Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T12:31:12.141Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

BACKLASH, FIGHT BACK, AND BACK-PEDALING: RESPONSES TO STATE FEMINISM IN CONTEMPORARY JAPAN

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 January 2011

Ayako Kano
Ayako Kano
Affiliation:
University of Pennsylvania. E-mail [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

From the mid-1990s, the Japanese government has promoted the creation of a “gender-equal society,” but since about 2000 this example of “state feminism” has faced a severe backlash. This article addresses the following questions about the phenomenon of Japanese state feminism, its history and its consequence: (1) How did the government policy for a “gender equal society” come into existence, and what explains its remarkably progressive nature? (2) What was the impact of the involvement of feminist scholars on policy-making? (3) What was the initial response to the policy? (4) What was the background of the backlash, who were the people and organizations involved, and what were the main arguments? (5) What has been the response to the backlash? (6) What are the connections and differences between the present controversy and the collaboration between feminism and the state in previous moments in Japanese history?

Keywords

gendergender policy男女共同参画基本法Queer Studiesgender freefeminismbacklash
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , January 2011 , pp. 41 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Asai 2003 Asai Haruo, 浅井春夫, et al. , ed. Jendā furī/sei kyōiku basshingu: Koko ga shiritai 50 no Q&A ジェンダーフリー 性教育バッシング ここが知りたい50の Q&A (“Bashing against gender free and sex education: Fifty questions and answers”). Tokyo: Ōtsuki Shoten, 2003.Google Scholar
Asano 2006 Asano Fumie, 浅野富美枝. “‘Bakkurasshu’ no jidai” 「バックラッシュ」の時代 (“The age of backlash”). In Jendā gainen ga hiraku shikai: Bakkurasshu o koete ジェンダー概念がひらく視界: バックラッシュを超えて (“The perspective opened by the concept of gender: Overcoming the backlash”), ed. Yuibutsuron, Kenkyū Kyōkai 唯物論研究協会, pp. 266–86. Tokyo: Aoki Shoten, 2006.Google Scholar
Buckley 1993 Buckley, Sandra. “Altered States: The Body Politics of ‘Being-Woman’.” In Postwar Japan as History, ed. Gordon, , pp. 347–72. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Buckley 1997 Buckley, Sandra. Broken Silence: Voices of Japanese Feminism. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chan-Tiberghien 2004 Chan-Tiberghien, Jennifer. Gender and Human Rights Politics in Japan: Global Norms and Domestic Networks. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eisenstein 1995 Eisenstein, Hester. Inside Agitators: Australian Femocrats and the State. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Garon 1997 Garon, Sheldon. Molding Japanese Minds: The State in Everyday Life. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Gelb 1991 Gelb, Joyce. “Tradition and Change in Japan: The Case of Equal Employment Opportunity Law.” U.S.-Japan Women's Journal, English supplement 1 (1991), pp. 48–75.Google Scholar
Gelb 2000 Gelb, Joyce. “The Equal Employment Opportunity Law: A Decade of Change for Japanese Women?” Law & Policy 22:3/4 (October 2000), pp. 385–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gelb 2002 Gelb, Joyce. “Feminism, NGO's, and the Impact of the New Transnationalisms.” In Dynamics of Regulatory Change: How Globalization Affects National Regulatory Policies, ed. David, Vogel and Robert, Kagan, pp. 1–32. University of California Press, 2002. http://repositories.cdlib.org/uciaspubs/editedvolumes/1/9.Google Scholar
Gelb 2003 Gelb, Joyce. Gender Policies in Japan and the United States: Comparing Women's Movements, Rights and Politics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gelb 2004 Gelb, Joyce. “The Politics of Backlash in Japan.” Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, 2 September 2004. http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p60588_index.html. Viewed 10 May 2009.Google Scholar
Gelb 2006 Gelb, Joyce. “Backlash in the US and Japan.” Paper presented at the IPSA roundtable on “Women's Movements Worldwide: Flourishing or in Abeyance?,” organized by the International Political Science Association, Fukuoka, 9 July 2006. http://ipsa-rc19.anu.edu.au/Gelb.ipsa06.pdf. Accessed 10 May 2009.Google Scholar
Hane 1988 Hane, Mikiso, ed. Reflections on the Way to the Gallows: Voices of Japanese Rebel Women. New York: Pantheon, 1988.Google Scholar
Hayashi 1996 Hayashi Michiyoshi, 林道義. Fusei no fukken 父性の復権 (“Restoring fatherhood”). Tokyo: Chūkō Shinsho, 1996.Google Scholar
Hayashi 1998 Hayashi Michiyoshi, 林道義. Shufu no fukken 主婦の復権 (“Restoring the housewife”). Tokyo: Kōdansha, 1998.Google Scholar
Hayashi 1999 Hayashi Michiyoshi, 林道義. Feminizumu no gaidoku フェミニズムの害毒 (“The poison of feminism”). Tokyo: Sōshisha, 1999.Google Scholar
Higuchi 2003 Higuchi Keiko, 樋口恵子. “Josei seisaku no tōtatsuten to korekara no josei sentā” 女性政策の到達点とこれからの女性センター (“The current status of women's policy and the future of women's centers”). Josei shisetsu jānaru 女性施設ジャーナル 8 (2003), pp. 66–105.Google Scholar
Hosoya 2005 Hosoya Makoto, 細谷実. “Danjo byōdōka ni taisuru kinnen no handō wa naze okiru no ka?” 男女平等化に対する近年の反動はなぜ起きるのか? (“Why does the recent reaction against equality of men and women happen?”). Sekai 738 (April 2005), pp. 96–105.Google Scholar
Hotta 2002 Hotta Midori, 堀田碧. “Danjo kyōdō sankakuteki akurobatto” 男女共同参画的アクロバット (“Male–female co-participatory acrobatics”). Impaction 131 (2002), pp. 106–10.Google Scholar
Houston 1994 Houston, Barbara. “Should Public Education Be Gender Free?” In The Education Feminism Reader, ed. Stone, Lynda, pp. 122–34. New York: Routledge, 1994.Google Scholar
Houston 2006 Houston, Barbara. “‘Jendā furī’ gainen ni kansuru komento” ジェンダーフリー概念に関するコメント (“Comments on the concept ‘gender free’”). In Bakkurasshu!: Naze jendā furī wa tatakareta no ka? バックラッシュ!: なぜジェンダーフリーは叩かれたのか? (“Backlash! Why was gender-free bashed?”), ed. Chizuko, Ueno 上野千鶴子 et al. , pp. 241–42. Tokyo: Sōfūsha, 2006.Google Scholar
Itō 2002 Itō Kimio, 伊藤公雄. “‘Danjo kyōdō sankaku’ o megutte, ima, nani ga towarete iru no ka” 男女共同参画をめぐって、今、何が問われているのか (“What, now, is being questioned concerning ‘male–female co-participation’?”) Impaction 131 (2002), pp. 38–51.Google Scholar
Kaizuma 2004 Kaizuma Keiko 海妻径子. “‘Otoko dewanai mono’ no haijo to teikō: Dansei shi ga ‘undō’ ni toikakeru mono” ＜男ではない者＞の排除と抵抗: 男性史が＜運動＞に問いかけるもの (“The exclusion and resistance of ‘those who are not men’: What men's history calls into question about ‘activism’”). Jōkyō (2004), pp. 150–57.Google Scholar
Kanai 1998 Kanai Yoshiko, 金井淑子. “‘Danjo kyōdō sankaku gata shakai o mezashite’: Pekin, bijon, 2000 nen puran, arata na kachi no sōzō e” 「男女共同参画型社会をめざして」: 北京 ビジョン プラン、新たな価値の創造へ. (“Towards a male–female co-participation society: Peking, Vision, 2000 Plan, and towards the creation of ‘new values’”). URC Toshi kagaku 35 (1998), pp. 7–16.Google Scholar
Kanai 2005 Kanai Yoshiko, . “Jendā bakkurasshu no kōzu to naimen” ジェンダー バックラッシュの構造と内面 (“The structure and interiority of the gender backlash”). Ajia taiheiyō ni okeru jendā to heiwa gaku アジア太平洋におけるジェンダーと平和学 4 (2005), pp. 159–76.Google Scholar
Kanda 1992 Kanda Michiko, 神田道子, et al. “Joseigaku kenkyūsha to seiji jissen” 女性学研究者と政治実践 (“Women's studies researchers and political praxis”). Joseigaku kenkyū 2 (1992), pp. 71–96.Google Scholar
Kano 2002 Kano, Ayako 加野彩子. “Nihon no 1970 nendai-90 nendai feminizumu” (“Japanese Feminism in the 1970s–1990s”) 日本の1970年代–1990年代フェミニズム. In Feminizumu no meicho 50 フェミニズムの名著50 (“Fifty feminist masterpieces”), ed. Yumiko, Ehara and Yoshiko, Kanai, pp. 501–18. Tokyo: Heibonsha, 2002.Google Scholar
Kano 2003 Kano, Ayako. “Women? Art? Gender? Chino Kaori and the Feminist Art History Debates.” Review of Japanese Culture and Society 15 (December 2003), pp. 25–38.Google Scholar
Kano 2005 Kano, Ayako. “Towards a Critique of Transhistorical Femininity.” In Gendering Modern Japanese History, eds. Molony, Barbara and Uno, Kathleen, pp. 520–54. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kimura 2005 Kimura Ryōko, 木村涼子, ed. Jendā furī toraburu: Basshingu genshō o kenshō suru ジェンダー フリー トラブル: バッシング現象を検証する (“Gender free trouble: Examining the bashing phenomenon”). Tokyo: Hakutakusha; Gendai Shokan, 2005.Google Scholar
Knapp 1999 Knapp, Kiyoko Kamio. “Don't Awaken the Sleeping Child: Japan's Gender Equality Law and the Rhetoric of Gradualism.” Columbia Journal of Gender and Law 8:2 (1999), pp. 143–95.Google Scholar
Koyama and Ogiue 2006 Koyama, Emi 小山エミ and Chiki Ogiue, 荻上チキ. “Koko ga yoku deru!: Nanatsu no ronten” ここがよく出る！七つの論点 (“These come up often! Seven points of contention”). In Bakkurasshu!: Naze jendā furī wa tatakareta no ka? バックラッシュ! なぜジェンダーフリーは叩かれたのか? (“Backlash! Why was gender-free bashed?”), ed. Ueno Chizuko, 上野千鶴子 et al. , pp. 371–75. Tokyo: Sōfūsha, 2006.Google Scholar
LeBlanc 1999 LeBlanc, Robin M. Bicycle Citizens: The Political World of the Japanese Housewife. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackie 2003 Mackie, Vera. Feminism in Modern Japan: Citizenship, Embodiment and Sexuality. Berkeley: Cambridge University Press, 2003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Makihara 2008 Makihara Izuru, 牧原出. “Nihon no danjo kyōdō sankaku no soshiki hensei e no teigen: ‘Femokurato sutoratejī’ no shiten kara” 日本の男女共同参画の組織編成への提言: 「フェモクラット・ストラテジー」の視点から (“Proposal for structuring the organization of Japan's male–female co-participation: From the viewpoint of ‘femocrat strategy’”). In Danjo kyōdō sankaku no tame ni: Seisaku teigen 男女共同参画のために：政策提言 (“Towards male–female co-participation: Policy proposals”), ed. Tsujimura Miyoko, 辻村みよ子 et al. , pp. 87–95. Sendai: Tōhoku Daigaku Shuppankai, 2008.Google Scholar
Miyadai 2006 Miyadai Shinji, 宮台真司. “Nejireta shakai no genjō to mezasu beki daisan no michi: Bakkurasshu to dō mukiaeba ii no ka” ねじれた社会の現状と目指すべき第三の道: バックラッシュとどう向き合えばいいのか (“The twisted present condition of society and looking for the third way: How to face the backlash”). In Bakkurasshu!: Naze jendā furī wa tatakareta no ka? バックラッシュ! なぜジェンダーフリーは叩かれたのか? (“Backlash! Why was gender-free bashed?”), ed. Ueno Chizuko, 上野千鶴子 et al. , pp. 10–99. Tokyo: Sōfūsha 2006.Google Scholar
Molony 1993 Molony, Barbara. “Equality Versus Difference: The Japanese Debate over ‘Motherhood Protection’, 1915–50.” In Japanese Women Working, ed. Hunter, Janet, pp. 122–48. London: Routledge, 1993.Google Scholar
Murase 2006 Murase, Miriam. Cooperation over Conflict: The Women's Movement and the State in Postwar Japan. New York: Routledge, 2006.Google Scholar
Nakajima 2000 Nakajima, Michiko. “The Problem of the Basic Law on the Cooperative Participation of Men and Women in Society.” Women's Asia: Voices from Japan 6 (Autumn 2000), pp. 8–12.Google Scholar
Nihon Josei Gakkai Jendā Kenkyūkai 2006 Nihon Josei Gakkai Jendā Kenkyūkai, 日本女性学会ジェンダー研究会 ed. Q&A danjo kyōdō sankaku/jendā furī basshingu: Bakkurasshu e no tettei hanron Q&A 男女共同参画／ジェンダーフリー・バッシング：バックラッシュへの徹底反論 (“Questions and answers about male–female co-participation and gender free bashing: Thorough arguments against the backlash”). Tokyo: Akashi Shoten, 2006.Google Scholar
Ogiue 2006 Ogiue Chiki, 荻上チキ. “Seiken yotō no bakkurasshu” 政権与党のバックラッシュ (“The backlash of the ruling party”). In Bakkurasshu!: Naze jendā furī wa tatakareta no ka? バックラッシュ! なぜジェンダーフリーは叩かれたのか? (“Backlash! Why was gender-free bashed?”), ed. Ueno Chizuko, 上野千鶴子 et al. , pp. 357–70. Tokyo: Sōfūsha 2006.Google Scholar
Ōsawa 1996 Ōsawa, Mari 大澤真理. “‘Danjo kyōdō sankaku bijon’ no tokuchō to igi” 「男女共同参画ビジョン」の特徴と意義 (“The characteristics and significance of the ‘male–female co-participation vision’”). Josei to rōdō 21:18 (1996), pp. 6–38.Google Scholar
Ōsawa 2000 Ōsawa, Mari. “Government Approaches to Gender Equality in the Mid-1990s.” Social Science Japan Journal 3:1 (2000), pp. 3–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ōsawa 2001 Ōsawa, Mari 大澤真理, interview with Ueno Chizuko. “Danjo kyōdō sankaku shakai kihon hō no mezasu mono: Sakutei made no ura omote” 男女共同参画社会基本法のめざすもの: 策定までのウラオモテ (“The aims of the basic law for male–female co-participation society: The ins and outs of its passage”). In Radikaru ni katareba … ラディカルに語れば … (“Radically speaking …”), ed. Ueno Chizuko, 上野千鶴子, pp. 9–77. Tokyo: Heibonsha, 2001.Google Scholar
Ōsawa 2002 Ōsawa, Mari 大澤真理. Danjo kyōdō sankaku shakai o tsukuru 男女共同参画社会をつくる (“Making a male–female co-participation society”). Tokyo: NHK Books, 2002.Google Scholar
Ōsawa 2003 Ōsawa, Mari 大澤真理 et al. “Danjo sankaku no kōbō” 男女共同参画の攻防” (“The battle over male–female participation”). In “Posuto” Feminizumu “ポスト”フェミニズム, ed. Takemura Kazuko, 竹村和子, pp. 142–56. Tokyo: Sakuhinsha, 2003.Google Scholar
Sasaki 2001 Sasaki Yōko, 佐々木陽子. Sōryokusen to josei heishi 総力戦と女性兵士 (“Total war and women soldiers”). Tokyo: Seikyūsha, 2001.Google Scholar
Satō 2001 Satō Yōko, 佐藤洋子. “Pinchi wa chansu!: Gyakufū no naka no josei sentā” ピンチはチャンス!: 逆風の中の女性センター (“A pinch is a chance!: Women's centers amidst unfavorable winds”). Josei shisetsu jānaru 6 (2001), pp. 86–117.Google Scholar
Satō 2006 Satō Fumika, 佐藤文香. “Feminizumu ni iradatsu ‘anata’ e: ‘Ikari’ wa doko e mukau beki nano ka” フェミニズムに苛立つ「あなた」へ: 「怒り」はどこへ向うべきなのか (“To ‘you’ irritated by feminism: Where your ‘anger’ should be directed”). Ronza (2006), pp. 212–17.Google Scholar
Schoppa 2006 Schoppa, Leonard, . Race for the Exits: The Unraveling of Japan's System of Social Protection. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Stetson and Mazur 1995 Stetson, Dorothy McBride and Mazur, Ann, eds. Comparative State Feminism. London: Sage, 1995.Google Scholar
Takenobu 2005 Takenobu Mieko, 竹信三恵子. “Yappari kowai?: Jendā furī basshingu” やっぱりこわい?: ジェンダー フリー バッシング (“Still scary?: Gender-free bashing”). In Jendā furī toraburu: Basshingu genshō o kenshō suru (“Gender-free trouble: Examining the bashing phenomenon”), ed. Ryōko, Kimura, pp. 19–34. Tokyo: Hakutakusha; Gendai Shokan, 2005.Google Scholar
Ueno 1994/2009 Ueno Chizuko, 上野千鶴子. Kindai kazoku no seiritsu to shūen 近代家族の成立と終焉. Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1994. Translated as The Modern Family in Japan: Its Rise and Fall. Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Ueno 1998/2004 Ueno Chizuko, 上野千鶴子. Nashonarizumu to Jendā ナショナリズムとジェンダー (“Nationalism and gender”). Seidosha, 1998. Translated as Nationalism and Gender by Beverly Yamamoto, . Melbourne: Trans Pacific Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Ueno 2006 Ueno Chizuko, 上野千鶴子 et al. ed. Bakkurasshu!: Naze jendā furī wa tatakareta no ka? バックラッシュ! なぜジェンダーフリーは叩かれたのか? (“Backlash! Why was gender-free bashed?”). Tokyo: Sōfūsha, 2006.Google Scholar
Wakakuwa 2006 Wakakuwa Midori, 若桑みどり et al. , ed. “Jendā” no kiki o koeru!: Tettei tōron! Bakkurasshu 「ジェンダー」の危機を超える!: 徹底討論！バックラッシュ (“Overcoming the crisis of “gender”!: Thorough debates on the backlash”). Tokyo: Seikyūsha, 2006.Google Scholar
Yamaguchi 1992 Yamaguchi Mitsuko, 山口みつ子. “Josei sho dantai no josei seisaku ni taisuru gōi keisei katei: Zenkoku soshiki 50 dantai no rentai to kōdō” 女性諸団体の女性政策に対する合意形成過程: 全国組織50団体の連帯と行動 (“Women's groups' consensus formation process towards women's policies: The alliances and actions of 50 national organizations”). Joseigaku kenkyū 2 (1992), pp. 53–70.Google Scholar
Yamaguchi 2006 Yamaguchi Tomomi, 山口智美. “‘Jendā furī’ ronsō to feminizumu undō no ushinawareta jūnen” 「ジェンダー フリー」論争とフェミニズム運動の失われた10年 (“The ‘gender free’ debates and the feminist movement's lost decade”). In Bakkurasshu!: Naze jendā furī wa tatakareta no ka? バックラッシュ! なぜジェンダーフリーは叩かれたのか? (“Backlash! Why was gender-free bashed?”), ed. Ueno Chizuko, 上野千鶴子 et al. , pp. 244–82. Tokyo: Sōfūsha, 2006.Google Scholar
Yamashita 1988a Yamashita Etsuko, 山下悦子. Takamure Itsue ron: “Haha” no arukeorojī 高群逸枝論: 「母」のアルケオロジー (“On Takamure Itsue: Archaeology of the ‘mother’”). Tokyo: Kawade Shobō Shinsha, 1988.Google Scholar
Yamashita 1988b Yamashita Etsuko, 山下悦子. Nihon josei kaihō shisō no kigen: Posuto feminizumu shiron 日本女性解放思想の起源: ポスト フェミニズム試論 (“The origins of Japanese women's liberation ideology: Towards post-feminism”). Tokyo: Kaimeisha, 1988.Google Scholar
Yamashita 1991 Yamashita Etsuko, 山下悦子. “Josei no jidai to iu shinwa: Ueno Chizuko wa onna o sukueru ka 「女性の時代」という神話: 上野千鶴子は女を救えるか” (“The myth of the ‘woman's era’: Can Ueno Chizuko save women?”). Tokyo: Seikyusha, 1991.Google Scholar
Yoda 2000 Yoda, Tomiko. “The Rise and Fall of Maternal Society: Gender, Labor, and Capital in Contemporary Japan.” The South Atlantic Quarterly 99:4 (Fall 2000), pp. 865–902.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yuibutsuron Kenkyū Kyōkai 2006 Yuibutsuron Kenkyū Kyōkai, 唯物論研究会, ed. Jendā gainen ga hiraku shikai: Bakkurasshu o koete ジェンダー概念がひらく視界: バックラッシュを超えて (“The perspective opened by the concept of gender: Overcoming the backlash”). Tokyo: Aoki Shoten, 2006.Google Scholar