These interviews, conducted in 2021 and 2022, reflect the variety of women’s activism and scholarship in Japan in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.
Teruko Karikome
Teruko Karikome, founder and former Executive Director (2007~2019) of NPO Women’s Space Fukushima (https://www.npo-womensspacefukushima.com/, formerly, Association Supporting Women’s Independence), Koriyama City, Fukushima Prefecture. She has long and extensive experience promoting women’s rights and wellbeing including previously serving as the Director of the Koriyama City’s Maternal and Child Welfare Center. Following the Great East Japan Disaster in 2011, her NPO managed “Women’s Space” in the biggest evacuation shelter in Fukushima, and continues to operate programs such as telephone counseling, support groups, and workshops on gender-based violence, while advocating for policy attention to women in Fukushima. Although she stepped down from the Executive Director, she continues to be actively involved in the growing program activities of Women’s Space Fukushima.
Keywords: environment, gender-based violence, reform of domestic/family roles, community activism
Media: Transcript (English, Japanese), YouTube Video (Japanese, English Subtitles)
Reiko Masai
Reiko Masai, founder and Executive Director of NPO Women’s Net Kobe, Kobe City, Hyogo Prefecture, the first group in Japan to call attention to disaster-related gender-based violence and published reports documenting women’s experiences, including Women talk about the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake (English translation available at https://wn-kobe.or.jp/bosai/eng/index.html). For over thirty years, Ms. Masai has worked to promote women’s rights and gender equality in Japan. In 2007, she launched Disaster & Gender Information Network, the first initiative of its kind in Japan, and co-founded Women's Network for East Japan Disaster in 2011 (http://risetogetherjp.org/?cat=46), also the first of its kind, advocating for more inclusive disaster response. For her tenacious activism, she has received numerous awards, including Kato Shizue Award in 2003 and the Champion of Change Japan Award from the Fish Family Foundation in 2018.
Keywords: gender-based violence, community activism, gender and health
Media: Transcript (English, Japanese), YouTube Video (Japanese, English Subtitles)
Yukiko Tsunoda
Yukiko Tsunoda, attorney at law; previously a professor at the Law School of Meiji University in Tokyo (2004-2013). Attorney Tsunoda is a pioneer in feminist jurisprudence, especially in the areas of human rights, gender discrimination, and gender-based violence in Japan. In addition to her long career of legal practice representing and defending women in both criminal and civil courts, she has written and lectured extensively, including Sei no hōritsugaku [Sexuality and jurisprudence] (1991) and Seisabetsu to bōryoku [Gender discrimination and violence] (2001) She has been actively involved in various women’s organizations including the Tokyo Rape Crisis Center (legal advisor since 1986), the Domestic Violence Research & Action Group (Co-Founder, 1991), the Center for Education and Support for Women (Director since 2001), and the Lawyers Acting to Eliminate Discrimination Against Women in Entrance Examination for Medical Faculties (Co-Chair, https://fairexam.net/).
Keywords: gender-based violence, politics and the law
Media: Transcript (English, Japanese), YouTube Video (Japanese, English Subtitles)
Chizuko Ueno
Chizuko Ueno, Chief Director of NPO Women’s Action Network (WAN, https://wan.or.jp) and an emerita professor at the University of Tokyo; upon retirement, her seminar has been relocated to an online classroom, https://wan.or.jp/ueno#gsc.tab=0. Trained as a sociologist, her scholarship focuses on sociological analysis of gender, sexuality, family, feminism, patriarchy, capitalism in Japan. A pioneer in feminist scholarship and women’s studies, she has authored numerous books, articles, and opinion columns, including, in English, Nationalism and Gender (2004) and the Modern Family in Japan: Its Rise and Fall (2009). She has received many prizes in Japan and abroad, including a Hän Honour from a Finnish organization promoting gender equality (2019) and an international honorary member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences (elected in 2020).
Keywords: education, art/writing as activism
Media: Transcript (English, Japanese), YouTube Video (Japanese, English Subtitles)
Etsuko Yahata
Etsuko Yahata, founder and Executive Director of NPO Hearty Sendai, Sendai City Miyagi Prefecture (https://www.hearty-sendai.com/). She spearheaded grassroots initiatives to assist women affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Disaster, on top of running a domestic violence shelter and many assistance programs. Originally trained as a midwife, she has since worked over 30 years in fighting against gender-based violence and promoting reproductive health and justice, human rights, and nonviolence. In addition to serving as the Director of the Miyagi Regional Center of Yorisoi Hotline (a nation-wide free 24-hour telephone assistance program), she serves on the board of director of Sendai Gender Equal Opportunity Foundation, Child Line Miyagi, and many others.
Keywords: community activism, gender and health, gender-based violence
Media: Transcript (English, Japanese), YouTube Video (Japanese, English Subtitles)
