Japanese Feminist Philosophy

日本思想の可能性とは何か。世界思想史の中で日本近代を捉え直した初の鶴見流日本思想案内。解説=長谷川宏 【鶴見俊輔生誕一〇〇年記念出版】 ■目次■ 【I】日本思想の可能性/日本の思想百年/日本の思想用語 【II】日本の折衷主義―新渡戸稲造論/日本思想の言語―小泉八雲論/石川三四郎/柳宗悦/ジャーナリズムの思想/平和の思想 【対談】普遍的原理の立場丸山真男×鶴見俊輔 【解説】長谷川宏.

Desde un enfoque multidisciplinar y plural, "Feminismo e identidades de género en Japón" reúne una colección de ensayos que permiten conocer los debates intelectuales del feminismo japonés contemporáneo, así como las vigentes discusiones sobre las identidades de género y las orientaciones sexuales en aquel país. Los temas tratados desvelan, por un lado, la riqueza de la historia y del presente del feminismo en Japón, tanto en la voz de pensadoras y activistas pioneras, como a través del giro colectivo y radical (...) que a mitad del siglo pasado percutió críticamente los roles de género en una sociedad atravesada, como tantas otras, por el patriarcado. Asimismo, en el istmo que conecta, pero también desplaza, la situación del siglo XX y el momento actual, el volumen pone el foco en asuntos controversiales como la lucha por la igualdad de trato y derechos en el colectivo homosexual, las tensiones legales y médicas en torno a las identidades de género, y la negociación y renegociación constantes de las subjetividades femeninas en la literatura y las producciones audiovisuales. Editado por Montserrat Crespín Perales (UB), el libro dibuja un tapiz con múltiples hilos que se ofrecen para pensar con y a través de las reflexiones y las tensiones que el feminismo y los estudios de género en Japón subrayan en una contemporaneidad volátil y desencajada, esperando enriquecer con ello las discusiones globales actuales. (shrink)

El conocimiento de los debates feministas en y de Japón en los estudios realizados en nuestro contexto cercano e idioma común se empezaron a construir y a desarrollar sobre algunos presupuestos hoy en día ya controvertibles. La historia de las mujeres japonesas ha sido habitualmente difundida como un apéndice dentro de la ya, de suyo, inclusión condicionada de los estudios de área en el panorama académico hispanohablante. En consecuencia, el conocimiento del feminismo japonés ha quedado arrinconado y, en parte por (...) ello, desconocido, al conectarse unidireccionalmente con el proceso de formación del Japón moderno y en una clave casi exclusivamente localista. [...]. (shrink)

Desde un enfoque multidisciplinar y plural, "Feminismo e identidades de género en Japón" reúne una colección de ensayos que permiten conocer los debates intelectuales del feminismo japonés contemporáneo, así como las vigentes discusiones sobre las identidades de género y las orientaciones sexuales en aquel país. Los temas tratados desvelan, por un lado, la riqueza de la historia y del presente del feminismo en Japón, tanto en la voz de pensadoras y activistas pioneras, como a través del giro colectivo y radical (...) que a mitad del siglo pasado percutió críticamente los roles de género en una sociedad atravesada, como tantas otras, por el patriarcado. Asimismo, en el istmo que conecta, pero también desplaza, la situación del siglo XX y el momento actual, el volumen pone el foco en asuntos controversiales como la lucha por la igualdad de trato y derechos en el colectivo homosexual, las tensiones legales y médicas en torno a las identidades de género, y la negociación y renegociación constantes de las subjetividades femeninas en la literatura y las producciones audiovisuales. Editado por Montserrat Crespín Perales (UB), el libro dibuja un tapiz con múltiples hilos que se ofrecen para pensar con y a través de las reflexiones y las tensiones que el feminismo y los estudios de género en Japón subrayan en una contemporaneidad volátil y desencajada, esperando enriquecer con ello las discusiones globales actuales. (shrink)

El procés de modernització que va viure el Japó en el tombant dels segles xix i xx va obrir un important debat sobre la situació de les dones, abordat des de plantejaments feministes diversos i en contrast amb el model reformista que perseguia renovar la moral nacional des d’una instrumentalització dels drets de les dones.

La investigadora Montserrat Crespín Perales, de la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, hace en esta entrevista un repaso sobre el impacto que supuso la adopción de políticas que fomentasen el concepto de “Womenomics” en Japón. Crespín, además, examina cómo la mejora de las condiciones laborales de las mujeres fue identificado por Abe como un factor clave para la recuperación económica del país y cómo continúa siendo uno de los grandes retos a los que se enfrenta el país para salir de la (...) crisis provocada por el COVID19. Esta entrevista forma parte del especial “El legado de Shinzo Abe”, en el que varios expertos analizan las principales contribuciones del ex primer ministro japonés, prestando especial atención a tres pilares de su mandato (Diplomacia y Relaciones Internacionales; Abenomics y Womenomics). (shrink)

La investigadora Montserrat Crespín Perales, de la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, hace en esta entrevista un repaso sobre el impacto que supuso la adopción de políticas que fomentasen el concepto de “Womenomics” en Japón. Crespín, además, examina cómo la mejora de las condiciones laborales de las mujeres fue identificado por Abe como un factor clave para la recuperación económica del país y cómo continúa siendo uno de los grandes retos a los que se enfrenta el país para salir de la (...) crisis provocada por el COVID19. Esta entrevista forma parte del especial “El legado de Shinzo Abe”, en el que varios expertos analizan las principales contribuciones del ex primer ministro japonés, prestando especial atención a tres pilares de su mandato (Diplomacia y Relaciones Internacionales; Abenomics y Womenomics). (shrink)

A linguistic portrait of Japanese womanhood, in a new edition that reveals how things have--and haven't--changed in 30 years.

‘Gender ’ is a troublesome loanword in Japan. While this term has been prevalent in feminist and scholarly circles, it has evoked confusion in the government and stimulated a backlash from the ultra-conservatives against gender equality. Japanese reactionaries have attacked the concept of gender because of their anxiety about cultural destruction – I thus call them the ‘old guard’. Focusing on a dispute over the term ‘gender’ between feminists and the old guard, this paper examines the changes in the term's (...) usage and meanings in the Japanese political context. I first shed light on Japan's reaction to the newly arrived term ‘gender’, outlining different attitudes towards gender between the feminist/scholarly circles and the government. Secondly, I discuss the old guard's condemnation of the concept of gender, in which they distort its significance in order to diminish its positive impact on society. I then scrutinize the old guard's reasons behind their attack on the concept of gender. My findings reveal that the old guard, whose political cause is to protect traditional Japanese culture, asserts that gender equality damages this culture. Moreover, I refute their emphasis on Japan's uniqueness, demonstrating that Japanese women's traditional virtues under the patriarchal family system are not peculiar to Japan. To gauge how the concept of gender has been interpreted politically, I highlight legislative debates about the term ‘gender’. In doing so, I elucidate the extent to which the concept of gender has infiltrated Japanese society through the dispute.Export citation Request permission. (shrink)

Japanese bioethics has created a variety of important ideas that have not yet been reflected on mainstream bioethics discourses in the English-speaking world, which include “the swaying of the confused self” in the field of feminism, “inner eugenic thought” concerning disability, and “human relationship-oriented approaches to brain death.” In this paper, I will examine them more closely, and consider what bioethics in Japan can contribute to the development of an international discussion on philosophy of life.

The objective of this paper is to consider some of the philosophical problems on gender in sport in terms of practical philosophy by examining previous studies on sports and gender in Japan. The previous studies of the Journal of Sport and Gender Studies, an institutional journal of the Japan Society for Sport and Gender Studies , and were reviewed to explain the characteristics and the limits of previous sports-gender studies in Japan to establish the parameters for a philosophical discussion of (...) sport-gender studies. A philosophical examination of the issues of affirmative actions, which is the least discussed topic among those listed in ‘JSGS’, is presented. By revealing fundamental problems in research on sports and gender in Japan, this study may potentially contribute to the resolution of multiple issues surrounding women in sports in Japan. Also, by exposing general and omnipresent problems, the study transcends the limited framework of sports in Japan, and can point to those common and overarching gender issues that need to be resolved around the world. (shrink)

I consider how a feminist account might address the practice of surrogacy in Japan, both domestically and in the transnational context. Japanese culture emphasizes traditional values, family heritage, and the value of reproduction. Japan offers an interesting case study, since surrogacy is currently under review, and the government is in the process of determining its stance on the practice. I will advocate for legal changes to how surrogacy is treated, suggesting that Japan should eliminate the koseki, or the Family Registration (...) Act, which stipulates that only birth parents may register children as their natural children. A principle of respect for women should be explicitly adopted in setting regulations or guidelines surrounding this practice; additionally, attempts should be made to address citizens’ reproductive needs domestically, thus reducing the global demand for these arrangements. (shrink)

Since the global success of the Made in Italy brand in the 1980s, Japan has witnessed an Italian boom which has turned Italy in the last decade into the most loved foreign country in Japan, especially among women and youth. This popularity is unparalleled in intensity and duration, but had seen little academic investigation. This essay explores how the transnational space of Italianness takes form through cumulative encounters between emotional geographies of 'the West' articulated in Japan, as well as of (...) 'the East' in Italy. There is a focus on the fluid intersections with the lived experience and projections of both Japanese and Italians in contemporary Japan to issues of nation, race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality. (shrink)

The list of publications having to do with Japanese intellectual history in general and Kyoto School philosophy in particular has grown steadily over the past years, both inside and outside of Japan. This is due in no small part to the important contributions made by those whose papers are included in this volume, the proceedings of an international conference held in June 2009 at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. Although much remains to be done if Japanese philosophy is to (...) shed its esoteric and exotic image in order to take its rightful place in the curriculum as one of the many valuable sources of philosophical reflection, the ongoing dialogue among veterans in the field and younger scholars reflected in these pages is as promising as it has ever been. (shrink)

Our paper explores several factors related to the relatively small percentage of women managers in organizations in Japan (especially in comparison to otherindustrialized nations) and examines the strategies of several major corporations that have incorporated diversity management into their corporate social responsibility programs to address problems of gender equity.

How might teachers and parents work with Japanese children to ensure that they do not get caught in the traditional limitations of masculinity and femininity? And how might we, as observers of Japanese culture, move beyond old ways of seeing Japan as "Eastern", as different and as exotic? The children in this study are, in some ways, like children anywhere. At the same time they are very specifically Japanese, with very specifically Japanese ways of doing gender. Delightful, funny and outrageous, (...) these children are predictable and also terribly surprising."--BOOK JACKET. (shrink)

DIVA study of the "modern" woman in Japan before World War II./div.

This study focused on cultural differences in the portrayal of gender in British and Japanese television advertisements. In all, 196 British advertisements were analyzed using a coding scheme based on established coding categories. Contrary to prediction, chi-square analyses showed less gender stereotyping in these advertisements than reported in previous British studies. Next, 228 Japanese advertisements were analyzed. It was found that Japanese advertisements showed a high degree of gender stereotyping as could be expected from Japan's high masculinity score. Analyses were (...) carried out for ‘visual’ and ‘aural’ characters, and for advertisements with both one and two central figures. Results for the aural and 2-central figure sub-samples were more significant. (shrink)

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:Reviewed by:Sourcebook for Modern Japanese Philosophy: Selected DocumentsSteven HeineSourcebook for Modern Japanese Philosophy: Selected Documents. Translated and edited by David A. Dilworth and Valdo H. Viglielmo, with Agustin Jacinto Zavala. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1998. Pp. xx + 420.Sourcebook for Modern Japanese Philosophy: Selected Documents, translated and edited by David H. Dilworth and Valdo H. Viglielmo, with Agustin Jacinto Zavala, is a new translation of twentieth-century Japanese philosophers and (...) is the second book in a series on Resources in Asian Philosophy and Religion that had been devised and edited by the late Charles Wei-hsun Fu (the first book was Stuart D. B. Picken's Essentials of Shinto: An Analytical Guide to Principal Teachings [Westport: Greenwood Press, 1994]). Here, a team of translators who are all very well known for their expert work in the field provide a series of selections from seven philosophers, each of whom is associated with the Kyoto School approach to comparative philosophical analysis.The seven thinkers include: (1) Nishida Kitarō, the founder of the Kyoto School, which is based on a synthesis of Western thought, particularly German Idealism, and the Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophy of emptiness or universal nothingness (Nishida remains by far the most important representative of the school, and he has had numerous works translated into English, often by Dilworth and/or Viglielmo); (2) Tanabe Hajime, Nishida's first and foremost disciple, who approached the notion of absolute nothingness from the standpoint of Pure Land Buddhist other-power and repentance; (3) Kuki Shūzō, who was known for his travels to Europe and his work on aesthetics and contingency; (4) Watsuji Tetsurō, who pioneered the field of cultural anthropological history in Japan; (5) Miki Kiyoshi, who criticized Nishida in light of Pascal and Kierkegaard as well as Hegelian dialectics; (6) Tosaka Jun, a sharp Marxist critic of Nishida, who during the 1930s attacked the apparent accommodations of his colleagues with the Imperialist authorities; and (7) Nishitani Keiji, who developed the Zen perspective implicit in Nishida's philosophy by emphasizing the religious-conversion experience that emerges from a contemplative awareness of the universality of absolute nothingness.The translators provide a substantial introductory essay discussing the biographical and conceptual issues in the development of the life and thought of each philosopher. This section is very useful, and generally goes into more depth and detail than other materials available in English. The translations themselves, which cover a wide variety of styles and methods of argumentation, are clear and readable, though at times a bit imprecise and inconsistent. A main issue involved in evaluating the book has to do with the selection of thinkers and passages translated. Unfortunately, there are no philosophers represented here who are not in the circle of the Kyoto School. There is no question of the dominance of Nishida and his followers (and critics) in the realm of Japanese philosophy, but other voices reflecting the positions of Marxism, phenomenology, logic, structuralism, and postmodernism could have had some representation. One problem is that the reader is given very little indication of current trends (since the writings of Nishitani, the last philosopher [End Page 311] on this list, are already several decades old). And there is certainly nothing in this volume to point to future concerns and tendencies in Japanese philosophy.On the other hand, given the book's content, a positive feature is that the translators have fulfilled an important goal of choosing selections that have not previously appeared in English but which are nevertheless representative and crucial for understanding the overall significance of each thinker's approach. Therefore, Sourcebook for Modern Japanese Philosophy will serve as a beneficial supplement or complement to existing sources. It is a handy compendium that puts readers in touch with the full variety of Kyoto School philosophers, including those who vary from and argue with Nishida.By the late 1990s, it had become impossible to discuss Nishida and the Kyoto School without dealing at least in part with the question of political implications: to what extent, if any, were these thinkers involved in supporting and promulgating the doctrine of the imperial order, which sought hegemony throughout Asia. The key figures, especially Nishida, Tanabe... (shrink)

Women make up about ten per cent of the scientists and engineers in Japan. The aim of this essay is to make clear why, even in the year 2001, there are so few women in these disciplines. I will suggest that the socio-economic structure and gender ideology of Japan since the Second World War is responsible for this shortage which is often erroneously attributed to the cultural traditions of feudal Japan.

This detailed study of the issues surrounding discrimination against women throughout the history of Buddhism focuses on the foundations and evolution of Buddhist thought. The author, trained as a physicist, became interested in the Buddhist view of women and researched the topic over the course of 10 years. He's also the author of several other works on Buddhism. Here, he concludes from his readings of Buddhist texts that both male and female principles are indispensable for the perfection of personality. Annotation (...) copyrighted by Book News Inc., Portland, OR. (shrink)

In the 1920s and early 30s, in progress of modernization and Westernization, Japanese culture was keenly seeking its identity, appropriate to the modern nation-state. Movement of renovation flourished in many "traditional" genres of Japanese music: introduction of Western musical instruments, musical forms, notational system etc. The tide of this "renovation" swept into the realm of shamisen music of geishas. Many intellectuals advocated that they wear Western dresses instead of Japanese kimono and play violin or mandolin instead of shamisen. And actually (...) there emerged many geisha girls singing their songs accompanied by Western instruments as piano. But this movement lasted not so long. These "modern" geishas, once intended to renovate irrational system of their community, were soon given exclusive contracts with big record companies and removed their name from the member list of geisha houses. Their "modern" songs with Western style has evolved into new genre kayo-kyoku , and, on the other hand, traditional genres like hauta and kouta, in which new songs had been constantly composed till then, became inert ones whose repertoire is not expanded any more. This change, derived from record industry, strongly influenced the condition of cultural identity of Japanese people. (shrink)

This is a materialist-feminist, psychoanalytic analysis of a modern Japanese literary trope—the dangerous woman, linked to archaisms and magical realms and found throughout the Japanese canon—in the works of three 20th-century writers: Izumi Kyoka (1873–1939), Enchi Fumiko (1905–86), and Nakagami Kenji (1946–92).