Feminism Reaches Japan

Author: Grace Armstrong

Nanako Kurihara, producer of the documentary "Ripples of Change," spoke on April 2 about the Japanese women's movement. Drawing on her experience with social issues, journalism and filmmaking, Kurihara related events in her own life to broad topics such as the goals and significance of the women's liberation movement in Japan.
Kurihara has an extensive background in journalism and has written articles for major Japanese and English publications, including Asahi Shimbun (the Japanese equivalent of the New York Times) and Journalism Review. She recently co-founded an organization promoting women's independent filmmaking in Japan, and is also interested in social issues such as holistic health care.
Kurihara titled her speech "Ripples of Change: The Contemporary Impact of the Women's Movement in Japan," and began by giving a brief history of the women's rights movement in Japan and her own early experiences.
According to Kurihara, it was ironically not until she left Japan for New York City that she became connected to the Japanese women's movement. A friend of Kurihara introduced her to a community of activists, and when that friend died in 1990, Kurihara's desire to explore the women's movement crystallized.
Having taken a documentary-making workshop one summer in New York, Kurihara already had the skills she needed.
"Once you take the class, you want to make something," Kurihara said. Her friend's death "made me committed to making this documentary."
"For three years," said Kurihara, "my documentary was my life."
Kurihara traveled and filmed in locations across Japan before editing a preliminary 40-minute version. After securing a government grant, she finished the final version in 1993.
When asked how her Japanese relatives reacted to her documentary, she laughed. "My father hated my documentary," she said. But her work with the film had cemented her desire to contribute to the women's movement in some way.
Making the documentary has also given her an understanding of some of the differences between the women's rights movements in the United States and Japan. One of the main differences, she said, was that the Japanese movement has a strong ecological and health dimension.
Kurihara became interested in health and wellness while in New York. "If you threw a stone, you could hit someone who was taking Prozac," she said. Upon returning to Japan, she found depression there also. She noted that 30,000 people in Japan commit suicide each year, and added, "This really made me think about where the society was going."
These experiences inspired Kurihara to set up a wellness center in Japan.
"Tokyo is a public health disaster," she said. "I'm hoping that the wellness center will put [people] in a different context ... give them a different perspective and an opportunity for reflection."
In Kurihara's opinion, this concern for health is an important aspect of the women's movement in Japan. "I think that one goal of the [Japanese] women's lib movement was to change society to promote the well-being of humans as organisms," she said, noting that Japanese activists "didn't go for equal rights, as in the mainstream women's movement in the States."
Of course, this does not mean that the women's movement in Japan has had no mainstream success.
"The movement has significance," she said. "Although it is in a small way, Japanese women are making connections to become a political power."
Kurihara's talk was co-sponsored by the Rohatyn Center for International Affairs, the Henry Luce Foundation, the Department of Japanese Studies, Women's and Gender Studies, and Wonnacott Commons.
The speech followed a showing of Kurihara's documentary, "Ripples of Change," on April 1. Both the documentary and speech were presented in conjunction with Sexual Violence Awareness Month.