Transforming Japan: How Feminism and Diversity Are Making a Difference
442
Transforming Japan: How Feminism and Diversity Are Making a Difference
442eBookSecond Edition (Second Edition)
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Overview
When the feminist movement finally arrived in Japan in the 1990s, no one could have foreseen the wide-ranging changes it would bring to the country. Nearly every aspect of contemporary life has been impacted, from marital status to workplace equality, education, politics, and sexuality.
Now more than ever, the Japanese myth of a homogenous population living within traditional gender roles is being challenged. The LGBTQ population is coming out of the closet, ever-present minorities are mobilizing for change, single mothers are a growing population, and women are becoming political leaders. In Transforming Japan, Kumiko Fujimura-Fanselow has gathered the most comprehensive collection of essays written by Japanese educators and researchers on the ways in which present-day Japan confronts issues of gender, sexuality, race, discrimination, power, and human rights.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781558617001 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Feminist Press at CUNY, The |
| Publication date: | 12/06/2018 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 442 |
| File size: | 910 KB |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
The Struggle for Legal Rights and Reforms: A Historical View
Sachiko Kaneko
Japanese women had few individual or political rights before World War II. Under the prevailing ie, or family, system, which was the foundation of prewar Japanese society, the proper place for women was considered to be within the home, under the authority of the male family head. Any type of involvement by women in political activities was thought to be contradictory to natural physiological and psychological laws and to the traditions and customs of Japanese society. Yet, in the face of such prevailing attitudes, many women struggled for their rights.
Women's Place
The Political Situation
In the mid-nineteenth century, in the face of pressures from Western countries as well as changes taking place within the country itself, Japan was forced to abandon its policy of seclusion, which dated back nearly three hundred years. With the Meiji Restoration of 1868 Japan began a process of transformation from a feudal to a modern, unified national state. The new government, in order to guarantee the nation's independence and to achieve self-sufficiency, worked to build its power and national wealth through economic and military development, based on knowledge, ideas, and skills from the West, particularly the United States and Europe.
The government, however, shifted away from its Western-oriented policies in 1874, when the Popular Rights Movement was born and people began to call for the establishment of a national assembly. Several women took part in this political cause. It was reported that on the island of Shikoku in 1878 Kita Kusunose, a forty-five-year-old woman, argued that she should have the right to vote because she had been paying taxes as the household head since her husband's death in 1872. She was called the "grandma of people's rights." Toshiko Kishida lectured and wrote about equal rights for women beginning in 1882. Hideko Kageyama (later Fukuda) was influenced by one of Kishida's speeches, joined the Popular Rights Movement, and later became a socialist. At that time women could still attend political meetings and organize political groups.
The government suppressed the Popular Rights Movement, while promising to establish an assembly by 1881. It sought to create a national polity as soon as possible in order to build a modern country that could compete with other nations. In 1889 the Maiji Constitution was proclaimed, establishing a constitutional monarchy with the emperor as sovereign head of state.
During the next year three important events occurred. The first took place when the National Diet, Japan's national assembly, convened with members of the Lower House who had been elected on the basis of limited franchises. Only men who paid a certain amount in taxes had the right to vote. Second was the adoption of the Imperial Rescript on Education, based on Confucian ideas, which emphasized loyalty to the emperor and filial piety to parents. The goal of education was to create subjects willing to serve the nation and the emperor, and pupils were indoctrinated with this family-state ideology. Japan was to be regarded as a family-state and the emperor the head of the Japanese family. Finally, the government issued the Meeting and Political Organization Law in 1890, which restricted all political activities.
Women's political participation became still more difficult under the Police Security Regulations of 1900, which succeeded the Law of 1890. Article 5 prohibited women and minors from joining political organizations, holding or attending meetings in which political speeches or lectures were given, and initiating such meetings. Women were denied all political rights at both local and national levels.
In 1905, a group of women from a small socialist group called the Heiminsha (Commoners' Association) petitioned for a revision of Article 5. They gathered hundreds of signatures and went to the Diet every year until 1909, though without any success.
The ie, or Family, System
In 1898 the civil code established a family network of relationships known as the ie system. According to this code, the patriarchal head of the family (usually the eldest son) held unquestioned authority over the rest of the family. Together with the privilege of primogeniture, he had an obligation to support the family financially. He could designate the areas where the rest of the family could reside; if they protested, he did not have to support them. Women under twenty-five and men under thirty needed the consent of the head of the family before marrying.
A woman had very few legal rights. When she married she entered her husband's family (and his family register), and control of her property was transferred to her husband. Custody of children was held by the father exclusively. Illegitimate sons (if any) acknowledged by their fathers had prior rights to the family estate over legitimate daughters. For this reason women were expected to produce male heirs.
In the event of divorce there was also severe discrimination. A wife's adultery constituted grounds for divorce, and she could be punished under the new criminal code of 1880. In the case of the husband, only if he committed adultery with a married woman and was sued by her husband and punished would the wife be granted a divorce. Adultery was also defined differently for men and women. Although concubinage was officially abolished in 1880, licensed prostitution still existed, and a polygamous attitude was prevalent across all strata of Japanese society.
Following Japan's victory in the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95) the government promoted girls' education designed to lend support to the family system and the place of women within that system. The Girls' High School Law, issued in 1899, aimed to educate girls to become "good wives and wise mothers." The number of women's secondary schools increased as time passed. However, women were expected to support their husbands, raise children, and not work outside the home.
The Struggle for Political Rights
Shin fujin kyokai (The New Women's Association)
The death of the Meiji emperor marked the beginning of the Taisho period (1912-26). After World War I the universal manhood suffrage movement emerged, and demokurashii (democracy) became a key word to characterize the Taisho period. Raicho Hiratsuka formed the New Women's Association — the first organization of female citizens to be established on a nationwide scale — with Fusae Ichikawa in 1920. It had 331 members that first year. During the next year the Sekirankai (Red Wave Society), the first socialist women's organization, was founded in Tokyo by Kikue Yamakawa.
Hiratsuka called for the reconstruction of society. Motherhood, she insisted, should be esteemed, and she criticized the patriarchal ie system and demanded rights for women and children. The association called for women's right to political participation through a revision of the Security Police Law, Article 5. It also petitioned the Diet to enact a law to restrict marriage for men with venereal diseases.
The New Women's Association held meetings and lectures across Japan. The group collected more than two thousand signatures for the revision of Article 5. Hiratsuka and Ichikawa visited legislators, asking for cooperation and support, from early morning to late evening. At the same time, in order to move around and work more efficiently, they took to wearing Western clothes when they went out, instead of the traditional kimono, with its wide sleeves and tight sashes. Hiratsuka and Ichikawa worked diligently, but personal conflicts and differences ended their work together. Hiratsuka withdrew from the movement, and Ichikawa went to the United States in order to observe the women's movement and labor movement there.
Mumeo Oku became the new leader of the movement. In 1922 she visited the infamous Baron Fujimura, who had been a strong opponent of Oku's group. He was impressed by the young mother, who had a baby on her back during the visit. His image of the suffragettes changed, and he thereafter supported the movement. Later in 1922 the petition was approved, and Article 5 was revised. Women were now able to organize and participate in political meetings.
Female schoolteachers and housewives supported this political reform. The most cooperative group was the Nihon kirisutokyo fujin kyofukai (Japan Christian Women's Organization), modelled on the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, originally organized in 1874 in the United States to work for the prohibition of alcohol. Mary Leavitt, of the US organization, gave a series of lectures in Japan, one of which impressed Kajiko Yajima. In 1886 Yajima, president of a girls' school based on Christianity, began organizing for the Kyofukai (literally meaning "reform society") in Japan. She was particularly interested in the issue because she had divorced a drunken husband. The members decided to work for specific reforms because they thought Japanese society was in need of purification. They regarded the polygamous attitude within Japanese society as a social evil and thought concubinage and prostitution should be abolished. They insisted on monogamy and petitioned for a revision of the civil code and the criminal code. They supported the abolition of licensed prostitution, and they built a shelter for prostitutes who had run away from brothels.
In 1916 the Kyofukai began a two-year campaign against building prostitution quarters in Osaka but failed. Ochimi Kubushiro, a successor of Yajima, realized the necessity of securing women's rights and declared that suffrage was indispensable for the success of their cause.
Fusen kakutoku domei (The Women's Suffrage League)
After the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, women's groups worked together to help victims and the Tokyo rengo fujinkai (Federation of Women's Association in Tokyo) was formed. Kubushiro saw this as an opportune time to organize a national women's suffrage organization. Universal male suffrage was drawing near (it was approved in 1925). Fusae Ichikawa worked at the Tokyo International Labor Organization after spending several years in the United States. While working in the United States, she had visited Hull House, founded by Jane Addams, and spoken with various union leaders. She had also met Alice Paul, a leader of the National Woman's Party, who encouraged her to work for women's suffrage in Japan.
In 1924 Kubushiro and Ichikawa established the Fujin sanseiken kakutoku kisej domeikai (League for the Realization of Women's Suffrage). During the next year the organization changed its name to the Fusen kakutoku domei (Women's Suffrage League). After Kubushiro's withdrawal Ichikawa became the general secretary and was regarded as the central figure in this struggle.
The league issued the following manifesto:
Women, who form one-half of the population of the country, have been left entirely outside the field of political activity, classified along with males of less than 25 years of age and those who are recipients of relief or aid from State or private organizations. We women feel ourselves no longer compelled to explain the reasons why it is at once natural and necessary for us, who are both human beings and citizens, to participate in the administration of our country. ... We women must concentrate our energies solely on one thing, namely, the acquisition of the right to take part in politics, and cooperate with one another regardless of any political, religious and other differences we may have.
Membership in the league increased each year. There were about 200 members at the beginning, 483 in 1927, and 1,762 in 1932. In the western part of Japan the Zen kansai fujinrengokai (All-Kansai Women's Federation) supported the league. Together they collected fifty-six thousand signatures and sent them to the House of Representatives in 1927. By 1931 the government was on the verge of granting the franchise to women at the local (from village to city) level. It appeared that the acquisition of women's suffrage was imminent.
Family Life — Women's Issues
Taisho Period (1912-26)
While some women became active outside the home, for example, joining the suffrage movement, others were facing family problems inside the home. This is evident in the number of women's magazines and women's columns in newspapers which appeared. Women's issues became popular early in the Taisho period. Seito (Bluestocking) (1911-16) was published by Raicho Hiratsuka, and in 1914 Yomiuri shimbun, a national newspaper, established a column for women. Two important women's magazines, Fujin koron (Women's review) in 1916 and Shufu no tomo (Friends of housewives), began publishing in 1917. These publications were widely read by women; the percentage of girls entering school had reached 96 percent by 1907.
Fujin koron was directed at intellectuals and dealt with theoretical issues of women's liberation such as the famous, ongoing "debate over the protection and support of motherhood." Akiko Yosano, a well-known poet, advocated the economic independence of married women. Hiratsuka was more concerned, however, with the protection of motherhood. She had been influenced by the ideas of Ellen Key, the Swedish thinker and author of Love and Marriage (1903). Hiratsuka emphasized the incompatibility of work outside the home and raising children inside the home. Then Kikue Yamakawa argued from a socialist point of view that the important thing was to change economic relations in the existing society. This debate reflected the fact that increasing numbers of women — including married women — were working outside the home in silk reeling and cotton spinning mills, contributing to the economic development of their country.
On the other hand, Shufu no tomo dealt with various problems women faced managing the family in their daily lives. Thrift and savings were emphasized. During the Taisho period the number of people in the middle class increased as industrialization and urbanization progressed. Nuclear families emerged, consisting only of the husband, wife, and children, and young housewives of this class were particularly attracted to Shufu no tomo. It was supported by a wide range of women and obtained the largest circulation among all magazines in 1920, reaching about 600,000 in 1931 and 1,800,000 in 1941.
Shufu no tomo listened to women's voices; letters from readers were welcomed and printed. Eventually, an advice column, or minoue sodan, was instituted to serve the readers. The letters pointed to some of the common problems women faced. In a typical letter a housewife wrote about how she suffered from her husband's extramarital affairs and drinking, which led to the family's poverty. In addition, her husband had infected her with a venereal disease. Another letter dealt with divorce, from a bride who was expected to work hard but could not satisfy her parents-in-law and was driven out of the family. Her in-laws had forced her to divorce her husband and leave their children behind. There were other letters from single women who suffered from the prospect of forced marriages arranged by parents or relatives.
The Early Showa Period (1926-45)
The early Showa period saw an increase in social insecurity brought about by the economic depression and the Manchurian Incident of 1931 (which marked a significant step in Japan's expansion into China). Advice columns were also popular at this time. Yomiuri shimbun published an advice column from 1931 to 1937 with Natsu Kawasaki as one of the columnists. She was an educator and later became director of the action committee for the first Hahaoya taikai (Mother's Congress) in 1955. Of the 1,248 letters that appeared between 1931 and 1937, Kawasaki answered 954 (76.4 percent), most of them submitted by young women, roughly half of whom were married and the other half single.
Women's problems varied; some were economic, some emotional, and others physical. The largest number of letters from married women were about their husbands' extramarital affairs. The next largest number were about loveless marriages. Single women sought advice about love and marriage: they wanted to marry men whom they loved, but their parents tended to force "arranged" marriages. Many also suffered from rape or sexual harassment. The following is a typical letter from a married woman:
Age: 22. I was forced to marry at the age of 19. My husband is selfish and drinks a lot. I was mistreated by my mother-in-law so that I lost weight and my breast milk stopped. I came back to my own parents' home, but my parents-in-law refused to allow my child to come to me. (1934.5.3)
Under the ie system filial piety and obedience were demanded of women. A bride had to serve her parents-in-law first, then her husband. The parent-child relation was much more important than the relationship between wife and husband. Many women could not even consider divorce, since they were economically dependent on their husbands. After a divorce the custody of children was granted to the father according to the civil code.
(Continues…)
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Table of Contents
Title Page,
Dedication,
Preface,
Introduction,
I - CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES,
Chapter 1 - The Struggle for Legal Rights and Reforms: A Historical View,
Chapter 2 - Women in Japanese Buddhism,
Chapter 3 - Who's Afraid of Kiku Amino? Gender Conflict and the Literary Canon,
Chapter 4 - Unions and Disunions: Three Early Twentieth-Century Female Couples,
II - EDUCATION,
Chapter 5 - Educational Challenges Past and Present,
Chapter 6 - The Advancement of Women in Science and Technology,
III - MARRIAGE AND FAMILIES,
Chapter 7 - The Changing Patterns of Marriage and Motherhood,
Chapter 8 - Single Mothers,
Chapter 9 - The Formation and Growth of the Men's Movement,
Chapter 10 - My Life as a Househusband,
IV - CHANGING SEXUALITIES,
Chapter 11 - Defining Lesbian Partnerships,
Chapter 12 - Increasing Lesbian Visibility,
Chapter 13 - Dialogue: Three Activists on Gender and Sexuality,
V - ACTIVISM FOR THE RIGHTS OF MINORITIES,
Chapter 14 - The Story of Kalakasan and Migrant Filipinas,
Chapter 15 - Revisiting the "Comfort Women": Moving beyond Nationalism,
Chapter 16 - Buraku Solidarity,
Chapter 17 - Ainu, Buraku, and Zainichi Korean Activists Rise Up,
VI - DOORS TO EMPLOYMENT OPEN AND CLOSE,
Chapter 18 - Employment and Poverty,
Chapter 19 - Japanese Women Professional Wrestlers and Body Image,
Chapter 20 - Migrants and the Sex Industry,
Chapter 21 - The Nonprofit Sector,
VII - FEMINISM AND POLITICAL POWER,
Chapter 22 - Japan's First Phase of Feminism,
Chapter 23 - Backlash Against Gender Equality after 2000,
Chapter 24 - The Politicization of Housewives,
Chapter 25 - Profiles of Two Politicians,
Notes on Contributors,
Acknowledgments,
Copyright Page,