Volume 1 of The Cambridge History of Global Migrations documents the lives and experiences of everyday people through the lens of human movement and mobility from 1400 to 1800. Focusing on the most important typologies of preindustrial global migrations, this volume reveals how these movements transformed global paths of mobility, the impacts of which we still see in societies today. Case studies include those that arose from the demand for free, forced, and unfree labor, long- and short-distance trade, rural/urban displacement, religious mobility, and the rise of the number of refugees worldwide. With thirty chapters from leading experts in the field, this authoritative volume is an essential and detailed study of how migration shaped the nature of global human interactions before the age of modern globalization.

Aware that studies of gender relations include both the world of women and that of men, this chapter examines them primarily from women’s perspective, as they command a numerical majority of the Japanese population while forming a sociological minority subject to various forms of gender discrimination. In international comparison, the World Economic Forum reports that the gender gap in Japan is exceptionally vast, ranking one hundred twenty-first out of one hundred fifty-three countries, well behind the Philippines, China, and South Korea, and in last place among major advanced economies. To understand Japanese society, women’s situations and voices must be given priority and studied in depth with a critical eye.