From Japan Focus Abstract: As long as U.S. military bases have existed in Okinawa, sex workers have served the troops. What has varied over the decades has been the women’s backgrounds, their working conditions, and their degree of agency. During the Pacific War, the Japanese military notoriously set up a “comfort women” system in which they enslaved thousands of … [Read more...] about Daisy’s Story: Filipina Migrants and Other Women in the Shadow of the U.S. Military Bases in Okinawa
Japan Focus
Mind the Gender Gap: Kawakami Mieko, Murata Sayaka, Feminism and Literature in Japan
From Japan FocusCompelling women’s fiction in Japan hardly began with its two brightest contemporary stars, Kawakami Mieko and Murata Sayaka. Tawada Yoko won the Akutagawa Prize back in 1993 and her work is widely read outside Japan (Tawada has long lived in Germany and writes in German and Japanese). Ogawa Yoko won in 1990 for her novel Pregnancy Diary (Ninshin karendaa, 妊娠 … [Read more...] about Mind the Gender Gap: Kawakami Mieko, Murata Sayaka, Feminism and Literature in Japan