Vera Mackie

The situation of women in Japan, perhaps the most advanced capitalist nation today, raises a number of issues that will seem at once familiar and highly distinctive to an international readership.* What is the role of women’s labour, and how have capital and the state attempted to regulate it? How have women themselves theorized this relationship? What is the ideological importance of motherhood? How has the state attempted to use or regulate women’s reproductive capacity? The answers to these and other questions will express the fact that the problems facing contemporary Japanese women are essentially the problems of advanced capitalism, though inserted within a cultural framework that is considerably different from those of Europe or America. The present article will take a broad view of feminist politics in Japan, and not seek to push everything into a falsely unified ‘women’s movement’. Women have also been active in, for example, consumer, peace and anti-pollution groups, often contributing in these ways to a feminist critique of Japanese society. We must begin our analysis, however, with a

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brief account of the historical background of modern Japan. For while discussion of women no longer focuses on issues of economic development—as it often does in other Asian countries—it is necessary to consider certain decisions made in the early days of Japan’s moderniza-tion that have had a powerful influence on the position of women today.

The Imperial Legacy

The years from 1868 to 1898, following the Meiji Restoration, were a period of intense economic and political modernization, in which female factory labour played a significant role. The first industrialization was carried out in the textile industry, and the capital gained was then reinvested in heavier and heavier industry. Revenue for the moderniza-tion programme was raised by the imposition of a land tax that placed major stress on rural areas, and it was above all the daughters of poor farmers who staffed the new factories—they accounted for more than sixty per cent of the industrial labour force until the 1920s. Others were sold to brothels or even sent to South-East Asia as karayuki san (prostitutes), their repatriated earnings forming an important source of foreign currency.

In these years the political and legal system of the new state was also established: Japan was to be a constitutional monarchy, with the democratic rights of the people—particularly women—severely limited. However, the importation of liberal ideas through the writings of Rousseau, Mill and Spencer gave justification to demands for ‘Freedom and Popular Rights’ and made possible the first theorization of feminism in Japan.1 Kishida Toshiko toured the country giving speeches on behalf of the Freedom and Popular Rights Movement, and KusunoseKita became the first woman to demand voting rights on the grounds that she was the head of the family after her husband’s death.2

For its part, the Japanese state failed to embrace liberal ideas in any real sense, preferring to base itself on the alternative model provided by Prussia. In the Constitution of 1890, individual rights and duties were defined as subject to the power of the Emperor,3 and there was little scope for women to demand ‘natural rights’ in a state which did not even recognize the concept. The Civil Code of 1898 introduced a number of laws which relegated women ideologically—if not in fact— to the domestic sphere in a patriarchal family based on the principle of primogeniture. Married women had no political rights and no claims over property brought into a marriage.4 Although they were now able

* I would like to express my thanks to Saito Chiyo, Aoki Yayoi and the women of the Asian Women’s Association who generously made time to be interviewed in January 1987. Aoki, Saito and several other friends also provided books and other resources.1 R. Bowen, Rebellion and Democracy in Meiji Japan, Berkeley 1980, p. 200.2 S. L. Sievers, ‘Feminist Criticism in 1880s Japan: The Experience of Kishida Toshiko’, Signs 6/4, 1981.3 H. Tanaka, M. Smith, The Japanese Legal System, Tokyo 1976, p. 637.4 Women could not vote, and Article Five of the Law on Political Assembly and Association of 1889(later to become the Peace Preservation Law) prevented women from joining political parties or attending political meetings.

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to petition for divorce, the grounds were different for husbands and wives. Patriarchal power in the home was explicitly linked with Imperial power and played a crucial role in mobilizing loyalty to the Emperor as the figurehead of the new state.5 This family structure was presented as ‘traditional’ and ‘uniquely Japanese’, but in reality it was an imposition of the samurai form on a population which had shown a great diversity of marriage and inheritance practices from region to region.

Ideologies concerning women’s role in the family—particularly the so-called ryosai kenbo (‘good wives and wise mothers’) ideology—an amal-gam of Confucian and Western ideas6—were developed to underline the importance of mothers as educators of children. A new emphasis on monogamy buttressed by ideas of romantic love compensated women for their lack of rights in the political sphere. Education was made compulsory for boys and girls in 1872, but much of women’s school-ing—even in the new women’s colleges—was designed to fit individuals to the roles of wife and mother. Initially women’s education was often carried on in mission schools, which promoted ideas of ‘separate spheres’ and romantic love in marriage. Although private women’s colleges and medical schools were established, it was some years before women could attend national universities.

It is tempting to dismiss philanthropic societies such as the Red Cross and the Japanese chapter of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union—both established in the 1880s—as conservative groups uphol-ding a traditional view of women’s role. Although they did not question marriage and the family, their welfare activities did bring them into contact with the situation of factory workers, prostitutes and other working women. Indeed, they were one of the few socially sanctioned ways for middle-class women to engage in activities outside the home.7

These groups also supported women’s political rights and demanded an end to concubinage—like similar groups in the West, they were concerned with sexually transmitted disease and promoted monogamy and reform of male sexual behaviour as an answer to this problem.8

They campaigned against prostitution and publicized the problem of karayuki-san.9 The formation of the first patriotic women’s organization (Aikoku Fujin Kai) in 1901 mobilized conservative women into supportfor militarism.10

The first women’s magazines were started in the late nineteenth century. Some concerned themselves with home and family, but others provided a forum for discussion of political ideas. Tokutomi Soho of the Minyusha

5 Gluck, Japan’s Modern Myths: The Ideology of the Late Meiji Period, Princeton 1985, p. 265.6 Takamure Itsue, Josei no Rekishi, vol. 2, Tokyo 1972, pp. 79–83.7 S. L. Sievers, Flowers in Salt: The Beginnings of Feminist Consciousness in Modern Japan, 1983, pp. 87–113.8 It is interesting to note that the Kyofukai Temperance Union celebrated its centenary in 1986, making it perhaps the oldest women’s group in Japan. Current activities of the group, involving a conception of women as ‘victims’, are strangely similar to those of the 1880s—for example, it recently set up a refuge for Asian women engaged in prostitution.9 Sievers, op. cit., 1983, p. 95.10 Ibid., p. 115. Mitchell, Patriotic Women’s Groups in Pre-War Japan, unpublished thesis, Adelaide University, 1986.

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established the Katei Zasshi (Home Magazine) at the height of discussions on the new family system,11 while Iwamoto Zenji, principal of a women’s college, launched the Christian-influenced Jogaku Zasshi (Women’s Edu-cation Magazine) in 1885.12 Contributors supported women’s political rights, but argued for monogamous marriage based on romantic love, and emphasized women’s education for the purpose of bringing up children.

Socialists and Suffragists

Socialist groups began to appear in the early 1900s. The first socialist magazine for women, also called Katei Zasshi, was edited by Sakai Toshihiko, a male journalist sympathetic to women’s issues. In 1904, however, Socialist women established their own magazines: Sweet Home and Nijuseiki no Fujin (Women of the Twentieth Century). In one of the first editions of Sekai Fujin (Women of the World, 1907–09), editor Fukuda Hideko criticized the Patriotic Women’s Association, and promoted pacifism and socialism.13 Independent socialist women’s groups such as the Sekirankai and Yokakai appeared in the 1920s,14 and other socialist women were active in the women’s divisions of unions and left-wing political parties.15 It was generally socialist women who raised the problems of working women, who had, after all, borne much of the burden of Japan’s early stages of modernization. The first strikes in Japan had been carried out by female textile workers in the 1880s, but the male labour movement never successfully integrated women workers into the unions.16 Socialists were also linked with campaigns for the promotion of birth control and family planning, but the state considered such activities to be subversive. In 1922 Margaret Sanger was prevented from addressing public meetings on birth control. Later, in 1936, Ishimoto Shidzue opened the first birth control clinic, but she was arrested a year later and the clinic was closed down.17

The journal Seito (Blue Stocking)18 (1911–16) started as a women’s literary journal, but its tone changed over the years under the influence of Swedish feminist Ellen Key’s maternalist philosophy and Emma Goldmann’s anarchism. Seitosha (the Blue Stocking Society) has proved to be the most memorable manifestation of feminism in pre-war Japan. The poetry of Hiratsuka Raicha and Yosano Akiko continues to be

11 K. P. Pyle, The New Generation in Meiji Japan, Stanford 1969, pp. 140–41.12 Murakami Nobuhiko, ‘Fujin Mondai to fujin Kaiho Undo’, Iwanami Koza Nihon Rekishi 18.13 Sharley Conroy Ushioda, ‘Feminism and Pacifism in Japan: The Case of Fukuda Hideko’, Peace and Change, 1976.14 Murakami, op. cit., p. 248.15 Totten, The Social Democratic Movement in Pre-War Japan, 1966; Large, ‘The Romance of Revolution in Japanese Anarchism and Communism during the Taisho Period’, Modern Asian Studies 2/2, 1977. 16 E. P. Tsurumi, ‘Female Textile Workers and the Failure of Early Trade Unionism in Japan’, History Workshop Journal 18, pp. 3–27.17 Ishimoto Shidzue, Facing Two Ways, Stanford 1983.18 The Blue Stockings have received the most attention from scholars in English. See N. Andrew, ‘The Seitosha: An Early Japanese Women’s Organization’, in A. M. Craig, ed., Papers on Japan,Harvard 1972; N. Lippitt, ‘Seito and the Literary Roots of Japanese Feminism’, International Journal of Women’s Studies 2/2, 1975; P. Reich, A. Fukuda, ‘Japan’s Literary Feminists: the Seito Group’, Signs2/1, 1976.

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quoted and Raicho is seen as a role model for some modern feminists.19

Although the pages of Seito may have lacked political sophistication,20

involvement with the journal provided an opportunity for what we would now call ‘consciousness raising’ and many of its writers subse-quently engaged in various kinds of feminist activism. Former members of the Seitosha went on to form the first suffrage groups,21 to found other journals, and to participate in labour activism and proletarian writers’ groups. Yamakawa Kikue eventually became the first head of the Women and Minors’ Division of the Department of Labour in post-war Japan. Ichikawa Fusae directed the women’s division of the early union group, the Yuaikai, and was one of the most popular and visible members of the Diet in the post-war period.

In the nineteen-thirties two anarchist feminist journals appeared. Up till then anarchism had often been exemplified by a philosophy of ‘direct action’, with such women as Kanno Suga, Ito Noe and Kaneko Fumiko being involved in spectacular political incidents. Hasegawa Shigure, a former contributor to Seito, edited the anarchist feminist arts journal Nyonin Geijutsu (Women’s Arts) (1929–30), while historian Takamure Itsue established Fujin Sensen (The Women’s Front) (1930–31), a journal devoted to political discussion. Takamure debated the merits of social-ism and anarchism for women with such writers as Matsumoto Masae.22

She also wrote novels, poetry and political articles, but is chiefly remembered for her lifelong devotion to women’s history.23

In 1930 a bill for limited female suffrage was actually passed by the Lower House. (Universal manhood suffrage had been attained in 1925.) Feminists protested that they wanted full female suffrage or nothing at all, but at any event the bill failed to pass the Upper House and was one of the last opportunities for serious discussion of women’s rights. After the Manchurian Incident of 1931 Japan’s militarist policies were escalated, and women were also co-opted into support for the war effort. In 1932 the Third National Women’s Suffrage Conference was able to issue a statement to the effect that ‘From the standpoint of women, we firmly oppose the present rise of fascism’,24 but the last such conference was held in 1937, and its members were gradually co-opted into support for the military. In Japan, as in other countries, women’s labour was mobilized for the war effort. However, this often

19 In 1978 the journal Feminist called itself the new Seito.20 Exceptions are the debates on prostitution (Seito 5/8) and abortion (Seito 6/1–2).21 Hiratsuka Raicho and Ichikawa Fusae formed the Shin fujin Kyo Kai (New Women’s Association) in 1919. Ichikawa founded the first suffragist association in 1925, after the modifications of Article Five of the Peace Preservation Law.22 E. P. Tsurumi, ‘Feminism and Anarchism in Japan: Takamure Issue 1894–1964’, Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 17/2, 1985.23 Takamure’s studies of pre-modern marriage practices and the role of female emperors still provide valuable resources for historians of Japanese women. Several aspects of her work, however, are being reconsidered. It is argued, for instance, that she did not distance herself sufficiently from the nationalist fervour of the 1930s, and that much of her polemic expressed a desire to return to the golden age of matrilineal society. See Yamashita Etsuko, ‘Takamure Itsue: Bosei no Kenkuyu to Motoori Norinaga’, Feminite 4, 1985.24 Sano Noriko, ‘Women’s Movements in Wartime Japan’, Feminist International 2, 1980, p. 77.

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took the form of volunteer labour, while single or childless women were preferred for paid factory labour.25

Left-wing political activity was forced underground in this period, and the only opportunity for the participation of women in public life was through the patriotic organizations. The Patriotic Women’s Association had existed since 1901, and the Women’s National Defence Organization (Nihon Kokubo Fujin Kai) was established in 1932. Eventually, all women were mobilized under the Dai Nihon Fujin Kai (All Japan Women’s Association) in 1940.26 Some feminists, most notably Ichikawa Fusae, appear to have genuinely believed that cooperation with the authorities would help to gain legitimacy for feminist demands.27 But in the case of Yamada Waka, for example—another former member of the Seitosha—participation in official structures marked a conservative ideological shift and illustrated the dangers of a simplistic maternalist philosophy.28 Yamada and the Motherhood Protection League could claim to have achieved state support for the protection of widowed mothers in 1937, as feminists had been demanding for several years. But this reflected the ambivalent nature of the state’s relationship to women, and was only granted when it could be linked to its pro-motherhood policies. The same regime arrested Ishimoto Shidzue for her promotion of birth control, enjoined women to produce more babies for the state, and only allowed abortion on eugenic grounds.

A brief summary cannot do justice to the range of feminist activity in pre-war Japan, but a number of areas have a definite relevance for contemporary feminism. The great interest in the meaning of mother-hood was useful where a recognition of women’s reproductive capacity was linked to analysis of the material basis of women’s oppression, as in the debates among Hiratsuka, Yosano and Yamakawa on state protection for motherhood.29 The valorization of motherhood, however, left women open to further exploitation. Maternalist values may be associated as easily with fascism as with pacifism, as is shown by the experiences of Nazi Germany and Italy under Mussolini.30

There has been a link between feminism and pacifism since the earliest days of Japanese feminism. In 1904, during the Russo-Japanese war, Yosano Akiko was castigated for her anti-war poetry and Fukuda Hideko was critical of the pro-militarist Patriotic Women’s Association. Sekai Fujin always carried reports on pacifist activities from overseas. However, the lack of a coherent theory of the links between sexism and militarism left women without the means to resist co-optation into

25 B. Moloney, ‘Women and Wartime Employment’, Feminist International 2, pp. 81–82.26 Mitchell, op. cit. Kano Mikiyo has called such activity ‘illusory participation in society’: ‘Zadankai: Onna wa Seiji o Kaeuru ka’, Joshi Kyoiku 30, Winter 1987, p. 21.27 Ichikawa’s life exemplifies many of the dilemmas facing Japanese women in this century. With a strong record of activism in labour and feminist movements, both before and after the war, her activities were marked by a pragmatism which prompted her to cooperate with the militarist regime,on the grounds that she was seeking legitimacy for feminist causes.28 Yamazaki Tomoko, The Story of Yamada Waka, Tokyo 1986, p. 152.29 D. Bethel, ‘Visions of a Humane Society: Feminist Thought in Taisho Japan’, Feminist International 2, 1980, pp. 92–95.30 M. Macciocchi, ‘Female Sexuality in Fascist Ideology’, Feminist Review 1; Claudia Koonz, Mothers in the Fatherland: Women, the Family and Nazi Politics, London 1986.

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the war effort. The dominant pre-war view of women, shared by many non-socialist feminists, placed them firmly in the home and gave little recognition to the contribution of women’s labour. This familial ideol-ogy was established in the early Meiji period, and it is one of the tasks of feminist historians to explode the myth of the unique, transhistorical Japanese family system, an ideological construct which has been used to justify women’s relegation to the domestic sphere. After Japan’s defeat in World War Two, there were to be dramatic changes in the legal position of Japanese women, but strong traces of pre-war ideologies and practices remained.

Post-War Reconstruction

During the Allied occupation from 1945 to 1952 Japan’s legal system was completely overhauled, and General MacArthur is often given sole credit for the dramatic changes in the legal position of women. Accord-ing to documents of the occupation forces, the rationale for granting female suffrage was that they would be more ‘peace-loving’ and chal-lenge the militarist traditions of the Japanese state.31 But such a unilateral reading of history ignores the existence of a pre-war suffrage movement which demanded all of the legislative changes that were eventually introduced. Ichikawa Fusae has since recorded her own role in petition-ing on these issues immediately after the surrender.32

The Constitution of 1947 is one of the most liberal in the world. Thus Article 14, Para. 1 stipulates: ‘All of the people are equal under the law and there shall be no discrimination in political, economic or social relations because of race, creed, sex, social status or family origin.’ This is extended to cover marriage, divorce and inheritance, and the Civil Code was revised after 1947 to meet the conditions outlined in the Constitution. ‘Marriage shall be based only on the mutual consent of both sexes and it shall be maintained through mutual cooperation with the equal rights of the husband and wife as its basis. With regard to the choice of spouse, property rights, choice of domicile, divorce and other matters pertaining to marriage and the family, laws shall be enacted from the standpoint of individual dignity and the essential equality of the sexes.’33 Divorce is granted almost automatically by mutual consent, and the grounds for judicial divorce are the same for husband and wife.

As is so often the case, however, legislation has been a very limited means to change women’s situation. Remnants of the patriarchal family system remained in the Nationality Law and Family Registration system, and the Household Registration Law gave the family an official legal status and implicitly recognized the father’s role as its head. Accordingto the Nationality Law, only men had the right to pass on Japanese nationality to their children—on the assumption that the father had the major power to determine the domicile and nationality of family mem-bers. The Abortion Law and protective provisions of the Labour

31 Quoted in Pharr, Political Women in Japan, 1981, p. 20.32 Aoki Yayoi, ‘Yakeato no Janne Daaku tachi’, Ushio, May 1975, pp. 175–97.33 Quoted in Naftulin, ‘Women’s Status under Japanese Laws’, Feminist International 2, 1980, p. 13.

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Standards Act encoded a view that women’s primary role concerned motherhood—in both cases, it was an abstract concept of ‘motherhood’ that was to be protected, rather than the welfare of individual women.

The Labour Standards Act (1947) prohibited differential treatment in wages because of sex, provided women with menstruation, maternity and nursing leave, and banned their employment late at night or in dangerous occupations. It thus became possible to sue employers guilty of discriminatory practices, although, as we shall see, this was no easy matter. In the first post-war elections on 10 April 1946, an estimated 67 per cent of the twenty million eligible women cast their votes, and in more recent years female participation has actually exceeded that of men.34 Already in 1946 several women were elected to the Diet. But although a number of female deputies have risen to prominence, women have rarely accounted for more than three per cent of the total member-ship of the two houses. Only three women have been appointed to the Cabinet throughout the post-war period. Despite the problems in mainstream political or union participation, however, women have often been to the fore in various kinds of grassroots politics.

In the immediate post-war period, women’s political activities focused on questions that were bound up with a perception of their role as wives and mothers. Thus while the new female members of the Diet united in pressuring MacArthur to take action on food shortages, two large new organizations, the Chifuren (League of Regional Women’s Organizations) and the Shufuren (Housewives Association), took shape around similar issues. The Shufuren, which took a rice-serving spoon as its symbol, has since developed large laboratories in Tokyo for testing products, as well as handling consumers’ complaints about defective products and involving itself in campaigns to boycott overpriced goods.35 It has often been women who have brought pollution problems to the attention of the nation—an important example was the campaign against the Chisso Corporation in Minamata, where most of the men, being on the company payroll, could not take action without endanger-ing their livelihood.36

Women have also been active in peace movements throughout the post-war period. In 1952, at the first and second meetings of Nihon Fujin Kai, women workers, housewives and students issued a call for peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons. Chifuren took up the peace issue in 1954, and Hahaoya Taikai (The Mothers’ Convention) grew out of this into a national pacifist movement.37 In 1960, when Japan was due to ratify a Security Pact (usually abbreviated as ‘Ampo’) with the United States, more than forty women’s groups joined left-wing organizations, trade unions and student groups in a protest movement that took up the presence of American bases on Japanese soil and Japan’s integration

34 Aoki, op. cit., p. 189.35 D. Robins-Mowry, The Hidden Sun: Women of Modern Japan, Colorado 1983, pp. 190–202.36 See Y. Matsui, ‘Asian Women in Struggle’, paper presented to the second Women in Asia Workshop, Monash University, Melbourne 1983, pp. 8–9; Smith, op. cit.37 G. Donovan, ‘Comparative Studies of Women’s Problems in Japan and Australia’, unpublished thesis, Monash University.

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into US military strategy. In Kitafuji, at the foot of Mount Fuji, struggles against the appropriation of common land (iriaichi) by US forces and the Japanese Jieitai (Self-Defence Forces) have been carried on for severaldecades. There it is the ‘grandmothers’ who lead the movement—their sons are engaged in wage labour, while their daughters are responsible for child-care and farming. Years before Greenham Common, these grandmothers were occupying huts on the military practice grounds and employing various forms of active and passive resistance. The women of Kitafuji continue to provide inspiration for peace activists.38

It could be argued that although women’s involvement in such move-ments may initially have been an extension of their role in the home, the contradictory effect was to make many of them more open to a radical critique of gender relations. At any event, in the nineteen sixties when student militancy culminated in the occupation of several universities,39 many women experienced similar contradictions to those of their sisters in America and Europe, and disillusionment with the (male) Left gave the impetus for a feminist critique of politics. One woman who was radicalized at this time was Saito Chiyo, the founder of the Agora women’s resource centre in Tokyo.40 In 1960 Saito watched with concern the demonstrations against the Security Pact with the United States, abhorring anything which might lead to a revival of Japanese militarism.41 When one of the protesters, Kanba Michiko, died in a confrontation with the police, Saito was moved to join the demonstrations, leaving her young child at home. This experience radicalized Saito, as she began to see that it was impossible for women to take an active role in the world of work or politics while inadequate childcare facilities kept them at home. She embarked on a three-year campaign to establish a childcare centre in her area, in the course of which she met many housewives and helped in the establishment of a ‘Bank of Talents’ (Gino Ginko) so that women could employ their talents in the public sphere. Initially there were a number of problems—with the expectations of clients and the inexperience of the women themselves. It seemed that women needed not only to learn editing, writing, commercial and other practical skills, but also to develop confidence and assertiveness.

Eventually, Agora was created as a resource centre where women could consider their situation, engage in consciousness-raising and assertiveness-training, and gather information as a resource for feminist activity. The ‘Labour Exchange’ functions were carried out by BOC (the ‘Bank of Creativity’). Agora has survived longer than many other feminist groups, and it is instructive that it grew out of the experiences of women themselves, and evolved into a form which best suited their needs. Agora now has centres all over Japan—each one having evolved to meet the needs of local women. This pattern recurs in feminist

38 Ando Toshiko, Kita Fuji no Onna Tachi, Tokyo 1982; L. Caldicott, ‘At the Foot of the Mountain: the Shibokusa Women of Mount Fuji’, in Lynn Jones, ed., Keeping the Peace, London 1982.39 For discussion of the student Left, see Muto Ichiyo and Inoue Reiko, ‘The New Left: Part Two’, Ampo, vol. 17, no. 3.4° The following account is based on the author’s interview with Saito, January 1987.41 Saito’s thoughts on pacifism and feminism, and her experiences during the Second World War, are contained in her ‘Feminizumu to Senso’, Agora 24, May 1981.

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politics in Japan. A group of women meet to try to solve some problem close to their own lives—pollution, childcare, consumer issues, the usurpation of their land by military bases. Although they may not initially describe themselves as ‘feminist’, they are then led inevitably to a critique of the politics of gender in Japanese society.

Fighting Women

By the 1970s Japan’s economy’ was firmly established on the basis of spectacular growth, largely in steel processing and manufacturing. By 1978, 65 per cent of all working women were married—many of whom had returned to temporary or part-time labour in their late thirties or early forties, after child-rearing responsibilities had eased.42 It was against this background that new forms of women’s political activity began to develop around specifically feminist themes.

In the early 1970s the Tatakau Onna (Fighting Women) group was formed to combat conservative moves to eliminate those clauses in abortion law which allowed pregnancies to be terminated on the grounds that the mother’s welfare would be affected for ‘economic reasons’. Members continued to experiment with communal living and childcare, and set up the Shinjuku Women’s Liberation Centre.43 The Journal Onna Eros (Women–Eros) provided a forum for discussion of marriage, sexuality, prostitution, labour and politics from a literary and theoretical perspective.44 Countless smaller groups were also formed in the 1970s,and their roneoed newsletters formed the basis of a ‘mini-komi’ (mini-communications) alternative to the ‘masu-komi’ (mass communications) which had no place for discussion of women’s issues—except in a sensationalist or patronizing manner. The phrase uuman ribu (women’s lib) became a focus of attention in the mass media—but was often the butt of ridicule.

Radical lesbian groups were also formed at this time, and such publi-cations as Subarashii Onnatachi (Wonderful Women) and The Dyke carried panel discussions, translations and writings on the political meaning of lesbianism. They also attempted to retrieve a history of lesbianism in Japan45—a significant gap in historical and contemporary accounts of Japanese feminism. The L.F. Centre ran women’s parties, consciousness-raising and self-defence classes for women, and some of its members later founded the first Rape Crisis Centre in Tokyo. Recently the group Regumi has established a newsletter and created a new venue for lesbian feminist activities. Lesbian feminist groups have often been on the periphery of Japanese feminist activity, but have always had strong international links.

42 Ohashi, Terue, ‘The Reality of Female Labour in Japan’, Feminist International 2, Tokyo, 1980, p. 17; Kaji Etsuko, ‘The Invisible Proletariat: Working Women in Japan’, Social Praxis 1973, pp. 375–87.43 Aoki Yayoi, Josei: sono sei no shinwa, Tokyo. 1982, p. 55.44 Onna Eros survived until 1982, and the final issue was timely in its discussion of pacifism and women’s liberation. Onna Eros, No. 17, Josei Kaiho nakushite, hansen nashi.45 The Dyke 2, June 1978, pp. 3–9.

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It is no accident that this flowering of feminist activity roughly coincided with similar activities in Europe, America and Australia. In all of the advanced capitalist nations women were experiencing the contradictions of an education which seemed to promise self-fulfilment, and a labour market based on inequalities of class and gender.46 In Japan, too, many women had become disillusioned with left-wing politics which ignored or dismissed feminist demands. If Japanese women turned to America and Europe for theoretical tools to explain their situation, this was because they were experiencing similar contradictions. Several feminist classics were translated into Japanese, and their influence was marked—Margaret Mead’s Male and Female, de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex, Frie-dan’s The Feminine Mystique, Millett’s Sexual Politics, Firestone’s The Dialectic of Sex.

While many women pursued ‘liberation’ at an individual level, by engaging in consciousness raising around the themes of sexuality, body and ideology, there was also a strong strand of reformism. Women were demanding institutional changes such as an Equal Opportunity Act, and reform of the education system, in the hope that the guarantees of equality encoded in the Constitution could somehow be translated into reality. International Women’s Year and the ensuing International Decade for Women had an incalculable effect on Japanese feminist politics. Such groups as Kokusai Fujin Nen o Kikkake toshite Kodosuruonnatachi no kai (The International Women’s Year Action Group) were able to combine domestic activity with international pressure through such forums as the International Women’s Decade conferences in Copenhagen, Mexico City and Nairobi. Kodosuru kai was divided into smaller working groups, each of which carried out research and pre-sented lectures and public meetings on a particular theme such as education, work, the media or divorce. A large number of Kodosuru Kai’s members were educated working women such as teachers or public servants, and their activities were closely related to the concerns of these sectors. The group published books and pamphlets on non-sexist education, family law, problems of working women, and divorce. It also showed considerable skill in attracting media attention through demonstrations and sit-ins, and its campaign against a sexist TV commer-cial is still remembered.47

In 1977 the poet and academic Atsumi Ikuko founded a new journal, Feminist, which was much more ambitious than most of the ‘mini-komi’ and attempted to reach a broader audience. Feminist was interested in the development of a women’s culture, and had a theoretical rather than activist orientation. As we have seen, Atsumi acknowledged the heritage of early feminism by subtitling the journal ‘The New Seito’. Despite

46 By 1974 approximately equal numbers of male and female high-school graduates were advancing to higher education (31.6 per cent of males and 30.8 per cent of females). However, women tended to go on to two-year colleges, while men generally studied at four-year universities. In 1974 women were only 18 per cent of the enrolment at four-year universities, and roughly a half majored in language and literature. Only one per cent of women were engaged in postgraduate studies. Lebra, Paulson, Powers, ‘Introduction’, Women In Changing Japan, 1976.47 The commercial showed a woman preparing a packet of noodles saying ‘I’m the one who cooks it’and a man eating the noodles saying ‘I’m the one who eats it’. The group protested that this perpetuated a sexist view of male and female roles, and succeeded in having the commercial removed.

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financial difficulties, Feminist survived to seventeen issues over three years, carrying work by Japanese feminist academics on labour con-ditions, the media, the family, education and motherhood, and introdu-cing such writers as Adrienne Rich and Sylvia Plath in translation. It also published two English-language editions, in an attempt to integrate the journal into an international network of feminist communication. It was not until 1978 that the All Japan Feminist Association was formed by Atsumi and her colleagues, but even then it could not be said that Feminist managed to forge strong links with feminist activism in Japan.

The Law and Equal Opportunity

By 1978, the women of Kodosuru kai had framed a clear set of demands for legislative change. In December 1978, Watashi tachi no koyo byodoho o tsukuru onna tachi no Kai (Group to Frame Our Own Equal Opportunity Act) was formed in order to bring pressure on the government for the creation of an equal opportunity act and the removal of sexist provisions from the Nationality Law. Even in 1978, it was possible to sue a company for sexual discrimination on the grounds that it contravened guarantees of equality under the Constitution, but such legal action was expensive and time-consuming, and each case had to be argued on an individual basis.48 Equality provisions of the Labour Standards Law only covered wages, and not promotion or retirement, but many judgements referred to Article 14 of the Constitution, which prohibits discrimination on the grounds of sex, or Article 90 which requires that ‘good law and order are to be maintained’.49 The Labour Standards Law also gave women protection from overtime or night-time work, and this was to be the most controversial aspect of demands for legislative change. Women demanded an equal opportunity act with the retention of protective provisions, while the government attempted a trade-off, whereby the Equal Opportunity Act would be implemented and protective provisions removed.

The International Women’s Year Action Group was able to mobilize sufficient international pressure to embarrass the Government into signing the Treaty to End All Forms of Sexual Discrimination in Copenhagen in 1980, with a commitment to ratify the Treaty by 1985. The Government turned this into a successful public relations exercise by having Nobuko Takahashi—one of the few female ambassadors—sign the treaty on its behalf. Over the next five years, women campaigned ceaselessly in the hope that Japan would introduce an equal opportunity act which had some potential for changing the situation of workingwomen in Japan. All opposition political parties produced draft legis-lation, and the most progressive was presented to the Diet by Socialist

48 Miyo Nakamoto sued the Nissan Motor Company over discriminatory retirement provisions in 1969, but it was not until 1982 (after several appeals) that the Supreme Court decided in her favour. There have also been several judgements upholding the principle of equal pay for equal work, but this could easily be circumvented by reclassification of job titles. A further problem is that precedent does not have the same status in Japanese law that it does in British or Australian legal practice. See Cook and Hayashi, Working Women in Japan: Discrimination. Resistance and Reform, Cornell University1980, pp. 38–63.49 Ibid., p. 22.

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member Tanaka Sumiko. Although Sohyo (the Japan Council of Trade Unions) paid lip service to the principle of equality, unions provided little support in anti-discrimination cases. One reason is that most labour contracts only cover individual companies, and national union federations have little jurisdiction at this level. It is also true, however, that the union hierarchy is male-dominated—even in industries with large numbers of female workers. Responsibility for childcare often makes union activity practically impossible for women. Nor have unions shown much interest in providing representation for temporary or part-time workers.50

The Equal Opportunity Act introduced in May 1985 (effective from 1April 1986) is a travesty which is virtually free of punitive provisions, and promises little real change. The act is based on a philosophy of ‘equality of opportunity’ rather than ‘equality of result’ and is not backed up by affirmative action programmes. Companies will be encouraged to ‘make efforts’ to abolish discrimination in recruitment, hiring, transfer and promotion. They are prohibited from discrimination in retraining, welfare, retirement and retrenchment, but no penalties are specified. Where a dispute arises, there are three stages of reconciliation—within the company, through the local Women and Minors’ Bureau of the Department of Labour, and through the local Equal Opportunity Board.

Nineteen eighty-seven was the first year when university graduates sought employment under the new Act, and we are awaiting statistics on whether it has had any effect at all. Although some feminists feel that any act is better than none, most feel that the present law is useless. There is some recent evidence, however, that courts are willing to give a liberal interpretation to the Act. In the case against Tetsuren (the Japan Association of Steel Manufacturers)—widely seen as a test of how courts would interpret the Constitution in the light of the Equal Opportunity Act—the Tokyo District Court ruled in December 1986that having separate career tracks for men and women was in violation of Article 14 of the Constitution. The court stated that differences in promotion and allowances were unconstitutional, but that the company had discretion in the deployment of staff. In another recent case in the Tottori District Court, female teachers were awarded compensation and costs on the grounds that they had been discriminated against in retirement provisions.51

During International Women’s Decade, public money was poured into conferences, resource centres and a National Education Centre for Women. Nearly every prefecture and major city now boasts some kind of women’s centre. It is tempting to dismiss such changes as merely cosmetic—as vote-catching exercises—and there is some truth in this view. I, for example, wondered whether women would not rather have an adequate childcare centre than yet another women’s library. My scepticism was softened, however, on visiting the Tokyo Women’s Resource Centre in Iidabashi. Its shelves carried a range of feminist

50 Ibid., pp. 83–85.51 Nakajima Michiko, ‘Hataraku Josei no Sabetsu. Teppai e Zenshin’, Fujin Tenbo, January 1987, p. 8.

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publications, and the noticeboard displayed fliers for feminist groups and part-time workers’ unions. The centre itself often provided a venue for meetings, so that there may be more radical potential in these centres than was realized by anyone at a governmental level. Most feminist groups, however, are fierce in their insistence on independence from government support.

It is also true to say that there has been some change in attitudes in the last few years. Some women are now able to pursue careers and an independent lifestyle without undue pressure, and it is possible to see some men sharing childcare and, for example, taking children to and from creches. For the majority of men, however, their working con-ditions preclude any participation in domestic labour, and their long working hours are the major stumbling block to any change in the sexual division of labour. Indeed, the commitment they show to their companies would be impossible without the support of women’s dom-estic labour. The mass media, however, continue to present a stereotyp-ical view of men and women, and there is less consciousness of the sexism in everyday language and behaviour than we find in Australia or America. Women in the mass media are mothers, sexual objects, or non-threatening child-figures. Some chapter titles in Ian Buruma’s book on Japanese popular culture are instructive—for example, ‘The Eternal Mother’ or ‘Demon Woman’.52 In the pages of the comics read by male students and workers on rush-hour trains, women are subjected to violence, rape and mutilation. Similar fantasies are enacted in porno-graphic movies.

Media stories are also instrumental in instilling a sense of guilt in working mothers. When, for example, a death occurred in a private childcare centre, media rage was directed against the mother rather than the inadequacy of public childcare facilities.53 Sexism is linked to racism in the portrayal of Asian women. Weekly pulp magazines provide guides to brothels in Manila and Seoul, and recent articles on Filipino women have linked them with the spread of AIDS in Japan—with no discussion of the responsibility of their male customers. As mentioned above, the International Women’s Decade did provide Japanese women with an opportunity to form links with women in other countries. On an individual level, women could exchange information and ideas, while at a national level, these contacts could be used to bring international pressure on a government always sensitive to overseas opinion. Another important by-product of International Women’s Decade was the way in which Japanese women became conscious of their situation as part of Asia. Too often in the past, women had looked to Europe and America for inspiration, and had neglected consideration of women in neighbouring countries.

52 Ian Buruma, A Japanese Mirror: Heroes and Villains of Japanese Popular Culture, Harmondsworth 1985.53 Matsui Yayori, ‘Contempt for Women and Asians in the Japanese Press’, Feminist International 1, 1978, pp. 12–14.

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Japan and Asia

One reason for Japan’s spectacular economic growth in the post-war period was the stimulus provided by its support facilities for American military operations in Asia. In the 1950s Japan’s economy benefited indirectly from the Korean War, and in the 1960s from the Vietnam War. Within Japan, the people affected most directly by this relationship lived near American bases or the proposed Narita airport. The women of Kitafuji and the farmers of Sanrizuka (Narita), for example, expressedsolidarity with the peoples of Asia and described their own struggles as ‘guerrilla warfare’.54

In the 1970s Japan’s economic activities in Asia came under scrutiny, and it was often women’s groups who brought them to public attention. By the 1970s, Japanese industry had moved ‘offshore’ in search of cheaper labour and fewer controls over environmental pollution. It was Filipino, Korean or Indonesian workers—often women—who provided labour for these enterprises. Japanese women were affected by this process of restructuring as jobs were lost in manufacturing and created in service industries, while South-East Asian women found themselves often having to make a dubious choice between sweated labour in electronics or textile plants and the provision of sexual services for the tourist industry.55

The issue of ‘sex tours’ to South-East Asia by Japanese men forced Japanese women to think of the economic, political and ideological links between their own situation and that of Asian women. The Asian Women’s Association was most active in raising this issue through public meetings, lectures, publications and demonstrations. Matsui Yayori—one of the group’s founders and one of the few women to reach an editorial position in a major Japanese newspaper—used the pages of the Asahi Shinbun, often meeting opposition from senior editorial staff. Working groups within the Asian Women’s Association conducted research into Japan’s economic activities in Asia, the structure of the tourist industry, the Nationality Law, the sexual division of labour in Japan and South-East Asian countries, and attitudes to the issue of prostitution in Japan. Their findings were publicized through the journal Ajia to Josei Kaiho (Asian Women’s Liberation) and the lecture series Onna Daigaku (Women’s University). These issues were linked with women’s own lives through consideration of Kurashi no naka no ajia (Asia in everyday life). Members of the association considered how the food, clothes, electrical goods and cosmetics they used every day were often produced by Asian women under shocking working conditions and curtailment of political rights. The Asian Women’s Association also concerned itself with political repression and liberation struggles in Korea, the Philippines and other countries. These concerns were linked with a consciousness of Japanese history, while economic imperialism was related to Japan’s military activities in the 1930s and

54 Ando Toshiko, Kita Fuji no Onna tachi, Tokyo 1982, p. 128.55 The economic relationship between Japan and South-East Asia, and the effects on South-East Asian women, are discussed in V. Mackie, ‘Division of Labour: Multinational Sex in Asia’, in G. McCormack and V. Sugimoto, eds., Japan: Modernization and Beyond, Cambridge, forthcoming.

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40s, and ‘sex tours’ to a history of exploitation of women’s sexuality in the process of Japan’s modernization.

One of the most successful campaigns of the Asian Women’s Associ-ation—led by Socialist Diet member Doi Takako—concerned the removal of sexist provisions of the Nationality Law. Under an amend-ment passed in January 1985, Japanese women may now pass on nationality to their children, and their non-Japanese husbands may be naturalized under the same conditions as non-Japanese wives. More generally, members of the Association have seen it as their responsibility to act in solidarity with Asian women, rather than pitying them as ‘victims’. The Association has particularly strong links with Filipino and Korean groups, and has often staged joint demonstrations with them on the issue of ‘sex tours’.

One group which has not completely purged itself of the ‘victim’ mentality is the Nihon Kirisutokyo kyofukai (Japan’s WCTU). The most recent manifestation of the exploitation of Asian women’s sexuality is Japayuki-san—the Filipino and Thai women who come to Japan to work and are often tricked into prostitution. The Kyofukai has set up a shelter for these women, and such charitable activities are strangely reminiscent of the group’s philanthropic activities of the late nineteenth century. It also, however, engages in educational activities, and has produced a slide presentation called Sachiko’s Story56 in an attempt to make Japanese women think of the situation of Asian women in their own countries, and now in Japan’s bars and Turkish baths.

The women’s Shelter, which was established by a grant from the Ichikawa Fusae Foundation57 and is supported by other groups such as the Asian Women’s Association, the International Women’s Year Action Group, and the International Feminists of Japan, was originally intended to rescue Asian women as victims of oppression, but the refuge has also been used by Japanese women who have suffered domestic violence. Perhaps this will prompt the women of the Kyofukai to consider more deeply the links between the oppression of women in Japanese society, and the oppression perpetrated by Japan in South-East Asia. That is, such activities may provide one more strand of the increasingly coherent critique of structures of domination and subordination which has been developed by Japanese women in the 1980s.

The Late 1980s: Beyond ‘Women’s Issues’

The past few years have seen more than a simple continuation of Liberal Democratic Party rule. The LDP has now firmly consolidated its hold on power, and the rightist policies of the Nakasone faction have gained ascendancy. Military matters are once again a focus of attention, and a new note of nationalism is apparent.58 In 1987, for the first time, military

56 Presented at a meeting of the International Feminists of Japan, February 1987.57 Ichikawa, who died in 1981, left money for the establishment of a fund for feminist activities.58 Many of these developments were predicted by Gavan McCormack and others in G. McCormack and Y. Sugimoto, eds., Democracy in Contemporary Japan, Sydney 1986.

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spending passed the notional boundary of one per cent of GDP, and welfare cuts continue.

Policies of privatization of national industries are putting strain on the labour market, and have dealt a major blow to the union movement and the parties of the Left. The National Railways, the Tobacco and Salt Corporation and the telephone corporation have already been privatized, and Japan Airlines will be next. The splitting of the National Railways into eight regional authorities caused the loss of an estimated 100,000 jobs. Many employees were retired from the National Railways and re-employed by the new regional corporations, but those who were known to have engaged in union activity were seldom rehired, and several suicides by union leaders have been reported.59 A more serious consequence, however, was the dismantling of the railway-workers’ Kokuro, one of the strongest and most militant unions, and a significant part of the power-base of Sohyo (the left-wing Japan Council of Trade Unions). Sohyo, in turn, is a major source of support for the Japan Socialist Party.

At the same time, the high value of the yen has weakened export industry and intensified the trend for large companies to protect their profit margins by moving overseas. Many of the small and medium-scale enterprises subcontracted to the major firms have actually been forced to close. According to a recent article in the Far Eastern Economic Review, unemployment has reached its highest level (2.8 per cent) since 1947, and is projected to rise to 4.2 per cent by 1991.60 Although the real figures are probably much higher, the trend is clear. Technological change has also affected the labour market, and the emphasis within Japan is on the development of high-tech and knowledge-intensive industries. Between 1970 and 1982 most new jobs were created in technical, clerical and service industries, and 40 per cent of new jobs were temporary positions.61 Recent figures on women’s labour confirm these trends and show that women still constitute the most vulnerable sector of the labour market.62

Between 1975 and 1985 the number of female workers increased by 35per cent. There are now almost 16 million female salaried workers, who make up 35.9 per cent of the total number of salaried workers and exceed the number of full-time housewives by some 200,000. Seventy per cent of these workers are married, widowed or divorced and 58.3per cent are over 35. In 1985, part-time workers accounted for 22 per cent of the female labour force—the total figure of 3,330,000 representing an increase of 50,000 over 1984. The most dramatic increase in female employment has been in information services and advertising (159.8 per cent), commodity leasing (155.6 per cent), food and beverage marketing (106.2 per cent), department stores (64.5 per cent) and medicine (62 per

59 Peter Hartcher, ‘Why Japan’s Industrial Muscle Has Atrophied’, Sydney Morning Herald, 15 April 1987.60 R. Richardson, ‘The End of Jobs for Life’, Far Eastern Economic Review, 29 January 1987.61 Tessa Morris-Suzuki, ‘Sources of Conflict in the “Information Society” ’, in McCormack and Sugimoto, eds., op. cit.62 ‘Rodo sho fujin kyoku’, Fujin Rodo no Jitsuio, quoted in Fujin Tenbo, November–December 1986, pp. 14–15.

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cent). In 1975 the proportion of women in managerial positions was 5.3 per cent, and in 1985 was still only 8.5 per cent. Statistics, however, probably give little indication of the number of women involved in mizushobai—bars, Turkish baths and entertainment.

The vulnerability of women workers is increased by the trend towards seconded labour and outworking. Many workers formerly employed as regular employees are now employed on a casual basis through agen-cies,63 and much word-processing is carried out at home on a piece-work basis. ME Kakumei (Micro Electronic Revolution) and OA (Office Automation) have been ‘buzz-words’ in recent years, but these trends have done nothing to improve the situation of working women.64 The Equal Opportunity Act is of little use to women in vulnerable positions in small companies, and the union movement—which has seldom been involved in achieving improvements in women’s position—has been seriously weakened. The next concern of women workers—indeed, all workers—in Japan is the eventual form of the Labour Standards Law. Proposed amendments to this law, presented to the Diet in March 1987but not yet passed, contain the following points, in addition to the removal of protective provisions for women workers:65 (1) Working hours at present are 48 hours a week. These will be reduced progressively to 46 and 44 hours, with the 40-hour week being the ultimate target.This, however, only applies to firms employing more than 300 workers. (2) Working hours may be variable, calculated on a three-monthly rather than a daily or weekly basis. (3) Full-time workers are to receive ten days paid annual leave. Part-time workers will receive leave on a pro-rata basis. (4) Overtime, holiday labour and offsite working conditions are to be regulated by management–labour negotiation.

The removal of daily limits on working hours and the provision for labour–management negotiation will result in a de facto deregulation of working conditions. Now that only 23 per cent of Japanese workers are unionized,66 this will mean a significant weakening of the power of labour. In non-unionized workplaces, negotiation may be carried out between management and 50 per cent of regular (not part-time or casual) staff. If these amendments are carried, the situation of women workers, casual workers in the computer industry, and other part-time workers and outworkers will be seriously weakened. The only optimistic note in the present situation is the trend towards the creation of part-time workers’ unions, which seem to have had an effect on some workplaces, if not on a national basis.67 It seems, then, that the so-called Equal Opportunity Act may have been achieved at the cost of de facto deregulation of working conditions in Japan.

63 The situation of these workers is discussed in Isobe Akiko et al., ‘Tadayou Rodo Yabukareru Onna Tachi’, Shin Nihon Bungaku 469, January 1987, pp. 60–61. The trend towards outworking and seconded labour was officially recognized in the Labour Dispatch Law of 1985.64 Committee for the Protection of Women in the Computer World, ‘Computerization and Women in Japan’, Ampo 15/2, p. 18.65 This discussion follows Kenmochi Kazumi, ‘Yowai mono ijime no Rokiho Kaisei’, Asahi Jaanaru,3 April 1987, pp. 20–24.66 Ibid., p. 21.67 See Isobe et al., op. cit., p. 49. The Edogawa Union was established in 1984. There are now 33part-time unions through the country.

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The connection between Equal Opportunity and removal of protective provisions is, of course, thoroughly tendentious. If all Japanese workers had the protection afforded workers in other advanced countries, there would be no need for special provisions for women other than parenting leave. It has been suggested that there is insufficient consciousness of class in the Japanese women’s movement, but feminists’ insistence on the retention of protecive provisions reflects a recognition that vulnerable women workers will be affected most by any change to the Labour Standards Law—that is, feminist activists have refused to be divided into ‘elitist’ and ‘anti-elitist’ factions.

‘A Japanese-style Welfare State’?

Another factor which affects the structure of the labour market and the position of women is the ageing of Japanese society. Japan now has the longest life expectancy in the world, and aged people number roughly ten per cent of the population. At the moment there are five working people for every aged person, but this ratio is expected to decrease to 3.9:1 by the year 2000, and 2.5:1 by 2020.68 Despite this increase in the numbers of aged people requiring welfare, the govern-ment share of medical and other expenses has been progressively cut, and the individual’s share of the burden increased. According to the dominant ideology, the aged have traditionally been cared for in an extended family where three generations shared the same residence. This view, however, is romantic in the 1980s, when most families live in houses or apartments barely large enough to house a basic nuclear unit, and many families of ‘salarymen’ are transferred to regional areas for part of the husband’s career, thus putting further strain on the extended family. Although the nuclear family with both parents may still be the norm, the number of families headed by females is rising. In 1983 there were 718,000 such families, a 13 per cent increase since 1978. The average household income of female-headed families was 45per cent of the national average, and almost 80 per cent of divorced wives received no support from their former husbands.69

Slogans concerning the ‘unique’ Japanese family system and LDP calls for ‘a Japanese-style welfare state’70 reflect a desire to make the family shoulder the major burden of care for the aged and the handicapped. While women are mainly engaged in part-time labour, they will be able to look after the aged and handicapped. This burden cannot be shared by men while they work the longest hours of any developed country. The ‘Japanese-style welfare state’ will also be supported by promotion at the local level of volunteer work by women.

Given the present political situation, many feminist groups concentrated in 1987 on a balance-sheet of International Women’s Decade, and on the consideration of priorities for action in the next few years. Agora celebrated its fifteenth anniversary in the summer of 1987, and Saito

68 Korei ka shakai o yuku suru josei no kai, Dai yon kai josei ni yoru rojin mondai simpojium (1986), p. 74.69 Official statistics quoted in Japan Foundation Newsletter, June 1985.70 McCormack, op. cit., p. 53.

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Chiyo was confident that this would mark the start of a new generation of activity for the group.71 Saito now shares much of the running of Agora with a group of paid workers, and the journal Agora is on a firm financial basis. The BOC office its run in accordance with Saito’s views on humane working conditions—although wages are low, each worker’s hours allow her to devote time to children or other responsibilities. According to Saito’s vision for Japanese society, men too would work reduced hours, and this would allow them to share childcare and care for the handicapped and aged.

The Asian Women’s Association celebrated its tenth anniversary in March 1987. Its journal, Asian Women’s Liberation, is relatively secure financially, and the Association has continued its concern with Japan’s economic activities in Asia and political and cultural links with other Asian women. A recent issue of the journal carried songs and poetry from women in several Asian nations, accompanied by comment on the political situation.72 The major theme for the group’s activities in 1987is the problem of ‘development aid’. How is Japan’s foreign aid affecting women in Asia? Does it benefit the local people or Japanese capital? The group is keen to hear from women in other countries working on the issue of development aid. Matsui Yayori notes that the themes of International Women’s Decade were ‘Peace, Equality and Develop-ment’. In Japan, she notes, the first two were given emphasis at the expense of considering how ‘development’ affected third-world women. The present activities of the Asian Women’s Association are an attempt to redress this balance.73

The International Women’s Year Action Group has been reborn as the Women’s Action Group (Kodosuru onna tachi no kai). At its inaugural meeting, Ueno Chizuko, feminist academic and current ‘media personal-ity’ of Japanese feminism, reviewed recent trends in the Japanese women’s movement.74 The Action Group now has working groups on the mass media, women and work, education, international links, networking, and theory. The education group has campaigned around removal of sexist educational practices following the ratification of the UN treaty on ending sexual discrimination. It has been particularly critical of the new kateika (home economics course), on the grounds that although both boys and girls must take it at middle-school level, it may perpetuate sexist stereotypes and link up with the ideology of the ‘Japanese-style welfare state’.

The mass media group is concentrating on the issue of pornography. A public meeting in February 1987 considered this issue from both an ideological and economic standpoint.75 Some speakers considered pornography as an expression of derogatory attitudes towards women in Japanese society, while others focused on the economic structure of

71 Interview with the author, January 1987.72 Ajia to Josei Kaiho 17, March 1986.73 Matsui Yayori, ‘Josei no tachiba kara mita “kaihatsu” to wa nani ka’, Ajia to Josei Kaiho 18, 1987, p. 1.74 Ueno Chizuko, ‘Feminizumu—Nihon no undo no kore kara’, Kodosuru Onna 9, December 1986.75 Kodosuru Kai, Rasshu Awaa wa Poruno Awaa?, 1 February 1987. Meeting held at Kinro Fukushi Kaikan, Tokyo.

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the pornography industry. The participants ranged from high-school students to elderly women, with several nationalities present—which suggests that a broad spectrum of women feel that this issue affects them directly. It is also possible to link the pornography issue with a pervasive attitude of violence towards women in Japanese society, as I have argued elsewhere.76 This includes not only domestic violence, but also various forms of psychological violence, and the violence of unnecessary medical procedures, as exemplified in the Fujimi Byoin scandal.77

One trend of the 1980s which has intensified in recent years is the cooperation of several women’s groups—often together with consu-mers’ and citizens’ groups—in coalitions around a particular issue that require coordinated national activity. It has often been suggested that citizens’ movements in Japan are fragmented, divided and ineffective.78

Thanks to the women’s movement, however, there has been a recent trend towards the linking of seemingly disparate issues in a coherent critique of the masculinist, militarist nature of the modern Japanese state. This became apparent in campaigns against changes to the abortion law in 1982, and recent campaigns on the Equal Opportunity Act brought together a coalition of 48 groups.79

In 1982 Murakami Masakuni (Diet member and leader of the right-wing religious and political group Seicho no Ie) led a new campaign for the removal of the ‘economic reasons’ clause in the abortion law, using propaganda from the Moral Majority in America and inviting Mother Theresa to Japan.80 The 1982 campaign against Murakami and the proposed amendment was coordinated by a coalition of over seventy groups (Soshiren), including anti-War, anti-pollution and anti-nuclear groups and organizations supporting the rights of the handicapped. They recognized that moves to change the abortion law were part of a coherent right-wing philosophy of increased spending on military expansion and resulting privatization of welfare. The ideology which relegated women to the private sphere of domestic labour also denied them reproductive freedom. The 1982 coalition met this ideology with a coherent critique of Japanese masculinism and militarism. And although the proposed amendment was defeated in 1982, women have continued their campaign and demanded the removal of the crime of aborticide from the Civil Code.

Recent activities by anti-war and anti-nuclear groups have contributed to this critique of Japanese society. In June 1983, rallies against Nakasone’s military cooperation with the United States were supported by Soshiren and other women’s groups. Senso e no michi o yurusanai onnatachi no kai

76 Review of Ian Buruma, A Japanese Mirror, op. cit., published in JSAA Newsletter, June 1986.77 Several women formed a support group after it was realized that doctors at the Fujimi Clinic had performed unnecessary gynaecological operations for profit.78 Iida Momo, for example, notes the failure of 1960s activists to form links between the Ampo struggles and the Minamata issue. Iida Momo, ‘Aka to midori no dai goryu: ishitsu no kyowa no tameni’, Crisis, 30 November 1985.79 Saito Chiyo, ‘Zadankai’, Agora 100, Kintoho, haikiho, soshite . . ., pp. 12–13.80 This campaign and the feminist response are discussed in detail in Mackie and Buckley, ‘Women in the New Japanese State’, in McCormack and Sugimoto, eds., op. cit.

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(Women who refuse to follow the road to war) consists of a coalition of feminist pacifist activists which holds national meetings every year. Another annual event, held on the 15th of August, is the ‘speech marathon’ at which women occupy space outside Shibuya Station in Tokyo, their loudspeakers vying with those of ultrarightist groups for the attention of commuters and shoppers. At one recent meeting the women of Kitafuji were prominent. In Zushi (near Tokyo) women opposing further encroachment of the US military onto local land have been successful in their campaign, and one of their members has been elected mayor.81

New Directions

Anti-militarism is supported by a revival of interest in Japanese women’s history. The research of the Asian Women’s Association has exposed the links between Japan’s military activities and present-day economic imperialism, raising the question of women’s share in the responsibility for the oppression of other Asian peoples.82 Several researchers are examining the role of women in the national mobilization of the 1940s.83

If women are to be seen as active participants in this process, then the next task of feminist historians is to expose the ideological pressures which were brought to bear. More than one political commentator has already drawn parallels between the 1940s and the 1980s, so that the problem has obvious contemporary relevance. The research will also be germane to recent theoretical debates on the link between gender and fascism in Italy and Germany.

There has also been great interest in rediscovering the history of feminist activism in Japan. One aspect of this is the search for role models, and activists such as Hiratsuka and Yamakawa, or the feminist historian Takamure Itsue, provide inspiration for contemporary activists. How-ever, this interest goes beyond mere nostalgia. An examination of the writings of early feminist thinkers may expose the philosophical strengths and weaknesses of their arguments, and contribute towards an understanding of the failure of pre-war feminism to provide serious opposition against the militarist regime of the 1930s. How was it possible that such feminists as Ichikawa, Yamada and Takamure could be co-opted under the National Mobilization System? The new women’s centres and the reissue of feminist classics and journals in facsimile editions have made the history of feminist activism more accessible in recent years. A reappraisal of family history may also challenge the myth of the ‘unique Japanese family system’ which has so often been used to justify women’s relegation to the domestic sphere. Such research is supported by several women’s studies associations84

and such establishments as the remarkable Shokado Women’s Book Store in Kyoto.85

81 Inoue Reiko, ‘Strengthening the Web’, Ampo 18/2–3, p. 17.82 Ajia to Josei Kai Ho 12, 1984.83 Suzuki Yuko, Feminizumu to senso, Tokyo 1986.84 Surveyed in Kuninobu, Junko W., ‘Women’s Studies in Japan’, Women’s Studies International Forum 7/4, pp. 301–5.85 Shokado publishes a monthly newsletter surveying publications on women in Japan.

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There are signs that Japanese women are now questioning the ideology of maternalism. Aoki Yayoi, in a recent book, starts by dividing the concept of motherhood into three areas: reproduction, childcare and other nurturing activities.86 She points out, in terms reminiscent of Juliet Mitchell, that only reproduction is essentially carried out by women, and questions the equation of josei (femaleness) with bosei (maternity). She also explodes the myth that Japanese society is ‘materna-list’ in emphasis, by arguing that a society which truly pursued values of caring and nurturing could not be so ignorant of the needs of the handicapped and weaker members of society. Several speakers at a seminar in Kyoto in 198687 called for the reintegration of ‘maternalist’ (read: caring and nurturing) values into society, on the grounds that such activities as parenting and care for weaker members of society are the responsibility of society as a whole, rather than of individual women.

Aoki’s vision of a feminist, nature-loving society echoes that of Saito Chiyo of Agora. Aoki feels that a reduction of the working hours of Japanese men, and a sharing of both productive and reproductive work between men and women, would lead to a more equitable society. She would also like to see this society adopt ecologist values and reject the over-affluence and over-production of contemporary Japan.88 Aoki herself has been criticized as maternalist and utopian. She uses the words ‘feminine principle’ (josei genri) for the values of caring and nurturing which are missing from contemporary society, but emphasizes that josei genri is not to be confused with biological sex. I feel, however, that she could avoid misunderstanding by using less emotionally loaded terminology. According to Aoki, the most pressing issues for women in Japan now concern reproductive control. She is one of the activists who continue to keep the abortion issue in the public arena, and has attempted to promote discussion of the dangers of new reproductive technology.

Recent debates on motherhood often refer to French theories of the body, sexuality and language. This has limited usefulness where catego-ries such as ‘phallologocentrism or phallocracy’—which have grown out of particular historical circumstances in Europe—are applied uncriti-cally to Japan. There are also, however, some writers who have been able to apply deconstructive methodology to a consideration of Japanese ideologies of motherhood and the body.89 It will be interesting to watch how this area develops—particularly in the study of pornography and sexuality.

There is a long tradition of socialist feminist activism in Japan. The major contemporary interpreter of Marxist feminist thought—Ueno

86 Aoki Yayoi, Bosei to wa nani ka, Tokyo 1986.87 Nihon josei gaku kai, Feminizumu: doko e yuku, Women’s Bookstore, Kyoto 1986, pp. 84, 94.88 Interview with author, January 1987. The problem of working hours has been raised again and again by Japanese feminists. The vision of a caring community, rooted in closeness between workplace and home, echoes Hidaka Rokuro’s vision based on the activities of groups in Minamata and the alternative society.89 See, for example, Tanazawa Naoko, Horiba Kiyoko and Takayoshi Rumiko, ‘Josei, Gengo, Sozo’, Shin Nihon Bungaku 469, January 1987.

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Chizuko90—actually resists the label ‘Marxist feminist’, but there have also been some potentially useful applications of such theory to the Japanese situation. Tanaka Yufuko’s analysis of prostitution in Japanese society, for example, has advanced considerably on previous discussion of this issue.91 A recent number of the journal Crisis explored possible links between socialism, feminism and ecologism; and here, it was feminist theorists who were most rigorous and critical in their use of Marxist theory. A reintegration of socialist feminist thought and acti-vism would be a most encouraging development in Japan.

In 1986 the Socialist Doi Takako became the first female leader of a political party in Japan. Many women have been inspired by her example, and pamphlets for public meetings to support Doi talk of ‘a new age for women’s politics’ in Japan.92 Doi’s breakthrough comes at a time when the opposition parties in the Diet have reached an all-time low, but it would be pleasing indeed to think that left-wing political parties and groups could learn from the strategies of feminist politics in recent years.

In conclusion, there are both positive and negative lessons to be learned from a consideration of feminist politics in Japan. The whole experience of Japanese women cautions against a naive faith in legislation: the most liberal constitution in the world is useless without affirmative action programmes and support for women workers in the form of adequate childcare and welfare services. In a country where fewer than one per cent of editorial positions are held by women, they have come to rely on alternative media far the dissemination of their ideas. The various groups, including small-scale study circles, communicate largely by means of roneoed sheets. Grassroots political activity allows each individual or group to concentrate on the issue which affects them most closely, but groups and campaigns are coordinated into a coherent anti-rightist critique. Such methods have also been employed by environ-mental activists.

A consciousness of the history of Japanese women is bound up with an emphasis on international solidarity. Theoretical tools from other countries are used where appropriate, links have been formed with feminist groups overseas, and international pressure has been astutely applied in a number of areas. In relation to other Asian women, many Japanese women have come to realize that they too may be ‘oppressors’. Other left-wing activists could learn from the efforts of feminists to integrate work on seemingly disparate issues within a coherent critique of modern society. Feminists in other countries could also profitably learn from the experience of recent decades in Japan, and above all from the powerful international consciousness of Japanese feminism.

90 Ueno Chizuko, ‘Marukusu shugi feminizumu—sono Kanosei to Genkai’, Shiso no Kagaku, March 1986.91 Tanaka Yufuko, Josei hishihaisha Kaikyu no keizaigaku, Tokyo 1981.92 It is particularly important that Doi has reached this position as an avowed feminist. Indeed, all of the most prominent female politicians of the post-war period have been identified with feminism—the suffragist Ickikawa Fusae, the birth-control campaigner Kato (Ishimoto) Shidzue, and the Socialist Tanaka Sumiko.

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