Backlash, Backpedaling, and Fight Back: Responses to State Feminism in Japan, 1990s to Present

Japan in the mid-1990s saw a set of remarkably broad initiatives by the government to promote gender equality, with what seemed like an unprecedented level of feminist involvement in policy making, culminating in the Basic Law for a Gender Equal Society (1999). What followed was a similarly unprecedented level of backlash, different in intensity and orchestration from the previous types of generic chauvinism. This reached a peak in 2005 when the backlash reached the diet, spearheaded by Abe Shinzô who would shortly thereafter be named prime minister. But soon feminists started to fight back, pulling together academics and activists in what appears to be an unprecedented level of alliance building.

What gets lost in the war of words now fought in Japan is the extraordinary range of opinion, held both currently and historically, about what would constitute equality between the genders. Excavating this rich history is crucial for understanding the present controversy. At the same time, analyzing the current debates raises important intellectual questions for reevaluating the history of the problematic relationship between feminism and the Japanese state. Moreover, the backlash suggests a connection between anti-feminist discourse and a particular kind of nationalist discourse, whose global implications need to be understood.

The paper will historicize the controversy over recent Japanese gender policy by examining the language of the policy and the process of its formulation, the proponents and arguments of the conservative backlash, and the range of consequent developments, including the feminist “fight back,” and government “backpedaling” in the context of postwar Japanese and global trends.