The current Heisei era, which began in 1989, has seen momentous changes in women's participation in Japanese society. A major catalyst for this was the Fourth World Conference on Women (see ) in 1995, also known as the Beijing Conference, which set international standards for women's policy in the 21st century. All kinds of issues common to women worldwide were unearthed and concern for the human rights of women became a major focus in Japan for the first time.
Haniwa Natori, the former director of the Office of Gender Equality at the Prime Minister's Office, takes a passionate look back on the period. The following is excerpted from her interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun.
In November 1989, the Berlin Wall fell and the Cold War came to an end. Humanity could now finally face in the same direction in tackling global-scale issues, and a bright future awaited. It was a period that was filled with this kind of hope.
Starting with the 1992 Conference on Environment and Development, there were several conferences organized by the United Nations in the first half of the 1990s that attempted to debate issues such as human rights and population beyond the framework of the nation. The position of women was weak and they were the ones in society who were forced to make the greatest sacrifices.
Awareness spread that focusing on women was the key to solving global-scale issues, and this led to the 1995 Beijing Conference.
[About 17,000 government representatives and others from 190 countries participated in the intergovernmental conference. When combined with the nongovernmental organization forum that was held in conjunction with the intergovernmental conference, the number of participants came to about 47,000, making it the largest U.N. conference in history.]
In April 1995, I replaced Mariko Bando, the first director of the Office of Gender Equality at the Prime Minister's Office. She is currently president of Showa Women's University. Having worked next door on issues related to Indo-Chinese refugees, I was put in charge of the Beijing Conference.
The passion of women in the nongovernmental sector, who studied furiously in preparation for the conference, which was then half a year away, was a real eye-opener for me. Their attitude was: "Let's see the world through the eyes of women! Let's change the world with the power of women!"
[The conference featured female world prominent women from around the world, such as U.S. first lady Hillary Clinton and Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar delivered a strong message that the power of women is indispensable to realizing world peace. As I spent more than two weeks as The Yomiuri Shimbun's chief of reporting at the conference, I cannot forget the excited tone of leading feminist Betty Friedan when she said that it was as though the passion of the 1960s women's movement had returned. I myself was thrilled by the thought of how the circumstances of women might change from then on.]
"Poverty has a woman's face." This is the catchphrase that made the most lasting impression upon me at the Beijing Conference. Seventy percent of the so-called poor, people whose income does not meet the average for their nation, were women. The background of the "feminization of poverty" was the structural distortions of a society where men and women were not equal.
[The "Beijing Platform for Action" included 12 important issues confronting women in the world, including poverty, violence against women, and sexual and reproductive health and rights. Strategies that governments, international organizations and other entities should take were also clearly stated. The word "gender," meaning socially and culturally formed gender, was used formally for the first time at such a forum, and it was proposed that the perspective of gender be incorporated into policy. The strengthening of laws pertaining to women was called for.]
The Beijing Conference was [part of] the history of women making rapid progress in society. The wording of the Beijing Platform for Action is still respected today and many of its provisions are quoted verbatim at many different conferences. Among international documents concerning gender, I consider it to be of the most comprehensive and highest level.
In advance of the intergovernmental conference that began on Sept. 4, 1995, an "NGO forum" was held. The Chinese government, which feared the power of NGOs, changed the venue to a place 50 kilometers away from central Beijing, near the Great Wall of China. There were about 5,000 participants from Japan, and the enthusiasm there was incredible.
Wasn't it an achievement that through this forum people realized that "women all over the world face the same problems" and learned the importance of speaking out and joining together?
Following the example of lobbying by the advanced countries, women's NGOs from Japan were also vigorously active during the intergovernmental conference. For several days, public meetings to exchange opinions between the governments and NGOs were held during the noon breaks, and an intensely productive time was spent.
This was the period before the NPO Law was enacted. At the time, Japanese government officials had the initial idea that NGOs were groups of troublesome people opposed to government policy. But having been backed by the passion of women, there came to be an awareness that reflecting NGOs' opinions in policy is important. It was a time of change for the government, too.
Education still a challenge
After the Beijing Conference, the Japanese government compiled a plan based on the "Beijing Platform for Action" and included sexual harassment in the items of the Equal Employment Opportunity Law, and legislation was enacted, including the basic law for a gender equal society, the anti-stalking law and the domestic violence prevention law.
The basic law for a gender-equal society is a beneficial law that passed unanimously. It established that "the realization of a gender-equal society is the most important issue for the 21st century." It is because this law exists that in 2016 the law to promote the active engagement of women came into being.
However, issues still remain. In the gender gap index announced by the World Economic Forum, Japan ranked 114th out of 144 countries in 2017. The speed of improvement in other countries is faster, and if this were a long-distance race, Japan would be a full lap behind.
Listening to the words of male senior officials concerning the issue of sexual harassment by the administrative vice finance minister, it must be said that Japan still lacks an awareness of the human rights of women.
Delays in the fields of politics and economics are often pointed out, but I think that the education field, which many people believe is equal, is the issue.
Among advanced countries, Japan is one of very few countries where the percentage of women enrolled in higher education is lower than that of men. Women are still not the subject of education investment. The state of education ultimately also leads to a low ratio of women in managerial positions and to wage disparity, among other issues.
"The goddess of the fate of women has but one hair on her head" is my pet theory.
To catch up to the speed of the change happening in the world, we cannot wait. When opportunity comes, grab it unhesitatingly and advance as much as you can. This is the support that I can offer to all women.
-- This interview was conducted by Yomiuri Shimbun Senior Writer Yoshimi Nagamine.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, May 9, 2018)
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