The World Conference on Women was held in Beijing in the fall
of 1995 for the first time in Asia. It was attended by women from around the world,
including many from Japan. At the NGO Forum, Japanese women held workshops with
titles such as "Development and Women," "Violence against Women,"
and "Trafficking in Women," together with women from the Philippines,
South Korea, India, and Cambodia. At the Nairobi Conference held a decade earlier,
most Japanese participants found that they had been unaware of problems that other
Asian women faced, confining themselves to just listening. Keeping what they realized
in Nairobi in mind, women in Japan sought to unite with other Asian women. Indeed,
the NGO Forum in Beijing showed the fruits of their efforts over the past decade.
Prior to the World Conference on Women in Beijing, several regional meetings were
organized in Asia. At the "Asia Pacific NGO Symposium," held in Manila
in 1993, women from East Asia held a regional workshop which resulted in the formation
of the "East Asia Women Forum" with the first meeting hosted by Japan
the following year. Despite the fact that women in East Asia share the experience
of the rapid economic growth in the region, the common cultural background of
Confucian patriarchy, and the history of Japanese military rule, it was the first
gathering of activists from different women's groups in East Asia. During the
first East Asia Women Forum, women in different parts of Japan, including Osaka,
Kyoto, and Sakai, had occasions to exchange experiences and ideas with women from
other East Asian countries.
"Asian Tribunal for Women's Rights,"
held in Tokyo in 1994, was also significant. It was a moot court to hear testimonies
given by woman victims of different forms of human rights violation, including
trafficking, military sex slavery, and prostitution around military bases. It
also constituted an international forum to clarify the accountability and responsibility
of Japan which has been deeply involved in these problems.
These international gatherings were realized owing to the solidarity built among
women's groups in Asia and Japan and the efforts of Japanese women who have worked
on issues relating to women, Asia, foreign residents, and minority groups, and
the elimination of discrimination at the grass-roots level. Japanese women have
developed their abilities to organize international meetings. The growing cooperation
is also owed to the contribution made by the "Asian Women's Association,"
a Tokyo-based women's group established in 1977, and other woman leaders in Japan
for the building of solidarity among Asian women. After 1985, when the Nairobi
Conference was held, an increasing number of women's groups were formed in Japan
committed to Asian issues. They have sought a face-to-face relationships with
people in Asia, rather than simply giving material support to those in need.
Women started to reconsider the relationships between other Asian nations and
Japan, questioning themselves as to whether Japan might be only threatening the
lives of Asian people with its official aid, which encourged a rapidly developing
Asian economy, and the business activities of Japanese companies, which contaminated
the environment through production operations or destroyed it by the logging of
rain-forests. In the beginning of the '90s, the issue of "former military
comfort women" became a common struggle among Asian women.
The population of Asian women migrant workers to Japan began to expand in the
early '80s, bringing the micro Asia into the country and before Japanese women.
Some women's groups started to provide consultation to Asian women or shelter
to those who escaped from abuse by Japanese husbands or employers. There have
been many cases where Asian women and their children have had to leave Japan after
being abandoned by their Japanese boyfriends/fathers who broke their promises
of marriage. Back in their home countries such as Thailand and the Philippines,
women's groups provide the betrayed women consultation and support. In liaison
with these groups, some Japanese groups try to locate the fathers of these children
or find jobs for women who remain in Japan. Through working together with Asian
women in Japan on their problems, women on the both sides have nurtured a spirit
of mutual cooperation. In fact, Japanese women learn many things from their Asian
counterparts.
While general interest in Asia is greater than ever in Japan, women take a different
stand when they get involved in Asian issues. They are most concerned about the
situations of women in Asian countries. They find the similarity in the problems
which women throughout Asia face in a cultural climate that has allowed men to
be power-holders. They feel ashamed that the Japanese political climate has hindered
justice from being made for those who have bravely come out as "former military
comfort women." They realize that Japan's economic development has not necessarily
contributed to the improvement in the status of woman in Japan, and that it has
generated many situations which threaten the lives of women in other Asian countries.
Being aware of these problems, women in Japan have begun to work with women in
other Asian countries to encourage and empower each other in their search for
solutions to their common problems. Development of Asian feminism towards the
21st century rests with the future work of women throughout Asia.
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