ARCHIVED Women's Liberation Movement, Disability Activism and Reproductive Justice in Japan (1970-1996)

Date
Monday 15 April 2024

Time
6.45pm

Venue
The Swedenborg Society
20-21 Bloomsbury Way (Hall entrance on Barter St)
London WC1A 2TH
[Map]

Booking Details
Free- Booking essential

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In this lecture, Dr Anna Vittinghoff will explore the impact of disability and women's liberation activists coming together in the 1960s and 1970s. 

Sparked by the women's liberation (ūman ribu) movement and the debates surrounding the revision of the Eugenic Protection Law, the 1970s was a rich time for exploring reproduction rights in Japan within the context of social activism. As disability activists and women's lib members came together, not always without conflict, women's lib's critique of the proposed expansion of state intervention in women's bodies and the simultaneous devaluation of disabled lives transcended a liberal rights discourse and represented an intervention in Japan's biopolitical order. Following the dissolution of the women's lib movement in the mid-1970s, former members continued to carry on this legacy, most notably Tomoko Yonezu, who I argue brought these intersectional ideas into the field of disability activism and reproductive justice through organisations such as SOSHIREN and the DPI Women with Disabilities Network (Josei shōgaisha nettowāku).

In this talk, Dr Vittinghoff will analyse the development of disabled women's activism for reproductive justice and bodily autonomy, primarily through the life and work of former women's lib activist Tomoko Yonezu and her encounters with the disability movement. Dr Vittinghoff argues that the emergence of emancipatory spaces such as the student movement of the 1960s and women's lib in the 1970s were essential for marginalised groups and radical activists like Yonezu to engage with their own embodiment, a personal self-exploration that ultimately refined their social critique. Based on this understanding, Dr Vittinghoff will demonstrate how women's lib became more than a short-lived experiment in radical feminism in Japan and how women's lib thought, along with the emergence of disabled women’s voices, provided a platform for new forms of intersectional activist groups to challenge productivity as the dominant measure of human value in Japan.

Dr Anna Vittinghoff is a social historian and Lecturer in East Asian Studies at the School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield, whose research focuses on the intersections of radical feminism and the disability movement in Japan from the 1970s to the present. Her other research interests include the Japanese student movement and the New Left, issues of social order and biopolitics in Japan, and the history of global 1968 and what happened to its protagonists.

Images: Right - Photo by Jiji Press Limited from a ūman ribu demonstration in 1973; Left - Tomoko Yonezu at a rally to stop the amendment of the Eugenic Protection Law (copyright by Michiko Matsumoto).

If you have any questions, please call The Japan Society office on 020 3075 1996 or email events@japansociety.org.uk.

Supported by the Toshiba International Foundation (TIFO)

Booking Info