from The Other Japan edited by Joe Moore, published in 1997 by M.E. Sharpe.

 

Women's Liberation in Japan, similar to the US, had many links from male-dominated liberal student groups. The Japanese student movement, Zenkyoto, helped women realize that personal expereiences and the everyday could be the impetus for change. However, the women's movement came into it's own, echoing the Seito (Bluestockings) group years earlier. As Muto Ichiyo notes, early pamphlets authored by feminist Tanaka Mitsu energized women to have a movement of their own. The main difference between Women's Liberation and other women-led or women-focused movements earlier was the rejection of the movement based on a certain so socially proscribed role, such as "mother" or "housewife." Since Women's Lib tried to challenge these roles directly, it challenged society on a much deeper level. This explains in part the emphasis the Women's Libbers had on women's sexuality.

 

Muto notes the standard life cycle expected of Japanese women postwar.

 

(1) works as an employee, (2) quits her job at marriage in her mid-20s and becomes a housewife/mother, (3) returns to work part time after child-rearing duties become lighter, and (4) quits her job and devotes herself to the care of the elderly in-laws and the her aged husband

 

These roles for women, deeply embedded in society and reinforced through discrimination and societal pressure, were conforming for many women. It is in this context that Women's Lib in Japan erupted.

 

Muto, Ichiyo “The Birth of the Women’s Liberation Movement in the 1970s” Joe Moore, ed., The Other Japan (M.E. Sharpe, 1997:147-71)

 

 

 

Beginnings

 

 

In part organized by Guruppu Tatakau Onna (Group of Fighting Women), two hundred women held the demonstration in the ritzy shopping district of Ginza, Tokyo. It took place on October 21, 1970, and was part of the interenational anti-war action day, and was thus overshadowed by the much larger marches around Japan(Muto, 155).

 

On November 14th, 1970, a "Women Lib Symposium: What Women's Liberation Means to Me," drew 500 women to the Shibuya Ward in Tokyo(Muto, 155). As women of all ages from many walks of life shared their frustrations and experiences, the group began to realize what the American feminists called "conciousness-raising."

 

However, as Muto points out, the "breakthrough in Lib history," came at the four-day retreat in August 1971 in the Iiyama(Muto, 156). This drew 1,200 women from around the country, and had a huge impact on the movement. The retreat is mentioned in the movie, 30 Years of Sisterhood, as having a huge impact on the women involved. Again, the Guruppu Tatakau Onna had spread invitations, and the word grew. The event was a powerful experience of freedom.

 

From this momement, Lib groups spread throughout Japan. On april 30th, 1972, the First Lib Conference was held in Tokyo, and (with prodding from Guruppu Tatakau Onna and other groups) resulted in setting up the Lib Shinjuku Center, from which much feminist literature was publishied.

 

 

Tanaka Mitsu

 

Tanaka Mitsu was an influential figure in the Japanese Women's Liberation movement. As Muto Ichiyo writes in The Birth of the Women's Liberation Movement in the 1970s, "Japanese Lib thinking cannot be properly evaluated apart from Tanaka's origniality, power of language and personality." Her inclusion in films about Feminism in Japan such as Ripples of Change and 30 Years of Sisterhood (see links page for more information) testify to her impact. She criticized society at large, and thought women's perspective could help create an alternative society. With other feminists, she had a role in founding the leading Guruppu Tatakau Onna (Group of Fighting Women), from which she published several of her pamphlets.

 

"Declaration of the Liberation of Eros"

This influential article, published in June of 1970, was distributed at a anti-Security Treaty rally in Tokyo.

 

Tanaka Mitsu argues that the liberation of women depends on the recognition of the specific position women hold in society. She claims that liberation for women isn't the same as liberation for other groups, (291) . She writes,

 

Thus as for our liberation as women, it must be a liberation of eros, which means a reform of our stream of consciousness that denies our sex...and we direct our movement towards the dismantling of the ie (houshold system). pg. 292

 

This argument of false consciousness, complete with "slave mentality" (292) includes a call for the deconstruction of the idea of "woman." This is a break from ealier feminist movements, who like leftsocialist, saw women's struggle as part of a bigger one, or sought simply economic equality, or even used their position of housewives to advance certain causes.

 

As we continue to thoroughly question ourselves, in the mist of the struggle, we who can be none other than onna. By questioning men and authority, we will deconstruct our own fantasies of love, husband and wife, men, chastity, children, the home, and maternal love. As we design our own subjective formation, we would like to aid in the (re)formation of men's subjectivity.

 

"Liberation from the Toilet"

 

 

This pamphlet (from August 1970) had a huge impact, with it's imagery of women as "toilet". In the film, Onna tachi genki???, feminists burst through a door labeled, "Toilet" in a reference to this influential argument. Tanaka writes,

 

Men's conciousness, which works as a medium of this dual oppression, is one that fails to find woman as a while woman who has both tenderness and sexaulity as the expression of her tenderness. For man, woman's image is divided - one image represents mother's tenderness (motherhood) and the other represents a mere tool to satisfy his sexual desire (toilet). Within this divided conciousness, man allocates his two seperate feelings, one each to one of the two imagined aspects of woman, which are again abstractions created by man.

 

Here Tanaka begins to make classic feminist arguments about the constraining views of women. Her argument could be compared to the "madonna/whore" roles in the West many feminists struggled against. Tanaka gives advice to women,

 

When a woman becomes aware that it is essentially the same thing and that it makes no difference which category she is classified in, mother or toilet, then she stands up against man and against the powers that be.

 

 

"Why 'Sex Liberation' - Raising the Problem of Women's Liberation"

 

This article, published by Tanaka in September 1970, emphasizes her reasons for demanding, specifically, "sex lliberation." She argues that because of women's control of reproduction, rethinking procreation and sex is necessary. She argues that in order for the family to function, it has been necessary to control women's sexual desire.

 

We define women's liberation as a liberation of sex. We define the future nucleus of human liberation as a liberation of sex. We do not consider this to be a liberation or freeing of our sexual organs, meaning free sex. This is nothing more thatn a dirty form of expression which is based on men's biased conciousness toward women...Women's liberation of sex is actually a kind of self liberation from the structure of conciousness that denies sex... 298

 

 

Shinjuku Lib Center

 

 

The center, founded in 1972 and closed in 1977, published much feminist literature, including newspaper Konomichi Hitosuji (This Way Only), and was involved in fights around abortion and birth control. Muto emphasizes that it was "a coordinating center, a beehive where activists from various women's groups would come and go day and night, hold meetings, plan actions, print pamplets and debate."(169) Old published material shows projects and events the Lib center held, including Teach-ins on contraception and abortion, self-defense classes, a musical "Women's Liberation," and groups for translation of materials into Japanese and other languages. They give a definition of the center and its purpose,

 

Lib Shinjuku Center opened in October, 1972. It is run by seven women's lib groups, two of which form a collective at the cenetr. We the Lib Shinjuku Center make close contact with women all over Japan, and develop a hard-to-nose struggle.

 

Onna Eros (Woman Eros)

 

 

This 180-page Lib quarterly magazine was founded in 1972 by Emiko Funamoto, and sent all over the country. Old issues can be seen in the documentary 30 Years of Sisterhood and Ripples of Change.

 

Chupiren

 

Chupiren, or the Alliance of Womens Liberation Opposing the Abortion-Prohibiting Laws and Demanding Liberalization of Contraceptive Pills, was presented to the public as the most typical of Women's Lib. In the movie Ripples of Change by Kurihana Nanako, Presented as the most typical of Women's Lib...

misconceptions

 


 

Other Japanese Feminists

 

Ueno Chizuko

 

 

Ueno Chizukko, a University of Tokyo professor of Sociology, has written many books dealing with women and the family, and participated in the 1995 World Women's Conference in Beijing.

 

Matsui Yayori

 

 

Journalist Matsui Yayoria was involved with WOLF, the Women's Liberation Front, in the 1970s. She was also a key organizer for the "Women's International War Crime Tribunal," which held the entire Japanese government, including Emperor Hirohito, guilty for the crimes committed against "comfort women" in WW2. She passed away on Dec. 27, 2002.

 

 

Ehara Yumiko

 

 

Another Japanese feminist theorist, Ehara has had a large impact in understanding Women's Lib in Japan.

 

 

Muto, Ichiyo “The Birth of the Women’s Liberation Movement in the 1970s” Joe Moore, ed., The Other Japan (M.E. Sharpe, 1997:147-71)

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