Is there an organized feminist movement in Japan?
This is a revolution without a movement. With the birthrate dropping, women getting married later and the level of women’s entrepreneurship increasing, there’s a feeling that things are changing. But I couldn’t find the Japanese equivalent of NOW or anything like that. There’s this one female media figure, Yoko Tajima, whom everyone refers to as the Gloria Steinem of Japan, but she doesn’t represent an organized movement or agenda. She means a lot to a lot of women, but she’s acting individually. Part of that is because Japan doesn’t have a sit-in, petition, rally, movement type of culture. That’s not the way that things get done there. When I first arrived, I actually thought all of this was going to grow into a movement by the time I left. I thought things were going to change, and I still do, but I’m not sure if it will be organized in a way that I or other American feminists can understand. Do you think American women can learn from the way Japanese women conceive of work, home and
