After over forty years of second wave feminism in Japan, Japanese society has definitely changed. The strongest power behind this change were numerous grassroots women’s groups throughout the country. Each group was small, but members were patient and with strong wills. Newsletters and organizational pamphlets from such groups connected women and played a significant role in bringing change in society.
Today, many of such groups are experiencing a generational change, and there are a number of such publications that have been discontinued. These materials are an important source of information about the history of feminism, and we are afraid that they would disappear if nothing were done. We would like to collect and preserve such materials as a witness to history. WAN (Women’s Action Network) proposes to create a digital archive to store them semi-permanently on a website, allowing access by anyone from anywhere.
As stated in the prospectus, this project was initiated by the editors of the twelve-volume collection, Feminism in Japan, New Edition. This series was created as an anthology of feminist work in Japan, and this work could not have been done without a large amount of materials, including newsletters, leaflets, and magazine articles. We believe that this digital archive will be a meaningful resource for future generations of women, who will want to trace the history of feminism themselves.
We request the submission of materials in all forms, including newsletters, magazines, and booklets.
Please follow the guidelines below for the submissions.
1) Sign up as a WAN’s member organization (free).
2) Refer to the guideline for clearing copyright issues.
Finally, please consider making donation to make this project happen. It is expensive to construct the archival website. You can transfer the money with a postal transfer, using the following number: 00960-4-321524 and write: “ＮＰＯ法人ＷＡＮ D－WAN協力金”
Please contact us at
document@wan.or.jp, if you are interested in participating in this project, or already have an archive of your organization. We would like to hear from you and are happy to discuss any copyright concerns you may have.
Original article May 5, 2012
Translated by Eiko Saeki
