One Out of Three Women with Disabilities Experience Sexual Offenses

It was reported that 1 out of 3 women with disabilities had experienced sexual offenses in their workplaces and institutions for disabled. Specialists claim that “special measures to deal with these problems are necessary because these women are taken advantage of for their inability to resist.”

This study was executed from May to November 2011 by a group of women with disabilities, and the result of the study was reported on the 21^st of November at the Japan Social Welfare Conference held in Nishinomiya City in Hyogo Prefecture.

Out of the 87 women who responded to the survey, 31 (36%) said they had experienced physical sexual offenses.

One of the women with visual disability said that her boss at work “touched her breast and lower abdomen” while a woman with a physical disability wrote that “a care worker was feeling her breasts during bathing, and when she told her mother and she didn’t believe her, it made her very sad and painful.”

The group that conducted the research analyzed that such incidents are occurring because the women with physical disability cannot strongly resist due to their physical disability and those with learning disabilities face the problem of not being taken seriously for what they say.

Professor Keiko Kanou at Kansai University who conducted the research is making an appeal to “establish counseling services and create measures to deal with these problems now that the research confirms the suffering of disabled women who are target of sexual offenses.”

Translated by M. Doioka from 10/22 dated NHK News submitted to WAN by Midori

Call for materials for an E-zine Library!

D-WAN (Documentary-WAN) is scheduled to archive booklets for and by women who cleared the path of Japanese feminism and open an online library in 2013 to pass on information to the next generation.

To start, D-WAN sent out a call for materials for an E-zine library so that people can get specific and ongoing information about the preparation for the library. The library is going to carry essays on the history, significance, and episodes of Japanese women.

Any information, for example “I know such and such mini publication,” is welcome! You can contact D-WAN at the following e-mail address: document@wan.or.jp

 

This effort was reported by Kyodo News.

On the WAN website, you can see a statement calling for participation, a prospectus, and occasional librarian newsletters (http://wan.or.jp/reading/?cat=47). Please check it out.

Original article on the WAN website (August 13, 2012)

Translated and adapted by Naoko Uchibori.

Grassroots Women’s Movement to Change Society through the Power of Information Exchange

WAN debuted at the summer forum of the National Women's Education Center of Japan (NWEC) holding a workshop on how women, especially local women, can perform key administrative roles in exchanging information.

In the workshop, the Chief Director of WAN, Chizuko Ueno, made a keynote speech regarding how local women’s exchange of information can change society. Following Ueno’s lecture, a panel discussion was held to talk about achievements and problems of a joint project called “Book Talk,” which was about a twelve-volume collection, Feminism in Japan, New Edition, and took place in some places around Japan. In the panel discussion, participants discussed the effective and practical ways to share and disseminate reliable information with women, for women, and by women in the local areas of Japan.

★WAN Workshop at the NWEC Forum

Date: August 26, 2012 Time: 10:00 am-12:00 pm Place: National Women’s Education Center of Japan            Large Conference Room, Seminar Hall

 
・Keynote Address
Theme: Grassroots Women’s Movement to Change Society
              through the Power of Information Exchange
Speaker: Chizuko Ueno (Director of WAN, Professor Emeritus at the University of Tokyo)

・Panel Discussion
Theme: Achievements and Issues Revealed by “Book Talk”
Facilitator: Chizuko Ueno

Panelists: Jyunko Kaneko (SOLE, Kochi Gender Equality Center)
Hiroko Tanaka (NPO, Aomori Gender Equality Research Institute)
Atsuko Sugawara (Sapporo Gender Equality Center)

The day before the official workshop program, WAN held an exchange party, “WAN Night.” The party room was packed with many participants from all over Japan. A variety of people: people who wondered “What is WAN?,” people who had made statements on the WAN website, people who already knew WAN, came together and had fun at WAN Night!
 

Original Articles on the WAN website (August 6, 2012) (August 27, 2012) 

Translated and adapted by Naoko Uchibori

 

The Tenth Retreat “Women’s Bodies / My Body”

This tenth retreat will include a number of panel discussions and workshops on issues that concern women’s bodies, such as pregnancy, infertility, birth, contraception, abortion, reproductive technology, and sexual violence. Discussions also include problems that were revealed in the aftermath of the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake and problems surrounding nuclear power. Participants meet women from different generations and with backgrounds. 

When: November 2 (Fri) to November 4 (Sun)

Where: Fujino Geijutsu no Ie 

(4819 Makino Fujinomachi Sagamihara-shi, Kanagawa)

Map: http://www.fujino-art.jp/access.html

Fee: 

3 days: 17,000 yen (includes lodging, 6 meals, and reception fee)

2 days: 13,000 yen (including lodging, 3 meals, and reception fee. 10,000 yen without reception fee)

1 day: 3,000 yen (participation fee for one day. Does not include meal or reception fee)

Reception fee: 3,000 yen

Accompanying children: 3,000 yen per child per night

Contact: 

Onna no Karada kara Gasshuku Jikkou Iinkai, Soshiren

8-27 Tomihisa-cho Room 305, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo

soshiren.camp2012@gmail.com

For details and to sign up for the retreat, please visit the organization’s website: 

http://www.soshiren.org/gassyuku2012.html

Translated and adapted by Eiko Saeki

Symposium on the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake - Report from Women in Miyagi

A year and half has passed since the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake. Women from the affected areas reported the current situations, what still needs to be done, and the importance of women’s perspectives in the recovery effort. 

September 17 (Mon), 1:45-5:30pm, reception to follow

Bunkyo Kumin-Center, Large Conference Room (2^nd floor)

4-15-14 Hongounkyo-ku, Tokyo 

Map: http://www.city.bunkyo.lg.jp/gmap/detail.php?id=1754 

03-3814-6731

Fee: 1000 yen

Access:

2 minutes walk from Exit A2 of Kasuga Station (Toei Mita Line, Oedo Line)

5 minutes walk from Exit 4B of Korakuen Station (Marunouchi Line) 

5 minutes walk from Exit 6 of Korakuen Station (Tokyo Metro Nanboku Line)

15 minutes walk from the East Exit of JR Suidoubashi Station

Contact:

Igarashi Minako at Tosho Shuppan Seikatsu Sisousha 

03-5261-5931

GFD05112@nifty.com

Sponsored by Miyagi Joshiryoku Shien Project, Miyagi no Josei Shien o kirokusurukai

Part 1: Symposium (1:45pm)

Experiences of LGBT individuals and their support by Uchida Yumi (Sexuality and Human Rights Network, ESTO)

Support for women initiated by volunteers working on gender equality projects in a local government office: Sudou Akemi (Miyagi Tome Egao Net) and members of the group

Domestic violence and the opening of a relaxation space for women in evacuation facilities (Hearty Sendai,  Miyagi Jonet)

Part 2: Afflicted Areas as Seen through a Viewfinder (4:15pm)

Comments and Q&A by Katanoda Hiroshi (photojournalist)

Translated and adapted by Eiko Saeki

Eulogies to Kazuko Takemura (7): Trinh T. Minh-ha

To honor the memory of the late Kazuko Takemura, a feminist famous for her activism as well as introducing theorists such as Judith Butler, Slavoj Zizek, Gayatri Chaktravorty Spivak and Trinh T. Minh-ha to Japan, WAN is posting a series of eulogies delivered by her fellow activists and scholars both from Japan and overseas.

                                                                                                                                         

In Memoriam of Kazuko Takemura

All the right words seem to escape me.
I was left speechless for days when I realized how suddenly my dear friend Kazuko has left us. 
It was only over a year ago when we saw each other at the International Colloquium Fazendo Genero (August 2010) to witness and partake in, together with thousands of scholars from Latin America and from around the world, the exhilarating force and contribution of Gender Studies. I would always remember Kazuko's witty, playful and generous presence in all the events we attended, in Brazil, in Japan, in the US., more particularly during the year when she came to our department at the University of California Berkeley as a visiting distinguished feminist scholar (2009).
Today, Kazuko vividly appears to me as Spring blossoms brighten anew Berkeley’s every street corner and alley. What poignantly comes back to mind was the memory of the time when I was mourning the loss of my younger sister, Quynh, who passed away peacefully in March 2009,  right in the midst of Spring. As I shared mine and my family’s utter grief with Kazuko, she sent me a most beautiful note, one that I would like to share with you since it speaks volume for the radiant Kazuko whose generosity as a scholar and courage as a translator and a feminist I have greatly benefited from.
After having written kind words of condolences, reminding me how “even though we have been informed of the seriousness of illness, the death of our beloved person always comes to us all of sudden,” Kazuko sent me a poem originally written in 1932 by Mary Elizabeth Frye, a housewife, for her friend who was mourning for her departed mother.  The verses were translated and made into the very popular song titled "As a Thousand Winds," sung by the Japanese tenor, Masahumi Akikawa. Here they are, exuding Kazuko’s radiant image:

As a Thousand Winds
Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there;
I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
I am the sun on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there; I did not die

Yes, Kazuko did not die. She is still vividly with us.

Trinh Minh-ha

                                                                                                                                         

Note: This message was originally read at the Kazuko Takemura memorial ceremony held in Tokyo on March 11, 2012. The sender of this message has agreed to have it uploaded here honoring Kazuko’s memory.

Posted by Aya Kitamura

Eulogies to Kazuko Takemura (6): Gayatri Chaktravorty Spivak

To honor the memory of the late Kazuko Takemura, a feminist famous for her activism as well as introducing theorists such as Judith Butler, Slavoj Zizek, Gayatri Chaktravorty Spivak and Trinh T. Minh-ha to Japan, WAN is posting a series of eulogies delivered by her fellow activists and scholars both from Japan and overseas.
                                                                                                                                         

The best way to pay tribute to Kazuko Takemura, to pay tribute to the range of her vision, for me, is to celebrate our work together.  At Ochanomizu, in many e-mails, and not enough face-to-face encounters, there were always plans for future work.  A future that can now no longer be shared.  She honored me four months before her death, by considering me capable of taking on a task that she had herself initiated, editing an issue of the International Journal of Okinawan Studies. I attempted to perform it with a sense of responsibility toward her astuteness, and her integrity, both intellectual and moral and I offer a few words from the Foreword as my tribute. 
The last time I spoke in Japan, at Waseda University, specifically on development, Kazuko Takemura was in the audience.  I had begun with the idea that in the current context the nation-state is not the most important theater. Development must be thought of in terms of globalization, although it is still measured by the nation-state.  Kazuko knew, of course, that our work together was based on this assumption!
I remember Kazuko bustling up to the podium, with her radiant smile, after I had finished.  She never simply stated her approval and agreement, she radiated it.  This was no different.  On that visit, she honored me with an invitation to her home.  There, among much laughter and good cheer, the serious discussion of the distinction between the postcolonial and the contemporary continued.  She had liked my book Other Asias, where this argument is developed.  She had arranged to have its five chapters translated by five different women.  We were to have a conference, where the five translators would put questions to me, and out of our public conversations would emerge a theory of embodied translation as well as a theory of a continentality that could take the difference between the postcolonial and the contemporary on board.  Who could have foretold that we would never see one another again?  Kiyomi Kawano, her loving friend in work and life, assures me that the work will go on.  But she and I both know that the difference will overwhelm us every step of the way.  We will finish that task, as now I have finished this one.  Farewell, dear friend.  I will not see the like of you again.  Gayatri
                                                                                                                                         

Note: This message was originally read at the Kazuko Takemura memorial ceremony held in Tokyo on March 11, 2012. The sender of this message has agreed to have it uploaded here honoring Kazuko’s memory.

Posted by Aya Kitamura