月: 2020年8月

By Anri YoshiiIllustration by Ai Masuda School health checkup is an essential part of the Japanese education system. However, during those sensitive years of adolescence, teenagers feel uncomfortable showing their breasts at checkups. “Regardless of the situation and the ages, we all need to be able to make the final decision on their body”– said by Aiko Takada who works as an office worker in Chiba prefecture. Her unpleasant experience of being forced into topless at a school checkup motivated her to launch the petition to demand changes in the way the checkups are conducted.            Can you explain about ”Please don’t force students to be half-naked. We demand more consensual …

なぜ日本の学校健康診断は問題を孕んでいるのか もっと読む »

To better understand what the Body Positivity movement is and how it is developing in Japan, I talked with Antonia Larraín, Chilean communicator, activist and model, and Mariana, Japanese plus size model from the agency Glapocha.  Antonia started being an activist at a very young age. She was a militant before even realizing it. She has always been interested in diversity and she started out taking part in marches and parades by the side of the LGBTQ community. “I am first of all a communicator. Being a model is one of the many ways I have to spread my ideas. I am a Feminist and this is why I am also …

Body Positivism in Japan もっと読む »

Recently, a brand new application that gives the opportunity to prevent from chikan assaults, who operate mainly in the trains, has been deployed by the Digi Police. In a few days only, it has been downloaded 237,000 times. In 2017, Kumi Sasaki wrote a book in French, in Paris, where she lives. She wanted to denounce how the Japanese train can be a nightmare for a young girl going to school on her own. Everyone living in Japan has heard of the chikan, those men who ride on crowded trains in order to assault young girls, often high-school teenagers in uniforms. Now one of their victims, a woman in her …

痴漢被害者が声を上げる今 もっと読む »

by Elif Erdogan  “My Pussy My Choice” For this week’s Voice Up Japan publication, we have interviewed three inspirational figures that organized Japan SlutWalk, Hinako, Gaymakimaki, and Myongfa. We wanted to know more about Japan SlutWalk and its motivation to organize this movement. Nearly 200 people walked the streets of Osaka’s Nanba to Amerikamura to Mido-Suji, wearing whatever they like, regardless of their gender nor their national identity, to shout “my body my choice”. On the 3rd of November 2019, people in Japan had their first SlutWalk to fight against the patriarchal culture. It first started in Toronto, Canada, when a police officer told female students that: “I’ve been told I’m not supposed …

Japan’s First Slutwalk もっと読む »

An interview with Dipti Bhatnagar by Kiyoka Tokumasu and Kohei Usuda Global awareness of climate change has reached critical mass in recent times, thanks in large part to the tireless efforts of young activists at the grassroots level. A feminist perspective, however, has been conspiciously absent from the public discourse on the climate crisis, even though it disproportionally affects women’s livelihoods across developing countries from Asia to Africa. Voice Up Japan recently caught up with Dipti Bhatnagar, a visiting climate justice and energy coordinator at Friends of the Earth, to learn about the connection between gender and climate issues. In our extensive interview, she walked us through concepts such as gender …

No Climate Justice Without Gender Justice もっと読む »

By Johann Fleuri How Colabo has created a haven for girls in Tokyo Since 2011, Colabo, founded by Yumeno Nito and her team, has been a tremendous support for young girls facing difficulties, protecting them from wandering in the streets Tokyo at night. During pandemic, their work has been more important than ever.  TOKYO. Where can you go when you are a 10 year-old girl who doesn’t see your home as a safe place ? With Tsubomi Café, a pink bus parked once a week in Shinjuku or Shibuya, Colabo has created a haven for girls, teenagers and young women who found themselves in the streets because of a complicated …

A Haven in Tokyo もっと読む »

By Rhea Endo The Coronavirus pandemic has caused unprecedented change to many people’s lives, putting whole nations into lockdown. But the pandemic has one devastating side-effect, what UN Women is calling ‘The Shadow Pandemic’: a rise in domestic violence cases all around the world. “My husband works from home, and my child’s school is closed,” one woman said. “He is really feeling the stress and using physical violence against family members.” (Asahi Shimbun, April 2) “Things changed when the school closed on the 14th,” she says. “Then the children were home constantly and they began to irritate my husband. Usually he saves his anger for me, but he has begun …

The Shadow Pandemic もっと読む »