Organizing for Change: Women's Grassroots Activism in Japan

Khor, Diana

doi:10.2307/3178660

Cited by 24 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…Cf. the extensive source collection: SBko et al (1992SBko et al ( -1995 and as overview publications: Osawa, 2000;Hara and asawa (1996); Khor (1999); Yokohama fBramu (1992), and Kokusai fujinnen Nihon taikai no ketsugi o jitsugen suru tame no renrakukai (1989). Current developments are reflected i.a.…”

Section: Feminist Regulation In Japanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Globalization, Gender, and Work: Perspectives on Global Regulation

Lenz

2003

Review of Policy Research

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This article proposes a working definition of globalization, which, although recognizing power asymmetries and risks, focuses on the changing options of actors. 1 link globalization to the options of diverse actors such as feminist networks and supranational and state institutions and enterprises. These options are related to resources, power, and capacities. The United Nations Decades of Women provided a dramatically opening opportunity structure for the global women's movement that could enlarge and diversih their options. They had developed a common charter while respecting differences and capacities for global orientation. Finally, I illustrate the argument by looking at processes of feminist regulations, which were negotiated by women's movements in Japan and Germany. Both cases suggest that negotiations and regulations in the global context are possiblefrom an asymmetric position and that innovative capacities for transnational and global orientation and horizontal organization are crucial. Further research is necessary on innovative and egalitarian forms of regulation in globalization. GLOBALIZATION AND COMPLEX INEQUALITIESGlobalization processes are interrelated with gender in various and contradictory ways. On the one hand, they contribute to the erosion of national hegemonic gender orders. Thus, they are part of the transformations that may open futures for new gender contracts. On the other hand, they are forming in the context of deep historical inequality. As they originate in the context of the capitalist and patriarchal world system (Wallerstein, 1975;Leacock, 1981), they are prestructured by longterm power relationships between the North and South, dominant men and women, and workers and subordinated ethnicized and racialized groups. This inequality is indicative of the access to new chances and risks in the context of globalization. To be a player in the global game requires considerable material resources (i.e., financial assets, organizational efficiency, and information) and adequate personal capacities.Globalization processes are shaped by power games under circumstances in which women as well as other subordinated groups have fewer resources and less power. I argue that existing power relations do not automatically determine the result of these processes in ways "globalization determinists" seem to assume. Neither does globalization lead to prosperity for all, as the neo-liberal proponents have advocated, nor does it simply intensify capitalist rule over the third world, workers, women, and nature as some critical authors have argued. Rather, I conceptualize

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Section: Feminist Regulation In Japanmentioning

confidence: 99%

Globalization, Gender, and Work: Perspectives on Global Regulation

Lenz

2003

Review of Policy Research

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“…For example, Iwao (1998) challenges the 'traditional' image of Japanese women by illustrating how liberated Japanese women in 'modern' society actually are. Furthermore, the agency of Japanese women in their roles as housewives (see Hsia and Scanzoni 1996), feminist activists (see Khor 1999), and tea ceremony practitioners (see Kato 2004) has been identified as a source of an alternative feminist approach to analysing the dynamic of power between the sexes in the Japanese context (see also Buckley 1997;Ehara 2000;Fujimura-Fanselow and Kameda 1995 as examples). However, these writings still tend to view gender differences through the lens of ethnocentric Western feminist analysis with conceptualization based on the 'modern-versus-premodern' dichotomy (see Grewal and Kaplan 1994;Harding 1998;Mohanty 2003) or/and the women including housewives usually referred to are mostly urban middle-class women (Tamanoi 1990).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Unfolding possibilities through a decolonizing project: Indigenous knowledges and rural Japanese women

Mayuzumi

2009

International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education

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Rural Japanese women have been overlooked or misrepresented in the academic and nationalist discourses on Japanese women. Using an anti-colonial feminist framework, I advocate that centring discussions on Indigenous knowledges will help fill this gap based on the belief that Indigenous-knowledge framework is a tool to show the agency of the 'colonized'. In this paper, I attempt to answer the following question: What is the role of Indigenous knowledges in the context of rural Japanese women? I first discuss my epistemological approach by exploring the notion of Indigenous knowledges and my location within it. This process led me to employ autoethnography as the central methodology of this paper. Second, in order to better situate rural Japanese women, I look at Japanese history, especially the Meiji period when Westernization began to exert a major influence on the Japanese nationalist movement via its control over knowledges carried by rural Japanese women. Third, in order for me to reclaim these subjugated Indigenous knowledges, I introduce my lived experience through autoethnography as a starting point to explore the possibilities that lie in the Indigenous-knowledge framework. Fourth, I further discuss the interlocking nature of the issues surrounding nationalism, representation, knowledge production and identity emerging from the discussion on rural Japanese women and my reflexive text. This leads us to an assessment of how an Indigenousknowledge framework may shift discussions/perceptions of rural Japanese women in particular. Lastly, I conclude by noting the potential implications and applications of further research on this topic in other parts of the world.

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“…Most of these previous studies highlight a specific movement or some special groups in the overall post-war Japanese women's movement, for example, voluntary political activities in the 1970s [60], second-wave feminist movement [62,11]: 140-143, 185; [4,10]; Gelb), a wider range of current women's organizations [43,23,54], the peace movement between 1945 and the 1950s [74], and the consumer movement at present [48,8]. Mackie [50], 120-231) covers the Japanese women's movements throughout the post-war period.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In English language publications, there are 13 works related to this field, which can be divided into two groups according to their subjects. In the first group, the authors investigated the Japanese women's movements in terms of organizational scale and structure, ideology, activities and campaigns, and then they clarified the distinct nature of the movements by presenting various aspects of women's activism [62,11]: 140-143, 185; [4,10,48,43,8,50,74]. In the second group, the authors focused on the interaction between the women's movements and political institutions to examine the influence of the movements on politics [60,27,23,54].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vitalizing Democracy at the Grassroots: A Contribution of Post-War Women’s Movements in Japan

Eto

2007

East Asia

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The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the socio-political significance of women's collective activities in Japan. I attempt to demonstrate that the Japanese women's movements act as a role of democratic agency through their commitment to social reform and to changes in the political status quo. In the first three sections, I give an overview of Japanese women's movements from the early post-war period to the present day, categorizing them into three types: the elite-initiated, second-wave feminist, and non-feminist participatory. Subsequently, I discuss the confrontation and reconciliation between feminists and non-feminists. In the final section, I examine what role the women's movements play in socio-political reforms in terms of civil society discourse, and I conclude that the diversity of Japanese women's movements has contributed to strengthening democracy at the grassroots.

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Organizing for Change: Women's Grassroots Activism in Japan

Cited by 24 publications

References 0 publications

Globalization, Gender, and Work: Perspectives on Global Regulation

Globalization, Gender, and Work: Perspectives on Global Regulation

Unfolding possibilities through a decolonizing project: Indigenous knowledges and rural Japanese women

Vitalizing Democracy at the Grassroots: A Contribution of Post-War Women’s Movements in Japan

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