by Kazuko Itō, Lawyer and Human Right Activist
Excerpt from her Blog
August 15th was the anniversary of the end of the war ... Why did not Prime Minister mention Japan's responsibility for the damage during the war?
Yesterday was the anniversary of the end of the war. Prime Minister Shinzō Abe attended the Memorial Ceremony of the War Dead, which was held by the government.
In his address of the ceremony, neither did he mention Japan's responsibility for the damage inflicted on other Asian countries nor did he state the renunciation of war, as his predecessors had done. He did not mention them last year, either.
I suspect he intentionally did not mention these words two years in a row. Not only in other countries but also in Japan people worry about his attitude.
PM repeats to phrase "future-oriented relationships," but only victims have the right to say "let bygones be bygones. Let's develop future-oriented relationships."
Offenders are not entitled to claim such relationships.
On the same day, South Korean President Park said "Now, South Korea
and Japan should overview the new 50 years and build an amiable and cooperative
relationship thinking about the future," showing that she is willing to improve the bilateral relationship.
Pointing out that in order to do so, some efforts should be made to heal our historical wounds, she asked Japan to solve the issue of Sex Slave. They both talk about future-oriented relationships but their visions are different.
Of all the days in a year, on the anniversary of the end of World War II, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) held an urgent meeting.
More concerned is the move of the LDP.
On 15th, the LDP's association of MPs, "The Association that Talks about Japanese Future and History Education," held an urgent meeting and agreed that they were going to investigate the facts about the issue of Sex Slave.
This was followed by the report that the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's second-largest daily newspaper, retracted a series of articles on the women forced by Japan to serve in military brothels during World War II. As a chief of the LDP's policy research council, Takaichi insisted that, what we should do now is recover Japan’s honor and correct the wrong information spread over the world.
Her course of action is clear. She wants to recover Japan’s honor, saying, “Japan has not done such an evil thing.” Such an argument made by Japanese conservatives does not have a global currency. Japan is being left behind by a trend of promoting human rights in international society.
Don't they realize that they don't have any vision so they are losing Japan's honor rather than recovering it?
In August, the Asahi Shimbun retracted a part of past article after verifying a man's testimony, which said that during World War II, in Korea, then a Japanese colony, Japan forcefully transported hundreds of young women.
But why can they deny the fact that Japan forcefully transported women or Japan’s responsibility for damaging other Asian countries based on the judgment that the only one man’s testimony was false?
Even on the website of the Asian Women’s Fund, whose establishment was supported by the Japanese government, you can find articles mentioning forceful transportation.
http://www.awf.or.jp/e-guidemap.htm
The conservatives are obsessed with whether material evidence to prove that Japan forced women to transport exists, trivializing the issue as if they are saying, “if you cannot find any material evidence, Japan has no responsibility for damaging the women.” Such an attitude deviates from the decent sense of human rights.
As they make excuses, they are revealing that the Japanese lawmakers do not have a basic understanding of human rights. As a result, they disgrace themselves before the world.
Some young women were deceived if not forcefully taken but can Japan really make excuse, saying, “Japan did not forcefully take you to anywhere so although you were confined in a small space, savagely treated, and raped day and night, Japan was not guilty”?
Does any country or individual which make such an arrogant excuse deserve respect from others?
Their argument is almost equivalent to that of a criminal who says, “I'm not guilty because what I committed was not a robbery but a mere fraud” or “I'm not guilty because it was not a rape but it was only a sexual assault against a person who cannot offer resistance.”
As Japan is a constitutional state, it is not allowed to make such an excuse, is it?
Can’t they imagine how offensive their behaviors are?
I hesitate to say this but their personality is problematic.
Original Article: http://wan.or.jp/book/?p=8093
Translated by Atsuko Ishikawa
9/24/2014
9/11/2014
“The Coming of the New Class Society: Gender Matters” Chizuko Ueno’s Presentation at ISA World Congress of Sociology (July 2014)
ISA World Congress of Sociology (Facing an
Unequal World: Challenging for Global Society) was held in Japan from July 13th
to 18th, 2014. The Congress is held once every four years and over
4,000 sociologists gathered in Yokohama, Japan this time.
.
Program Information
Chizuko Ueno, chairperson of WAN, made a
presentation at the Opening Presidential Panel, under the title of “the Coming
of the New Class Society: Gender Matters.”
Presidential Plenary I: Facing an unequal
World
Her presentation is available online at http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/50029763
(starting from 00:59:00)
Original Article: Chizuko’s Blog No. 75
Adopted and Translated by Fumie Saito
8/31/2014
Say No to Makoto Aida Winning the Ango Award: Report on the Symposium
Say No to Niigata City Giving the Ango Award
to Mr. Makoto Aida
Geijutsu to Ieba Nandemo
Yurusarerunoka Renrakukai (Liaison Committee of “Can anything be allowed under the name of art?”)
reports here on the symposium Houtteokenai
Dai 8-kai Ango-sho – Jinken no Shiten Kara (Unignorable the 8th
Ango Awards – From the Human Rights Perspective) (on June 22, at Niigata City)
as well as on the post-symposium situations.
[Report on the Symposium]
Mr. Makoto Aida is an artist known for his works containing violence against women such as “Dogs” series. This symposium was planned by the residents and non-residents of Niigata city who question the fact that Niigata City had given him the 8th Ango Award. The four panelists were Chieko Nishiyama (Lecturer of Aoyama Gakuin University), Tomomi Shibuya (Associate Professor of Tokyo Keizai University), Minori Kitahara (Representative of Love Peace Club), and Kazue Muta (Professor of Osaka University). The members of Niigata Gender Seminar took a role of MC. Just over 40 people attended the symposium including some from outside of Niigata city or prefecture such as Tokyo.
Unfortunately, none of the four panelists are Niigata City residents. Shibuya mentioned this in her opening statement telling how difficult it is for locals to criticize the Niigata City’s award-giving in an onymous manner and explaining about the barrier they face in expanding the Ango Award criticism locally.
Mr. Makoto Aida is an artist known for his works containing violence against women such as “Dogs” series. This symposium was planned by the residents and non-residents of Niigata city who question the fact that Niigata City had given him the 8th Ango Award. The four panelists were Chieko Nishiyama (Lecturer of Aoyama Gakuin University), Tomomi Shibuya (Associate Professor of Tokyo Keizai University), Minori Kitahara (Representative of Love Peace Club), and Kazue Muta (Professor of Osaka University). The members of Niigata Gender Seminar took a role of MC. Just over 40 people attended the symposium including some from outside of Niigata city or prefecture such as Tokyo.
Unfortunately, none of the four panelists are Niigata City residents. Shibuya mentioned this in her opening statement telling how difficult it is for locals to criticize the Niigata City’s award-giving in an onymous manner and explaining about the barrier they face in expanding the Ango Award criticism locally.
Each
panelist’s presentation was summarized below.
Titling Kensho: Dai 8-kai Ango-sho no Tsukurarekata/ Katararekata (Verification: How the 8th Ango Awards were Created and Told), Nishiyama presented the photos of street ads for Makoto Aida exhibitions, his works such as “Dogs” series, the outline of the Ango Awards, the information on the City’s website, etc. Then, she re-criticized the criticism against feminism found in the Niigata Nippo’s article reporting a symposium held by Niigata University of International and Information Studies. The local newspaper’s article had been posted just before the artist received the Award. She strongly insisted that Niigata City needed to withdraw the Ango Award from Mr. Aida as the City failed to inform their citizens of his works containing sexual violence and his language and behavior about his restroom peeping and yet praised his “way of being” as “dysphemism.”
Titling Kensho: Dai 8-kai Ango-sho no Tsukurarekata/ Katararekata (Verification: How the 8th Ango Awards were Created and Told), Nishiyama presented the photos of street ads for Makoto Aida exhibitions, his works such as “Dogs” series, the outline of the Ango Awards, the information on the City’s website, etc. Then, she re-criticized the criticism against feminism found in the Niigata Nippo’s article reporting a symposium held by Niigata University of International and Information Studies. The local newspaper’s article had been posted just before the artist received the Award. She strongly insisted that Niigata City needed to withdraw the Ango Award from Mr. Aida as the City failed to inform their citizens of his works containing sexual violence and his language and behavior about his restroom peeping and yet praised his “way of being” as “dysphemism.”
Shibuya
chose “Why is it a problem for a city to award an artist with tarnished image
which makes people think that he may have committed sex crimes?” as her
subject. Following this, she introduced Mr. Aida’s Twitter comment as he
implied his restroom peeping in the past, “My image as an artist has been
tarnished anyway. (Even if my past crime was revealed,) it would not hurt me at
all.” She pointed out that the problem was not his behavior in the past but his
current attitude to unapologetically take whatever he may have done into his
own image as an artist. She also pleaded that one of the roles of government is
to promote the state in which anyone is recognized to have equal freedom and
dignity, and the award by Niigata City would simply abandon the role. She
strongly appealed not to become accustomed to acceptance and it was the time to
raise a voice of anger.
Kitahara
criticized, in association with the works of Makoto Aida, the current situation
of Japan with a serious amount of Lolita-complex products distributed.
Lolita-complex goods are top-ranked in the sales of Amazon’s adult products. In
child star video, girls of around 5 years old or older appear in a bathing suit
and are consumed sexually. Bathing suit events of elementary and junior high
school girls are held every week in Akihabara. As the Japanese society is
tolerant to such male sexual desire, criticism against pornography raised from
the women’s side, similar to the criticism against Makoto Aida, tends to be
neutralized. She concluded that she wanted to establish a network in which
women could raise their voice and discuss pornography.
The last
presentation was brought by Muta titled “Expression of Sexual Violence and
Sexual Crimes that Silence Women.” By explaining the social structure in which
women are forced to be silent in a misogynistic society in case of pornography
or sexual crimes, she indicated asymmetricity that “freedom from sexual taboos”
has always been established on a unilateral basis by using the sex of women.
She proposed four things we could do or we wanted to do: 1) Believe in what you
think “normal”; 2) Look at artworks closely and see the substance of them; 3)
Look at artworks from a female point of view; and 4) Show how you feel.
Because the symposium covered an ongoing issue in the local community, close to 20 quality feedbacks and questions (equal to roughly half of the attendees) were given and highly concentrated Q&A continued. Finally the symposium came to a close and the place of discussion was changed and brought into a post-symposium party.
Because the symposium covered an ongoing issue in the local community, close to 20 quality feedbacks and questions (equal to roughly half of the attendees) were given and highly concentrated Q&A continued. Finally the symposium came to a close and the place of discussion was changed and brought into a post-symposium party.
[Post-symposium Report: The Niigata Nippo
news, the comments of Niigata City Bunka
Seisaku-ka (Cultural Policy Department) and Niigata City Mayor]
The Niigata Nippo (morning edition on June 26) reported on this symposium titled “Niigata City’s selection for the Ango Awards received criticism at the symposium concerning affirmation of sexual violence.” As the Committee members, Nishiyama and Shibuya, as described above, questioned Mr. Aida’s taking restroom peeping into his own image as an artist and accused the City government’s awarding his way of being. However, the Niigata Nippo’s article deleted this point of argument and did not even mention the fact that Shibuya was one of the panelists. It reported the citizens on this symposium focusing only on the artworks. This is an apparent information control. In the end of this article, it introduced the worn-out comment issued by the City’s Cultural Policy Department; “the selection committee highly evaluated (Mr. Aida’s) critical spirit as he accurately looks at today.”
Furthermore, Niigata City Mayor said at a press
conference held on June 27 on the Ango Award criticism at the June 22 symposium,
“With being an outlaw as one of the subjects, various conflicts cannot be
avoided from happening. (The critical voices) will not affect the future
selection for the Awards.” “I sincerely listen to criticism. I will not argue
with the selection committee whomever they choose.”（The Niigata Nippo morning edition
on June 28）The Niigata Nippo (morning edition on June 26) reported on this symposium titled “Niigata City’s selection for the Ango Awards received criticism at the symposium concerning affirmation of sexual violence.” As the Committee members, Nishiyama and Shibuya, as described above, questioned Mr. Aida’s taking restroom peeping into his own image as an artist and accused the City government’s awarding his way of being. However, the Niigata Nippo’s article deleted this point of argument and did not even mention the fact that Shibuya was one of the panelists. It reported the citizens on this symposium focusing only on the artworks. This is an apparent information control. In the end of this article, it introduced the worn-out comment issued by the City’s Cultural Policy Department; “the selection committee highly evaluated (Mr. Aida’s) critical spirit as he accurately looks at today.”
For the last time, I would repeat this as many times as I could, but our point regarding Mr. Aida’s restroom peeping (in fact, female genitals peeping) is not “Don’t award someone who peeped into restrooms in the past.” We are saying, “the city must not praise as an outlaw or award the artist who implies his own sexual criminal experience of women’s restroom peeping, takes it into part of his “artist image” claiming it would not hurt him at all, and continues to utilize it as he publishes a restroom peeping novel.
Currently, sexual discrimination and sexual harassment by taunting at assemblies are being called into question with severity. Similarly, sexual discrimination and sexual harassment by giving an award should never be allowed. The dispute in Niigata will heat up from this point on.
Original Article on the WAN Website: August 13, 2014
Translated by Kumiko Moriya
8/30/2014
Victory for plaintiffs: the Fukui District Court’s ruling on the suspension of operations at No. 3 and No. 4 reactors of the Oi nuclear power plant
[News]
Victory for plaintiffs: the Fukui District Court’s ruling on the suspension of operations at No. 3 and No. 4 reactors of the Oi nuclear power plant
Here is an on-the-spot report.
＊＊＊
[News Flash]
Victory for plaintiffs: the Fukui District Court’s ruling on the suspension of operations at No. 3 and No. 4 reactors of the Oi nuclear power plant.
The Fukui District Court delivered a sentence at 3 pm on May 21, 2014 on the suspension of operations at No. 3 and No. 4 reactors of the Oi nuclear power plant at 3 pm on May 21, 2014.
President Judge Hideaki Higuchi ordered Kansai Electric Power Co. not to restart the two reactors, which is a ruling in favor of the plaintiffs.
(English available. Outline of Judgement on Claim for Injunction on Operation of No. 3 and No. 4 Units at Ohi Nuclear Power Plant).
For your reference, please read:
(Fukui court deals setback to Kansai Electric bid to restart Oi reactors, The Asahi Shimbun, May 21, 2014).
Reported by Harumi Kondaiji
＊＊＊
Summaly translated by Shin Yamaaki
8/20/2014
Join us!: How to become a WAN member (Revised)
Women's Action Network (WAN) is a certified non-profit organization that aims to support women's activities throughout Japan. Become an official member and help finance the broad range of actions taking place at WAN!
WAN members are entitled to:
1) Voting right at the annual general assembly meeting;
2) Subscription of periodical "WAN Newsletter for Members";
3) Free admission to events sponsored by WAN;
4) Special prizes applicable through the WAN site; autographed books, movie and art show tickets, etc.;
5) Financial support for their activities; discount on advertising fee on the WAN site, placing goods at M-WAN, etc.
Member categories:
➢ Individual member – annual fee of 10,000 yen
(5,000 yen discount available for those who are not in full-time employment)
➢ Institutional member (groups, organizations and corporations) – annual fee of 30,000 yen
➢ Lifetime member – donation of 300,000 yen or above, no annual fee
How to apply:
Please contact at WAN Tokyo Office
1-11-16-2701, Naka-machi, Musashino-shi, Tokyo
180-0006 Japan
Tel: +81-422-38-9770 Fax: +81-422-38-9862
Email: info [at] wan.or.jp
Credit card payment is also available. Please inquire.
WAN members are entitled to:
1) Voting right at the annual general assembly meeting;
2) Subscription of periodical "WAN Newsletter for Members";
3) Free admission to events sponsored by WAN;
4) Special prizes applicable through the WAN site; autographed books, movie and art show tickets, etc.;
5) Financial support for their activities; discount on advertising fee on the WAN site, placing goods at M-WAN, etc.
Member categories:
➢ Individual member – annual fee of 10,000 yen
(5,000 yen discount available for those who are not in full-time employment)
➢ Institutional member (groups, organizations and corporations) – annual fee of 30,000 yen
➢ Lifetime member – donation of 300,000 yen or above, no annual fee
How to apply:
Please contact at WAN Tokyo Office
1-11-16-2701, Naka-machi, Musashino-shi, Tokyo
180-0006 Japan
Tel: +81-422-38-9770 Fax: +81-422-38-9862
Email: info [at] wan.or.jp
Credit card payment is also available. Please inquire.
8/18/2014
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