EASTEconomics, Politics and PublicASIA Policy in East Asia andFORUM the Pacific Vol.8 No.2 April–June 2016 $9.50 Quarterly

Gender and sexuality

Sharyn Graham Davies Indonesia’s anti-LGBT panic Bronwen Dalton and Kyungja Jung Femininity in North Korea Vera Mackie Closing the gender gap in Japan Katharine H. S. Moon Women and politics in East Asia ... and more ASIAN REVIEW — Robert A. Manning and James J. Przystup: What might a new Asian order look like? EASTASIAFORUM CONTENTS 3 Geng song Quarterly Changing masculinities in East Asian pop ISSN 1837-5081 (print) ISSN 1837-509X (online) culture 6 ju hui judy han From the editors’ desk The politics of homophobia in South Korea The dynamism seen in contemporary Asia has a deep gender 8 sharyn graham davies dimension. Indonesia’s anti-LGBT panic Rapid economic changes have fundamentally challenged the 11 kathryn robinson traditional division of labour of women working in the private, family Religion, gender and the state in domain and men in the public sphere of commerce and politics. Greater Indonesia participation by women in politics has reshaped agendas for social 13 chen tingting change. Domestic violence: why legal change The seemingly fixed images of masculinity and femininity are in alone is not enough flux, accelerated by the commercialisation of popular culture across the 15 m. govinda rao region. Although the LGBT community is still struggling to gain wider ASIAN REVIEW: Making federalism acceptance, it has made strides that have challenged the hegemonic status work for India of heteronormativity. 19 robert a. manning and James J. Przystup In the area of body politics, where the state and religious groups still exert enormous influence, women have been resisting or sometimes ASIAN REVIEW: What might a new Asian order look like? appropriating the debate to put forward their own agenda. The search for 23 caroline norma employment or new life opportunities has driven thousands of women to migrate, legally or illegally, within Asia as brides, labourers, traders or sex East Asia’s pornography trade and abuse of human rights workers. 26 hyun mee kim In the midst of these transformations, there has been encouraging The ‘strangest others’ find a place at home evidence of legal changes that recognise the rights of women, exemplified in the abolition of various patriarchal laws, such as South Korea’s family- 28 sabine frÜhstÜck head system, or by the enactment of equal opportunity laws or the lifting Japan’s military battles its own male-dominated culture of bans on women in the military. Yet old discriminatory norms and practices persist and are further complicated by regional political and 30 bronwen dalton and kyungja jung economic developments. Women’s image transformed: femininity This issue of East Asia Forum Quarterly brings together prominent in North Korea scholars of gender studies from various countries and disciplines to 32 vera mackie explore the diversity and complexity of issues of gender and sexuality in Closing the gender gap in Japan contemporary Asia. The essays touch on major developments that have 34 katharine H. S. moon caused shifts in gender relations. They illustrate the tensions between structural violence against women and women’s own agency in coping Women and politics in East Asia with male-dominant social arrangements. The main message is that gender politics do not merely reflect societal shifts. They drive the political, economic and cultural changes that are transforming the 21st century Asian region. The Asian Review section looks at the future of Indian federalism and COVER: A Filipino protester from a gay and lesbian the question of a new regional order. activist group mocks ‘Lady Justice’ at a rally in Manila which called for the resignation of then Philippines Hyaeweol Choi and Tessa Morris-Suzuki President Benigno Aquino. PICTURE: DENNIS M. SABANGAN / EPA / AAP.

2 EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 cultural transaction picture: aap

The fans’ favourite: South Korean actor Song Joong-ki, epitome of the current trend towards Pan-East Asian soft masculinity. Changing masculinities in East Asian pop culture

Geng Song young women who are fixated with eyes. These types of images are mainly the handsome male protagonist played produced and circulated by the ESCENDANTS of the Sun, by Song Joong-ki. It is reported that ‘Korean Wave’ and Japanese anime, D a South Korean TV drama a jealous husband in China one night comics and games (ACG) culture. It is featuring a romance between a soldier drunkenly stormed into a photography well received by youth across most of and a surgeon in a fictional war-torn studio and demanded that the shop East Asia, and presents a significant nation, is reigniting K-drama fever owner take pictures to ‘make him look response to the globally hegemonic across Asia. In China alone, where the like Song’. masculine ideal based on the image of program is simultaneously broadcast The cult of male beauty associated the transnational businessman. online, it has drawn more than 2.4 with Descendants of the Sun is Some claim that the success of billion views on video-streaming reminiscent of a recent trend that South Korean and Japanese pop website iQIYI since it began airing in has been termed ‘Pan-East Asian soft culture lies in attempts to make it late February. masculinity’—male images that are mugukjeok or ‘culturally odourless’ by Its fandom is mostly composed of exceptionally feminine to Western downplaying their national specificity.

EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 3 But for many others its popularity the current popularity can be largely explained by its EASTASIAFORUM representations of Pan-East Asian soft Quarterly of these images of masculinity. Pan-East Asian soft masculinity has masculine beauty also EDITORIAL STAFF its roots in the Confucian tradition of scholar masculinity shared by many reflects the influence of Issue Editors East Asian cultures, such as the wen Hyaeweol Choi, Director, Korea (literary attainment) masculinity in the metrosexual trend Institute, and ANU-Korea Foundation China or seonbi (scholar-officials) Professor of Korean Studies, College of masculinity in Korean history. Asia and the Pacific, ANU. from the West The talented scholar is physically Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Professor of weak, delicate and handsome, with Japanese History, College of Asia and the Pacific, ANU. androgynous beauty. He is desirable to Series Editors women by dint of his knowledge and literary gifts. The popularity of zhainan in China Peter Drysdale, Head, East Asia Forum and East Asian Bureau of Economic At the same time, the current may be explained by the discourse in Research at the Crawford School of popularity of these images of premodern Chinese literature on the Public Policy, ANU. masculine beauty also reflects the ‘purity’ of men who have obsessions. Shiro Armstrong, Director, Australia- influence of the metrosexual trend Compared with zhainan, the word Japan Research Centre and Executive from the West. This indicates that meng bears an even more direct link Director, EAF and EABER, Crawford masculinity has become increasingly with Japanese pop culture, being School, ANU. pluralistic and hybridised in a rapidly the Chinese pronunciation of the

Editorial Staff globalising East Asia. Japanese character moe. Moe, which Coordination: Sam Hardwick. One conspicuous example of the originally meant ‘budding’ or ‘burning’, Editing: Alison Darby, Patrick Deegan, Catherine Yen, Liam Gammon, Rosa transnational flow of male images now refers to a particular kind of Bishop, Sam Hardwick, Michael Wijnen, in East Asia is the spread of otaku ‘adorable’ or ‘cute’ preadolescent ANU. culture. With the international girl in ACG culture. Like otaku, the Editorial Advisers: Peter Fuller, Max spread of anime and manga, the term word has undergone transformations Suich. otaku has entered other cultures in meaning and usage during its Production: Peter Fuller, Words & Pics. and generated new expressions. In migration to China. Original design: Peter Schofield. Chinese, the vogue word zhainan (the In the Chinese context, meng, which Email [email protected], Chinese pronunciation of the Japanese can be used as a noun, adjective or [email protected]. kanji for otaku) refers to a socially even a verb, has become a trendy word awkward young man who secludes among young people, particularly in himself in his home all day, indulging cyberspace. It can be used to describe The views expressed are those of the individual in computer games, anime and geek a wide of range of things: from authors and do not represent the views of the culture. children’s expressions to President Xi Crawford School, ANU, EABER, EAF, or the Despite the Japanese term’s Jinping’s new hairstyle. Notably, it is institutions to which the authors are attached. association with antisocial behaviour, increasingly used to describe loveliness more and more young men in Chinese in men. When a man is referred to as cities identify themselves as zhainan meng, there is a (positive) implication and the term has come to indicate a of femininity. The popularity of desirable form of masculinity. There zhainan and meng in China, on the are Web essays on how to woo a whole, represents a growing cultural Published by ANU Press zhainan and love stories featuring high convergence among East Asian The Australian National University school students and their zhainan countries. Canberra ACT 0200, Australia Email: [email protected] teacher. The zhai lifestyle has even The ‘softness’ of Pan-East Asian Web: http://press.anu.edu.au become a trend among urban youth. masculinity also lies in its more

4 EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 sensitive and caring attitude toward played by Wu Xiubo used to be a and soldiers reflects stereotypes women. The ‘Herbivore Man’ (sōshoku renowned doctor in Beijing but gives that are deeply rooted in the danshi) in Japan and South Korea, and up his career in order to look after his collective memory and imagination ‘Warm Man’ (nuan nan) in China are teenage daughter in the United States. of generations of Chinese, gained all in line with this type of sensitive In China, he also epitomises the ideal from popular media if not from new guy. sensitive man who harbours warm actual experience. For instance, the The term Herbivore Man and its emotions for women. cold-blooded Japanese commander counterpart, ‘Carnivorous Woman,’ ‘Tough’ masculine images are predictably commits hara-kiri when were first coined by the Japanese coterminous with ‘soft’ ones in East ultimately faced with defeat. The author Maki Fukasawa and became Asian popular culture. One example Japanese officer regularly slaps his known through Megumi Ushikubo’s of the former is heroic men in subordinates in fits of anger, with baka popular book The Herbivorous China’s anti-Japanese TV dramas, a (Japanese for ‘fool’ or ‘idiot’) always Ladylike Men: A Change in Japan. popular subgenre of TV program in on his lips. He also regularly mistreats This new type of man is arguably a China. This government-sponsored women, while his submissive wife rebellion against the ideal salaryman and market-oriented ‘consumerist bows deeply to welcome him home masculinity of postwar Japan. They are nationalism’ represents a happy every evening. less ambitious and are ‘harmless’ for marriage between the state’s agenda It is against these images of women because they always display and popular social desires in Chinese Japanese men that an idealised an understanding of women and their television. Chinese manhood is portrayed and feelings. In these dramas, patriotic Chinese eulogised. EAFQ The 2013 Chinese hit film, Finding masculinity is portrayed against Mr Right, centres on the idealised its Other, the ‘Japanese devils.’ The Geng Song is Associate Professor at the Warm Man. The male protagonist characterisation of Japanese officers University of Hong Kong.

A filmgoer in Yichang photographs a poster forBook of Love, which set records when it opened in cinemas around China in May 2016. PICTURE: AAP

EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 5 lgbtq activism The politics of homophobia in South Korea

Ju Hui Judy Han formed to expose politicians with already face verbal and physical abuse. a record of contempt for LGBTQ Within the system of mandatory male NOTABLE element of South equality. conscription in South Korea, gay men A Korea’s general elections in April There are several key policy areas face enormous difficulties in fulfilling 2016 was the hypervisibility of anti- around LGBTQ equality in South their military service obligations gay political rhetoric, promulgated Korea. All involve uphill battles and safely and with dignity. Several South especially by the fledgling Christian all provide rich opportunities for Korean men have even successfully Liberal Party (CLP). An ultra- coalition-building. One key concern is gained political asylum status in conservative Protestant political the prohibition of homosexual conduct Canada and France, where their fear party established in March 2016, the in the military, the only instance in of homophobic violence and human CLP ultimately failed to gain a seat which homosexuality is criminalised rights violations during military in the National Assembly—but it in South Korean law. LGBTQ activists service were determined to be credible came close, earning 2.6 per cent of and legal advocates have called for and probable. votes nationwide, just shy of the 3 the repeal of the infamous Article At a judicial level, there remains no per cent required for a proportional 92 (6) of South Korea’s military meaningful and enforceable national representation seat. The increased criminal law that prohibits and anti-discrimination legislation that prominence of formations like the CLP punishes sex acts between men even would extend basic human rights signals a new chapter in religiously when there is mutual consent. This protection to LGBTQ communities charged political homophobia in South article is applied broadly not only to in South Korea. The South Korean Korea. criminalise homosexual acts but also Supreme Court ruled against legalising The CLP has not been alone in to pathologise conduct, appearance same sex marriage on 25 May 2016. injecting explicitly anti-gay political and identities that are perceived to be Homophobia is a public health issue. rhetoric into public discourse. non-normative. People living with HIV/AIDS in The chairman of the conservative The provision has been documented South Korea today cannot count on Saenuri party, Kim Moo-sung, has as being enforced on mere hearsay queer-positive medical or hospice repeatedly described homosexuality and allegations, and has been used care, and face devastating stigma and as ‘an outrage against humanity’. At a flagrantly to penalise and isolate life-threatening denials of service by Christian political meeting in February sexual minority conscripts who medical professionals. 2016, Minjoo Party leader Park Young- Earlier attempts in 2007 and 2013 sun referred to lesbian, gay, bisexual, In their extreme and most to introduce anti-discrimination transgender and queer (LGBTQ) rights legislation in the National Assembly as ‘against nature and against God’. She troubling formations, were foiled, in large part by also vowed to oppose any legislation conservative Protestant opposition. that would protect minorities from homophobia is combined Similarly, in December 2014, discrimination on the basis of sexual Protestant groups pressured the orientation or gender identity in with Islamophobia and mayor of Seoul, Park Won-soon—a employment, housing or healthcare. former human rights attorney and Both Kim and Park ranked in the xenophobia pro-democracy activist—to withdraw top three in the 22 worst homophobic his support for LGBTQ rights and offenders list compiled by Rainbow refuse to proclaim the Seoul Charter Vote, a public education campaign of Human Rights. Outraged by

6 EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 picture: lee jin-man / ap photo / aap

Christian protesters rally against homosexuality and same-sex marriage near the venue of the Queer Culture Festival in Seoul in June 2015. the mayor’s betrayal, hundreds of have gone as far as to call for a stop to blasted amplified epithets from outside queer activists and progressive allies immigration from Muslim-majority the festival zone. The 2016 KQCF from labour and feminist groups countries such as Pakistan and participants will have to contend occupied Seoul City Hall over six Bangladesh. In their extreme and most with groups that have registered to days—an unprecedented political troubling formations, homophobia use Seoul Square for anti-LGBTQ action that demonstrated the growing is combined with Islamophobia and events in the days leading up to the significance of coalitional solidarity in xenophobia to bring hatred and annual queer festival. Homophobia is contemporary LGBTQ activism and bigotry to new heights. certainly a public safety issue. minority politics. In June 2016 the annual Korea Contention over the queer festival Conservative Protestant forces Queer Culture Festival (KQCF) in is not simply a struggle over public have been particularly unkind to Seoul will celebrate its 17th year. What space. It is a struggle over the public minorities—sexual minorities, first began as a small-scale event with character of that space and the very immigrants and temporary migrants 50 or so participants has now grown meaning of a democratic public who constitute religious and ethnic to a spectacular festival with more sphere. It is remarkable that after minorities in South Korea, and trade than 10,000 participants and dozens of the spirited slogan in 2015, ‘Love, unionists, dissidents and social justice cultural and political groups that will Resist, Queer Revolution’, the 2016 activists who compose formidable gather at Seoul Square, in the heart KQCF slogan is simply ‘Queer I am’. political minorities. Conservative of the city. But increased LGBTQ LGBTQ politics in South Korea has Protestants and homophobic political visibility has also resulted in more come full circle to a sobering and leaders have even linked LGBTQ public detractors and violent hecklers. modest demand: an insistence on the equality with terrorism and radical In recent years both the queer fundamental right to be. EAFQ Islam, as can be seen in the recent CLP festival and street parade have been slogans of ‘No to homosexuality, no disrupted by anti-gay protesters who Ju Hui Judy Han is Assistant Professor to Islam, no to anti-Christianity’, all in have thrown faeces at festival-goers, in the Department of Geography and the name of national security. Some blocked the parade procession and Planning at the University of Toronto.

EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 7 social control

picture: dita alangkara / ap photo / aap

Indonesia’s anti-LGBT panic

Sharyn Graham Davies system. While there have always Indonesian transvestites demonstrate for LGBT been concomitant tolerance and rights in Jakarta on the International Transgender OMPARED with its Asian near intolerance, events of early 2016 Day of Remembrance. C neighbours, Indonesia has long exhibited an unprecedented level of been tolerant of same-sex sexuality public animosity toward Indonesia’s and transgenderism. Unlike Singapore LGBT community. individuals, but a community and Malaysia, Indonesia never In January 2016, Indonesia’s demanding rights and acceptance. criminalised homosexuality and has Technology, Research and Higher The Speaker of the upper house of been accommodating of transgender Education Minister, Muhammad Nasir, parliament added: ‘as a movement, people—transwoman TV personality declared that Indonesian universities the existence of LGBT must be Dorce Gamalama, for instance, must uphold standards of ‘values opposed. We must limit its room to recently had dinner with President and morals’ and should not support move. However, as individual people, Joko Widodo. organisations promoting LGBT they must be protected like any other But such visible examples of activities. The public backlash against citizen’. ostensible acceptance should not this statement forced Nasir to declare A primary reason for the obscure the everyday prejudice and that ‘[w]e are not against LGBTs but subsequent national and international harassment that lesbian, gay, bisexual the activity … the problem is when media furore was that Nasir’s and transgender (LGBT) people they are showing romance, kissing, statement was misreported as a call face in Indonesia. This prejudice is and making love [in public]’. to ban all LGBT from universities often perpetrated through the very The worry for Nasir and others in Indonesia, rather than banning institutions established to protect was that LGBT would become visible university support for LGBT activities. citizens, such as the criminal justice in solidarity—no longer invisible The furore prompted other Indonesian

8 EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 politicians and religious leaders to about is that, if left untreated, such comments by other officials referring weigh in on the debate in increasingly sexual tendencies could become a to the importance of respecting sensational terms, perhaps because commonly accepted condition in individual, but not collective, LGBT they felt their homophobic views could society’. rights. be safely espoused or because they Indonesia’s broadcasting Such ambiguous attitudes have thought anti-LGBT statements would regulator banned the media from been on display before. In 2010 the win them support. portraying LGBT behaviour as extremist Islamic Defenders Front The conservative Islamic newspaper ‘normal’. Lawmakers supported such stormed an International Lesbian and Republika ran the headline ‘LGBT moves, declaring that the ban would Gay Asia Association conference, poses serious threat to nation’. The protect young people ‘susceptible to attended by 150 activists from 16 Muslim organisation Nahdlatul Ulama duplicating deviant LGBT behaviours’. Asian countries. A spokesman for the said homosexuality was against human Calls were made to mandate Front declared that ‘as long as you are nature and called for LGBT activities ‘rehabilitation for every person who mere individuals committing this sin to be banned. The secretary-general has LGBT characteristics’. The world’s we don’t really care. But as soon as you of the People’s Conscience Party, first Islamic school for transwomen, organise we will fight you’. which is included in President Joko which had recently been celebrated in Significantly, in early 2016 the Widodo’s governing coalition, said the international media, was suddenly LGBT community was not making that ‘being LGBT is an infectious and shut. demands about collective rights. dangerous disease. LGBT must be Anti-LGBT street protests occurred No widespread calls were made for banned, like we banned communism and pro-LGBT rights demonstrations LGBT to ‘come out’. In Indonesia an and drug trafficking’. And a former were suppressed by police. As some authentic self is not necessarily one communications minister suggested local police forces raided places where that is the same in all situations, and his one million Twitter followers kill LGBT individuals congregated, and shame works to keep LGBT largely gay people, an act that he claimed was communities became increasingly invisible, so that leading a life in the mandated by Islamic law. vocal in espousing anti-LGBT gay world and the straight world is LGBT people were framed as a rhetoric, many LGBT people protected often unproblematic. There was no call threat to national security, with senior themselves by staying home, changing for marriage equality despite such calls government ministers making claims their address, turning off their mobile being made in neighbouring countries, such as ‘LGBT issues can damage phones and ceasing to use social including recently China. national security, identity, culture and media. Still, conservative Indonesians the faith of Indonesians’. The LGBT It seems the controversy was were worried about a world where movement was framed as a ‘proxy spurred by anxiety over LGBT LGBT would take a place at the civil war’ funded by Western nations groups becoming visible in solidarity, society table, as was increasingly the determined to undermine Indonesian as suggested by Minister Nasir’s case elsewhere in the region. Even sovereignty and brainwash its citizens. insistence that he was not concerned Singapore had recently acknowledged UN funding was rejected precisely about individuals but rather by LGBT the economic value of attracting and on the basis that it would help to as a collective force, and by subsequent supporting LGBT foreign talent. eliminate discrimination against and While the ‘LGBT crisis’ was violence towards LGBT people. There was no call for fashioned at the same time as a Indonesia’s main psychiatric revision to anti-corruption law was association weighed in on the debate, marriage equality despite mooted, there was no guarantee that announcing in a written statement public debate would focus on the that homosexuality, bisexuality such calls being made in former in favour of the latter. That the and transgenderism were classified ‘LGBT crisis’ gained traction speaks as mental disorders. Prominent neighbouring countries to simmering anti-LGBT sentiment psychiatrists noted that ‘we need to in Indonesia. It is based on a fear of promote, prevent, cure and rehabilitate visible LGBT solidarity, a solidarity LGBT people’ and ‘we really do care that many in Indonesia consider about them. What we are worried directly threatens national stability.

EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 9 Broad social and political factors departure left a moral void. Voices also played their part in making the Punitive surveillance espousing punitive sexual surveillance panic so virulent. The presence of comforted those fearful of an significant pockets of support for and penalisation of imagined future sexual liberation. radical forms of Islam that denounce That the social, political and religious non-heteronormative genders and non-marital sexuality has precursors to the 2016 ‘LGBT sexualities meant that intolerant crisis’ date to the time immediately statements made by Muslim disastrous consequences after Suharto’s downfall seems no organisations and religious scholars coincidence. As well, post-September were often well received. A toxic level for all citizens 11 discourse vilified Islam and drove of intolerance for diversity is shown some disaffected Muslims towards an in the fact that an Islamic leader and extremist ideology that penalises non- former cabinet minister was not marital sexuality. The conservative officially reprimanded for exhorting non-marital heterosexuality as turn in Indonesian politics predates his Twitter followers to kill LGBT potentially destabilising and thus the fall of Suharto and September 11, people. something to be controlled through but these two events mark watersheds The suggestion that LGBT groups force. Control of sexuality is, of in anti-LGBT sentiment. were being supported by foreign course, not new. But in Indonesia The regulation of sexuality between powers in efforts to undermine the government has never previously Suharto’s demise and 2016 was Indonesian security was exacerbated. directed policy against LGBT people almost solely focused on non-marital While there are long-standing in particular. My research suggests heterosexuality. For instance, an fears within Indonesia of outside that while private extra-marital analysis in 2014 of documents on the interference and foreign cultural heterosexuality is punitively policed, website of the Islamic Defenders Front influence that predate the LGBT crisis, private individual homosexuality has vigilante group revealed numerous the idea of Western encroachment often escaped popular surveillance. articles and postings about the evils was again triggered in the wake of Now this is increasingly not the case. of promiscuity. By contrast, I could revelations that Australia had spied When President Suharto resigned only find four mentions of the evils of on Indonesia, and by Indonesia’s amid social upheaval in 1998, he left homosexuality. execution of Australian drug citizens both excited about a future The first political move in terms smugglers. that promised democratic freedom of sexual regulation was the passing Adding to this, ongoing poverty and worried about who would oversee of the Anti-Pornography and and rising inequality mean that LGBT their moral welfare. Suharto had Pornographic Acts Law in 2008. people often become targets for more positioned himself as father of an Among other things, the law paved general frustrations. Rising inequality explicitly heteronormative nation the way for individuals appearing in adversely impacts citizens on all levels and guardian of citizens’ morality. sex films to be prosecuted. The most of the socio-economic ladder resulting Overt controls exerted by Suharto’s famous case involved rock star Ariel in widely expressed anti-LGBT New Order regime left no need to and his girlfriend. The judge expressed sentiment. And high social media impose specific policies aimed at concern that people would copy Ariel’s uptake in Indonesia ensures that regulating homosexuality—the threat behaviour and while Ariel argued that hashtags such as #rejectlgbt and online to national stability was primarily consenting private activities should expressions of outrage over issues considered to come from non- not be the subject of law, the judge as small as same-sex emojis receive marital heterosexuality. Of course, disagreed and sentenced Ariel to widespread exposure. there were regulations regarding the prison. Underlying these factors is a former—including a heavily censored Red light districts have been fundamental state ideology of media requiring audiences of LGBT- regularly raided and demolished in heteronormativity—described as themed films to imagine their own attempts to eliminate prostitution. ‘state straightism’ by the American queer endings—but never specific Both sex workers and clients have been anthropologist Tom Boellstorff—that homophobic policies. arrested. Even policewomen are not considers any expression of For many Indonesians Suharto’s immune to sexual surveillance: during

10 EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 women and islam recruitment, female candidates must be willing to undergo a two-finger Religion, gender ‘virginity test’. The police response to a 2014 Human Rights Watch report denouncing the test was summed and the state up by a senior officer’s rhetorical question: ‘Do you want prostitutes joining the police force?’ in Indonesia The 2016 ‘LGBT crisis’, though, is the first time in Indonesia’s history that LGBT people have been systematically Kathryn Robinson greater protection in matters of targeted through proposed policy divorce and polygyny. Efforts to changes. The crisis stems from ELIGIOUS identity and standardise Islamic laws in 1997 fear that any non-marital sexuality R gender relations are integral to further strengthened some customary can challenge the heteronormative women’s experiences of citizenship in rights, including women’s common foundation of Indonesian nationhood. Indonesia. While around 88 per cent property rights on divorce. Punitive surveillance and of Indonesia’s population is Muslim, But these successes cannot be penalisation of non-marital sexuality it is emphatically not an Islamic taken for granted. In the democratised has disastrous consequences for all state, in which state law and Islamic political space that opened up after citizens. Beyond the violation of law are coterminous. So what is the the fall of Suharto in 1998, women individual rights to sexual freedom, relationship of religion to citizenship activists argued for a revision of the if people are afraid to access sexual rights for women in the Muslim 1974 marriage law to ban polygamy health care, do not report sexual majority? and further limit men’s prerogatives in crime, and are too ashamed to discuss Religious prescriptions affect divorce. At the same time, some men sexuality, broader society is negatively women’s rights, most notably in the (together with women supporters) impacted. For instance, Linda Bennett area of marriage law and rights within took advantage of the freer political of the University of Melbourne the family. In the Dutch colonial climate to unsuccessfully campaign for has revealed how male doctors in period, family law was largely left to the restoration of rights to polygyny, Indonesia are too embarrassed to say Islamic authorities. But during its which many argued was a religious the word ‘vagina’—let alone examine slow spread through the archipelago, entitlement. one—leaving women seeking IVF Islamic law accommodated itself to the Individuals and groups identifying treatment to endure infertility because existing practices there, particularly as Islamic feminists have championed of an undiagnosed STI. in regard to polygyny and property women’s marriage rights and revision The 2016 ‘LGBT crisis’ can be read rights: the former was unpalatable of the law. They argue that the as an extension of the surveillance and in much of the archipelago, and Qur’an fundamentally supports a control of all non-marital sexualities indigenous customs commonly society of equality. But the opening to Indonesia’s LGBT community— recognised women’s inheritance and up of democratic space also created control exerted by those vying for other property rights. room for anti-liberal Islamic groups, power in a decentralised and volatile Activist women in the nationalist called keras (hard), whose view of state. Sexual equality, like equality in movement successfully pressed for Islam encompasses the expression of general, results in a better world for all pro-women government regulations in masculine prerogative. and is a most worthy fight. EAFQ regard to Islamic marriage, especially In 2008, noisy street polygyny, child marriage and divorce demonstrations by (usually male) Sharyn Graham Davies is Associate by repudiation. Women’s activism supporters of groups like the Islamic Professor at the School of Social continued in post-independence Defender’s Front effectively pressured Sciences and Public Policy, Auckland Indonesia and by 1974 they achieved the national legislature to pass a so- University of Technology. Her research some of their goals with the passage called ‘anti-pornography’ law, which focuses on gender and sexuality in the of a national marriage law. It set a largely targeted women who failed to Indonesian archipelago. minimum marriage age and gave meet dress standards or engaged in

EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 11 proscribed ‘pornographic’ actions in more than 20 per cent female public. ‘Hard’ Islamic groups argued Indonesian women from representation in the 2014 elections, that restrictions on women’s dress and one was the Islamic party PKB, which behaviour were expressions of Islamic all religious backgrounds is closely associated with Indonesia’s orthodoxy. largest Islamic organisation, the Champions of women’s rights have been active in moderate Nahdlatul Ulama (NU). The opposed the bill on the grounds that other two were secular nationalist it was largely an attempt to restrict politics at local and parties. PKB’s success in getting women’s freedom of movement. It women into parliament reflects the was also strongly opposed by non- national levels large number of women in NU- Muslims in Bali and Papua who affiliated mass organisations. argued for the rights of women to bare Many of the diverse communities breasts in public as a historic cultural of the archipelago have had notably norm. While the law has largely lain tolerant attitudes to individuals who dormant since its passage, it has been a are outside the constraints of a gender lightning rod for opposition by women Java, factory shift workers have been binary, from transgender entertainers who regard it as emblematic of official harassed and accused of ‘immoral’ to priests of customary religions. Yet attempts to limit women’s freedom in acts when returning home from work. in recent years Indonesia’s tolerance is the name of Islam. Significantly, not all the politicians showing some cracks. Islamic rhetoric accompanied championing these anti-woman Visiting Muslim lesbian feminist another limitation of women’s rights regulations represent Islamic parties. author Irshad Manji, for example, was as citizens in the post-Suharto period, Rather, the rules seem to be a product subject to attacks by radical Islamic this time linked to the ‘big bang’ of populist strategies that use an groups in 2012. In recent months there decentralisation of political authority Islamic idiom to court male voters have been increased levels of violence to local government. Many newly with promises to sustain masculine against LGBTI individuals, commonly empowered districts enacted local prerogatives by controlling women. justified in the name of Islamic bylaws purportedly based on sharia While there have been some orthodoxy. law. These local regulations mainly attempts to use religion to limit The reactionary groups that seek to targeted women: curfews, restrictions women’s participation in politics, restrict the rights of women and deny on their movement in public, dress Indonesian women from all religious those of LGBTI individuals are seen codes (especially the requirement backgrounds have been active in by many Indonesians as expressing to wear the jilbab or tight veil) and politics at local and national levels. a foreign, ‘Arab-influenced’ variety recently in Aceh a ban on women Laws requiring gender quotas for of Islam which deviates from what sitting astride motorcycles. In 2015, political parties’ parliamentary the prominent Indonesian scholar Human Rights Watch reported that candidates were enacted in 2008, Azyumadi Azra has called Indonesia’s 279 local regulations discriminated and currently 17.5 per cent of seats ‘colourful’—and tolerant—religious against women, 90 of them requiring in the national parliament are held traditions. Despite radicals’ rejection women to wear the jilbab. In some by women. Women’s involvement of what they condemn as alien cases this requirement has been in public life also shows that Islam ‘Western’ ideas about sexuality and imposed on Christian women. cannot be singled out as being hostile gender, it is perhaps these open- Women, including Islamic to women’s rights. It is predominantly minded religious traditions that are feminist activists, have contested Hindu Bali that has the lowest levels still most at home in Indonesia. EAFQ these regulations—and they are also of women’s political participation. In frequently ignored. However, they spite of the 2008 quota, Bali is one Kathryn Robinson is Emeritus have licensed vigilante acts by radical of three provinces where women are Professor at the School of Culture, groups and arbitrary enforcement by not eligible to vote in the influential History and Language, The Australian local government agencies against neighbourhood-level political units National University, and author of women appearing in public without known as banjar. Gender, Islam and Democracy in the veil or after curfew. In West Of the three parties that achieved Indonesia (Taylor & Francis, 2009).

12 EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 LAW IN CHINA picture: greg baker / ap photo / aapi

Stop! This billboard on a Beijing street was part of a national campaign to end domestic violence, but legal provisions have to overcome cultural norms. Domestic violence: why legal change alone is not enough

Chen Tingting women’s moral responsibilities and to uphold justice. domestic violence itself. In China, domestic violence cases HINA’S first national law against The new law’s immediate effect are processed under the principle C domestic violence came into was seen in a wave of media coverage of ‘no trial without complaint’. The effect on 1 March 2016. The law spotlighting domestic violence cases, new law allows close relatives to file marks a significant step forward from including the deaths of two women a complaint on behalf of victims who the country’s existing legislation by around the time it came into force. A may not be able to do so on their legally defining domestic violence consistent thread in these women’s own. This would then allow police and extending legal protection to stories was an inability to leave the or women’s federations to request victims. Yet a fundamental cure for the abusive relationships or to disclose restraining orders from the courts. epidemic of domestic abuse—which their suffering. A victim’s decision not Public education surrounding the disproportionately affects women— to make a complaint to the police— law should equip citizens not only requires further efforts to change willingly or unwillingly—can easily with the knowledge of how to help persisting misperceptions about undermine the ability of the new law themselves, but also of how to assist

EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 13 domestic violence survivors around always determined by relative financial Xiaoyan’s neighbours and co-workers them to seek justice. But would security. Perhaps more fundamentally, didn’t intervene when they saw her citizens really stand up and provide these power dynamics are often with bruises or a broken leg, or this assistance, even if they were better based on gender norms. Contrary even when they witnessed the abuse educated about the law? to the popular myth that victims happening. The same media that In China, defending marriage is of domestic violence are usually publicises the new anti-domestic- typically considered a primary moral financially dependent or less educated, violence law also offers tips to women responsibility for women. The shame many women who are university- on changing themselves in order of failing to do so has confined many educated and even providers for to ‘win back’ their husbands, and victims in abusive relationships and their households are also victims of romanticises the ‘love’ between self- constrained people around them from domestic violence. centred, dictatorial men and their offering appropriate help. Despite the Violence can occur when traditional ‘princesses’. rising divorce rate, Chinese women masculine authority is challenged. The importance of family integrity is still face enormous pressure to get Zhang Xiaoyan, a 34-year-old female further reinforced by modern political married and stay married. Many doctor, was abused for years and discourse in China, which defines victims are told to bear the pain of died of poisoning in March, allegedly social stability as the foundation of domestic violence, which is often murdered by her former husband. governance and development. The confused with lovers’ quarrels and Zhang owned a clinic and a pharmacy, family, which is based on a marriage normalised by the claim that ‘most and was the only breadwinner for contract between a man and a woman women have endured it’. Victims are the family. Even after they divorced, as defined by Chinese law, is seen usually advised not to divorce for the her ex-husband continued to control as the fundamental institution of sake of the family’s reputation and her, preventing her from moving out society. It’s no surprise, then, that their children’s wellbeing, due to the by threatening her daughter and her preventative measures and other pervasive belief that children need to parents. responses to domestic violence, in grow up in a ‘complete’ family. It would surprise many modern all but the most extreme cases, are Two months before her death, and independent Chinese women how generally constructed for the ultimate 25-year-old Li Hongxia posted on deeply rooted regressive perceptions goal of fixing the marital relationship, social media that she felt her life was on domestic violence are in certain rather than defending the rights of the in danger from her husband. Most segments of Chinese society. Zhang abused. Mediation is still the primary of her friends, and her own mother, method used to resolve domestic discouraged her from seeking a It’s no surprise that violence cases. divorce. She was soon hospitalised The new law—a result of almost after another abusive attack and was preventative measures two decades of campaigning driven then strangled to death by her husband by China’s civil society groups— at the hospital. and other responses to is a manifestation of the state’s Common misperceptions about the commitment to addressing domestic nature of domestic violence also create domestic violence . . . violence. But it will take a more challenges for effective intervention. insightful public education campaign, Violence is often ascribed to women’s are generally constructed and a firm commitment to upholding misbehaviour or rebellion from their human rights, to transform the ‘proper’ gendered roles. The reality for the ultimate goal underlying mindset that currently is that domestic violence is about constrains further progress. Until unequal power relations between of fixing the marital then, the path to ending domestic partners and the abuser’s control over violence will be a long one for China, the victim, rather than any wrongdoing relationship as elsewhere. EAFQ on the victim’s part. Yet this goes generally unrecognised in China. Chen Tingting is The Asia Foundation’s Unequal power dynamics between program officer for women’s the abuser and the abused are not empowerment in China.

14 EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 asian review: improving the system

picture: STR / EPA / AAP

Bharatiya Janata Party supporters celebrate in the streets of Guwahati after their party won a majority in the Assam Assembly in May 2016. Making federalism work for India

M. Govinda Rao emotional terms, federalism provides evolved considerably over the past a national bond while permitting 69 years and now holds the country N ECONOMIC terms, the federal multiple local identities to be retained. together, providing identity and I system was created with the For a country such as India— scope to various religious, ethnic intention of maximising economies inhabited by over 1.2 billion people and linguistic groups as well as a of scale, while still providing public with wide social, ethnic, religious, reasonably flexible institutional services to cater to people’s divergent linguistic and economic diversities— framework for multilevel governance. preferences. But there is more to federalism is not an option but But the system has not worked for federalism than just the economics. an imperative. But, for India, full everyone. There remains a great deal In political terms, federalism involves realisation of the advantages of of scope for improvement. Developing building a strong national polity by federalism depends on the extent to the country and improving the combining sub-national entities, and which its various players can cooperate wellbeing of its people can only be by providing an adequate political and combine within the federal achieved within a strong institutional space for them to exist within a system. framework that combines the broader national polity. And in Fiscal federalism in India has advantages of a free market economy

EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 15 ASIAN REVIEW: improving the system with those of competitive regional of scale. But the necessary level governments. India must put in place of cooperation is not currently The 40 years after independence present in India. As with taxes, were marked by restrictions on a mechanism to ensure India’s constitution assigns separate the market as well as sub-national expenditure functions to the union, governments. Resource allocation a greater degree state and concurrent governments. was dictated by national priorities and This results in significant overlap centralised planning restricted the of cooperation and between concurrent sectors, such as role of the subnational governments. energy, environment and education. It was not until 1991 that the Indian coordination between the Instead, India must put in place a government realised that planned mechanism to ensure a greater degree development strategies undermined union and states of cooperation and coordination the roles of the market and sub- between the union and states, while national governments in accelerating still promoting healthy competition. growth, reducing poverty and ensuring One example where such human development. cooperative federalism is particularly Although India’s growth rate has government. This makes the levy of lacking is anti-poverty measures. steadily accelerated—from an average comprehensive income tax extremely Much of the funding for anti-poverty of 3.5 per cent during the first 40 years difficult and has opened up a major interventions has to be defrayed by of independence to 7.5 per cent since avenue for tax evasion. the central government, but these 2001—there is a growing awareness The proposed comprehensive goods programs are then implemented at a that this is still far below India’s and services tax (GST) faces similar subnational level. growth potential. Possible reasons for problems. The GST has become The union’s role is also often this include the difficulties in building difficult to implement because states uncoordinated as it must cover some consensus on reforms in a democratic that have the power to levy sales taxes costs to ensure minimum standards polity and the ability of special interest on goods cannot also levy taxes on are met, regardless of whether the groups to impede reform. services. The union has the power to public services in question fall within But a more important reason levy excise duty on all manufactured the union category of spending or for India’s underwhelming products—which is actually a sales not. Even where the union is legally growth performance is the lack of tax at the first point of sale—but responsible, different local conditions coordination between its seven union cannot extend the tax to subsequent mean that it is sometimes necessary to territories and 29 states in carrying out stages. While there have been serious use the states to deliver services. reforms. attempts to levy the GST at both Another area in which the union In the Indian constitution, the union and state levels for about a and states have to work together is in Seventh Schedule assigns functional decade, the exercise has been mired ensuring healthy intergovernmental responsibilities to Central and State in political gamesmanship and lacks competition. US economist Wallace governments in terms of ‘union’, ‘state’ the political consensus required for a Oates called this ‘laboratory and ‘concurrent’ or joint subjects. constitutional amendment. Hopefully, federalism’. Ensuring a measure of Taxes are then assigned according the current session of parliament can competitive equality among the to whether the union—that is, the reach an agreement and pave the way jurisdictions and avoiding predatory central government—or the states for reforms that will raise revenue competition through effective have jurisdiction. But this separation productivity and promote export regulation is critical to reaping only exists in the legal sense and competitiveness. the gains from intergovernmental there is considerable overlap in the When it comes to expenditure, a competition. Therefore, there must tax bases. For example, taxes on considerable degree of cooperation be a clear mechanism to ensure agricultural incomes and wealth are is necessary to enable both the union coordination, promote cooperation assigned to the states, whereas taxes and states to provide diversified and activate healthy competition on non-agricultural incomes and public services while reaping the cost among the states. wealth can only be levied by the union advantages arising from economies In general, the asymmetry between

16 EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 ASIAN REVIEW: improving the system tax powers and expenditure functions have then been generally accepted and ensure minimum standards for public is a feature seen in all federations. implemented. services for all citizens irrespective of General purpose transfers by way of But questions have been raised their place of residence. The existing tax devolution or block grants enable on the design of general purpose centrally sponsored schemes face the states to provide comparable levels transfers as they do not fully offset several difficulties in terms of number of public services at comparable tax the states’ fiscal disabilities and they of services chosen for equalisation, rates. It is also important to ensure create adverse incentives on tax effort their one-size-fits-all design, and those public services that are subject and expenditure. The 14th Finance the inability of many of the states to to nation-wide externalities meet Commission has attempted to meet match union contributions. Transfers minimum quality standards. This can these challenges by increasing the tax to a large number of schemes further be achieved through specific purpose devolution to the states from 32 per results in a thin spread of resources. transfers. cent of the divisible pool to 42 per After assuming power, the In India, the constitution provides cent. This means consolidating all National Democratic Alliance (NDA) for tax devolution and block grants general purpose transfers including government appointed a committee from the union to the states based on those given by the old Planning under the Chief Minister of Madhya the recommendation of the Finance Commission. Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Commission, a constitutional body The major problem is in the to rationalise the various transfer appointed by the president every five disbursement of specific-purpose schemes. But even after consolidation, years. So far, 14 Finance Commissions transfers. These are given by various there are more than 30 schemes with have made recommendations, which central ministries ostensibly to uniform matching contributions of 40

The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, waves to supporters during an election rally in Bhopal in November 2013. He won comfortably. PICTURE: SANJEEV GUPTA / epa / aap

EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 17 asian review: improving the system

PICTURE: RAJANISH KAKADE / AP PHOTO / AAP per cent of the cost required from the one based on a cabinet resolution. states. With such a large number of Hopefully, with time, the Inter-State available schemes, it is impossible to Council will be merged with NITI link a tangible outcome to a specific Aayog to become an independent transfer. These schemes seem to constitutional body. If so, it can then serve a political purpose rather than undertake the important tasks of ensuring minimum standards. promoting trust and cooperation The most important requirement between the union and the states, for the successful working of regulating intergovernmental a federation is an institutional competition to avoid predatory mechanism for intergovernmental competition and promoting coordination, bargaining and harmonious development in the conflict resolution. In India, such country. a mechanism is necessary to foster One of the most significant failings a spirit of trust and cooperation of Indian federalism is the lack of between the union and the states, effective decentralisation below the enable intergovernmental bargaining, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose government state level. Some of India’s states resolve conflicts and regulate has created the National Institute for Transforming are larger than many countries. intergovernmental competition. India to replace the Planning Commission. Decentralisation is, therefore, essential At present, no such institution to ensure effective delivery of public exists. This has resulted in little neutral referee, the NDC became a services that respond to people’s coordination or conflict resolution, speech making body and its meetings diversified requirements. While and a multitude of ad-hoc a forum for voicing opinions and decentralisation is extremely popular arrangements. Yet with the end of grievances. With the abolition of the among most Indian states this is only single party rule in both the union Planning Commission, the NDC too true up to a point. For instance, despite and states, alongside the emergence has seen its last meeting. amendments to the constitution to of coalition governments at the union In 2015, the Modi government devolve powers to urban and rural level, a formal institutional mechanism replaced the abolished Planning local governments, most states have has never been more necessary to Commission with the National failed to do so. minimise the transaction costs of Institute for Transforming India (NITI Making federalism work for multilevel decision-making. Aayog). One of its mandates is to India requires substantial reform The Indian government has tried promote cooperative federalism and of federal institutions and a general to address this institutional failing enable healthy intergovernmental decentralisation of policy. But, more by setting up the Inter-State Council competition. It is important that importantly, federalism also requires under the provisions of Article 263 of NITI Aayog should be upgraded to the harmonious participation of the constitution. Yet instead of setting a constitutional body rather than diverse groups. Without this, nation- up an independent neutral institution, wide product and factor markets the government constituted the Inter- Decentralisation is . . . cannot operate smoothly. Similarly, for State Council under the Union Home optimal efficiency in service delivery Ministry. essential to ensure and accountability, it is important to Similarly, the National Development foster the spirit of cooperation and Council (NDC) was constituted effective delivery of public intergovernmental competition. EAFQ in 1950 to facilitate collaborative planning exercises. It comprises services that respond to M. Govinda Rao is Emeritus members of the union cabinet, the Professor, National Institute for Public deputy chairman and members of the people’s requirements Finance and Policy, New Delhi, Senior Planning Commission, and the chief Adviser, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu ministers of the states. Rather than India, and Chief Economic Adviser, being a cementing institution and a Brickwork Ratings.

18 EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 asian review: CHANGING SECURITY ARCHITECTURE

PICTURE: EVAN VUCCI / AP PHOTO / AAP

US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping: on the economic order, it is not hard to imagine an accommodation of US and Chinese interests. What might a new Asian order look like?

Robert A. Manning and primacy in Asia is Chinese primacy’. The Asian Infrastructure Investment James J. Przystup Instead, Asian leaders need to think Bank, which some feared Beijing creatively as ‘there are many other would push as an alternative to the N NUMEROUS essays, Hugh possible foundations for a new Asian Bretton Woods system, appears to be I White has argued that the US-led order, which would serve the interests on a trajectory to define its structure, Asia Pacific order, which he rightly of all of us, including the United States governance and transparency as being views as a source of peace and growing and China’. compatible with the World Bank and prosperity over the past 70 years, is Perhaps. On the economic order, Asian Development Bank (with which increasingly outmoded. As daily events it is not difficult to envision an it is already pursuing co-financing). in the South China Sea attest, the accommodation of US and Chinese Clearly the ‘win–win’ vision of an current order is increasingly contested. interests. China has worked within integrated, inclusive Asia Pacific White fears an Asia caught in the the WTO system. The Trans-Pacific economic order is feasible, if not middle of a dangerous US–China Partnership and the Regional already taking shape. rivalry that could spark conflict Comprehensive Economic Partnership But even as regional economic between the two nuclear powers. are not incompatible and over time integration continues apace, the White argues that ‘It is too easy to hold the prospect for integration. security environment is marked assume that the only alternative to US China is not challenging the IMF. by increasing defence budgets,

EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 19 asian review: changing security architecture confrontation and rising nationalistic territorial disputes. It is here that US The hope that China’s economic opening, reform and and Chinese competing visions of regional order are sharply defined, integration into the global economy could bring with no resolution in sight. The hope that China’s economic about domestic political liberalisation and constrain opening, reform and integration into the global economy could bring China’s international behaviour has not fared well. about domestic political liberalisation and constrain China’s international behaviour has not fared well. No one has yet offered a viable middle ground building and enhanced maritime the global financial crisis has sparked between the current US-centric domain awareness, joint training, a bandwagon effect among Asian architecture and Xi Jinping’s call for a exercising and port calls. countries towards the United States new security architecture of ‘Asia for Earlier this year a Japanese and each other. Take, for example, the Asians’. submarine made port calls in the behaviour of then foreign minister As for the region’s present Philippines and Vietnam, which Yang Jiechi at the ASEAN Regional security architecture, what we are would have been unimaginable even Forum in Hanoi in 2010, after then witnessing is an evolution from the five years ago. And US port calls are secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s Cold War ‘hub and spokes’ model to coming soon to Palawan and Subic Bay offer of US assistance to resolve South a more open architecture, fostering in the Philippines and Cam Ranh Bay China Sea disputes. After his walkout security cooperation between with in Vietnam. Yang returned and reminded the US allies and partners as well as So why is this happening? China’s Southeast Asian nations that ‘China is between them. There is increased assertive nationalist behaviour since big. You’re small. That’s a fact.’ cooperation bilaterally between Japan There is a growing recognition PICTURE: MIKHAIL METZEL / AP PHOTO / AAP and Australia, and Japan and the that, when China pushes against US Philippines, trilaterally between the and Asian interests, the latter will US–Japan–Australia and US–Japan– push back. This first played out in South Korea, as well as quadrilaterally the East China Sea between 2010 between the US Japan, Australia and and 2013. Chinese diplomats and India. analysts questioned US willingness At the same time, the United to support Japan in the event of a States has developed comprehensive conflict in the disputed Senkaku/ partnerships with Indonesia, Diaoyu Islands. President Obama, Malaysia and Vietnam, new basing in Tokyo in April 2014, made it clear arrangements in the Philippines and a that Article V of the security treaty strategic partnership with Singapore. between Japan and the United States This meshes nicely with the extends to the islands. The new 2015 evolving intra-Asian security Defense Guidelines speak of ‘seamless’ partnerships. Japan and Australia defence cooperation from peacetime have developed comprehensive and to contingencies. strategic partnerships with Malaysia, Meanwhile, tensions are building in Singapore and Vietnam. India is the South China Sea, now the locus of installing data tracking capabilities contesting approaches to global rules in Vietnam. Within the partnership and norms. This will continue as China construct, the United States, Japan and continues to build ports, airstrips Australia are working with countries Former Chinese foreign minister Yang Jiechi, who and install military hardware in areas bordering the South China Sea on told delegates at the the ASEAN Regional Forum in within its claimed nine-dash line. initiatives aimed at maritime capacity 2010: ‘China is big. You’re small. That’s a fact’. And the United States is just as firmly

20 EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 asian review: changing security architecture

picture: Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Jake Greenberg / US NAVY PHOTO

Emma Rolwes, from Marshalltown, Iowa, stands lookout watch aboard the US aircraft carrier John C. Stennis in the South China Sea in May 2016. The United States remains ‘firmly committed to the principle of freedom of navigation’, as its continuing activities in the region demonstrate. committed to the principle of freedom mindset. Only when Seoul moved that they’re not interested in going of navigation, as demonstrated toward US deployment of its Terminal back to the future. by its growing maritime freedom High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) White’s call is for creative of navigation exercises. Chinese anti-ballistic missile system did Beijing alternatives to the current order. So threats to build new structures on respond. what are these alternatives? Let’s Scarborough Shoal, which it seized When Seoul sought to defend itself start with a 21st century Treaty of from Manila in 2012, may test the US: from a China-enabled North Korea, Tordesillas. This would divide the Will Obama, as he did in regard to the China’s ambassador in Seoul warned Pacific between the United States Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands, declare that of ominous consequences if THAAD and China. But where do you draw the US–Philippines defence treaty were deployed in the South Korea. the line? Would it be an east–west extends to the disputed territory? And The message, as interpreted by an division, or would it run northeast if not, how will Asia perceive that? indignant Seoul, was that South Korea to southwest? Who would get what? Beijing’s failure to return phone should prioritise Chinese security Does a democratic South Korea wind calls from Hanoi, when Vietnam concerns over their own. up under Chinese suzerainty? Would demanded China withdraw an oil What’s been driving the evolution Taiwan be the price for regional rig from disputed waters, or from of the region’s security architecture stability? President Park in Seoul, after North is a combination of China’s efforts to The ‘Congress of Vienna’ option, Korea’s missile and nuclear tests, are reverse 160 years of humiliation and which would formalise a concert of two recent examples of China’s defence demand signals from the region powers, presents similar problems.

EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 21 asian review: changing security architecture

Can the United States, China, Japan, Russia and South Korea agree on The reality is that the existing alliance structure has a status quo? Are we to expect a resolution of the Taiwan issue and provided the region with security for nearly 70 years. Korean unification? This is doubtful. And where do the lesser actors, like Australia and ASEAN fit in? Do they simply trust the great powers to get it Eastern Europe. How would the region the question: what is an acceptable right? respond? The likely consequences are a US role in the region? Until disputes Another potential order is based on nuclear North Korea, a nuclear South over Taiwan, the Korean peninsula the Organization for Security and Co- Korea and a nuclear Japan. Not exactly and the South China Sea are resolved, operation in Europe (OCSE), but for a sphere of stability. perhaps the best that can be attained the Asia Pacific region. For US allies, None of the above models are is a framework for strategic stability this could be a leap of faith, trading particularly appealing for the United between the United States and China. alliance-based security for something States or Asia, and it is difficult to In the meantime, to paraphrase toothless. In Europe, OSCE has been a envision a collective security model Winston Churchill: the existing useful adjunct to NATO for purposes including both the United States and security system is the worst possible like monitoring elections or observing China. The reality is that the existing system—except for all the others. ceasefires. But it lacks any real alliance structure has provided the EAFQ enforcement power. Will this option be region with security for nearly 70 able to resolve South China Sea issues? years. It is proving flexible, adapting Robert A. Manning is a Senior When push comes to shove, where are to meet the challenges posed by an Fellow of the Brent Scowcroft Center for the sinews of security? assertive China. International Security at the Atlantic Finally we have the ‘sphere of White has a point in that no one has Council and its Strategic Foresight influence’ model. Imagine that offered a viable answer to the question: Initiative. His Twitter handle is under President Trump, the United for the US, what is an acceptable @RManning4. States issues a proclamation ending Chinese role in an Asia Pacific James J. Przystup is a Senior Fellow all entangling alliances. The United security architecture? Given that the at the National Defense University States gets the western hemisphere, US also has vital strategic interests Institute for National Security Studies China gets Asia and Russia gets in East Asia, China needs to answer (INSS).

Where international specialists analyse the forces that shape the world’s most dynamic region. Join the conversation.

22 EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 gendered crime picture: shuji kajiyama / ap photo / Aap

Part of a private collection of anime-faced dolls in Tokyo. A 2005 survey found that a third of male students had seen pornographic manga before the age of 12. East Asia’s pornography trade and abuse of human rights

Caroline Norma leaders to admit legal liability or pay slavery. Pornographic products reparation to victims makes military produced in Japan and exported HE history of the Japanese prostitution a continuing backdrop to to countries in the region today T military’s wartime sexual the diplomatic relations of East Asia. constitute a continuing statement enslavement of women still plays The refusal to admit to sexual of the sexual ‘standards and culture’ on the mind of East Asia. Japanese abuse in the past is also mirrored in maintained by some Japanese men, leaders make it hard to forget. Most an ongoing inability to recognise and and supported by many other male recently, deputy foreign minister confront troubling sexual norms and populations in the region. Shinsuke Sugiyama told the United present-day sexual abuse. As Japanese Japan’s pornography industry Nations Committee on the Elimination historian Hajime Imanishi says, ‘The emerged in the 1960s. It now releases of Discrimination Against Women sexual standards and culture that over 20,000 pornographic films a that his government knew of no envelop [Japan] developed over the year, with an annual turnover of documents confirming the forcible course of history’. US$2–4 billion. It is an industry the wartime recruitment of so-called East Asians continue to be Tokyo-based NGO Human Rights ‘comfort women’. The refusal of Japan’s reminded of the history of sexual Now describes as ‘almost wholly

EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 23 unregulated’. It cultivates a domestic just military development of so-called operating environment geared to its The violation, torture and ‘comfort stations’ during wartime, but commercial activities, with ‘junior idol’, also pre-war civilian development of ‘modelling’ and chakuero (non-nude degradation of Japanese legalised brothel districts. sexualised film) businesses grooming The capacity of pornography to local young women for recruitment. women and girls that is exert transnational cultural influence The industry exerts significant was first noted in 2006 by feminist influence on mainstream Japanese transmitted to East Asia theorist Catharine MacKinnon, in society and culture, including among relation to US-produced pornography: children. For example, a 2005 survey via pornography exports ‘the international pornography traffic of 10,000 high school students by means that American women are Asahi Shimbun found that one-third of set a standard for sexual violated and tortured and exploited male students had seen pornographic through its use … [and, as a result,] manga pictures before the age of 12 mores in the region misogyny American style colonizes and nearly 20 per cent had seen a the world … [q]ualities characteristic pornographic film. Similar figures for of but not unique to the United the age group were not recorded in States—including common and casual Australia until 2013, well after that who violate the human rights of sexual violence and racism … [are population had access to the internet. local Japanese women and girls, as now, through pornography] promoted Today, Jake Adelstein and Angela documented by Tokyo-based groups throughout the world as sex’. Erika Kubo see Japanese society as like the Anti-Pornography and In 2011 Laura Miller noted that the exercising ‘surprising tolerance for Prostitution Research Group, People Japanese government’s ‘Cool Japan’ sexual exploitation of young children Against Pornography and Sexual international marketing campaign as entertainment’ and, as a result, Violence, Lighthouse and Human drew on misogynistic themes. ‘When ‘Japanese “entrepreneurs” at home and Rights Now. This documentation I see the MOFA’s [Ministry of Foreign abroad are … major producers of child includes the almost unreadable Affairs] version of girls and popular pornography in the world market’. accounts that emerged in the criminal culture’, wrote Miller, ‘as well as much Within this world market, the prosecution of employees of one of Cool Japan as advocated by global countries of East Asia are particular pornographic studio, Bakkii Visual otaku, I cannot quite escape the export targets. International relations Planning in 2007. In this case a feeling that I endured a stroll through scholar Hiro Katsumata writes that number of men were charged with a Kabukicho corridor [Tokyo’s largest ‘the spread of Japanese cultural seriously injuring women in the red-light district] where numerous products can be considered an “East making of pornography. But even the touts beckon one into an array of Asian” phenomenon’. These products survivors of the bulk of pornography sleazy clubs and bars’. include those of the sex industry, production that does not reach Japan’s But more than a sexualised image which are produced by pornographers courts report serious violations of of Japan is being exported abroad. So health and safety, sexual abuse and too is documented evidence of sexual forced participation in harmful sexual abuse of the country’s women and EASTASIAFORUM activities. These abovementioned children in the form of pornography. Quarterly groups now coordinate legal and This trade has a long history. By the In our next issue . . . welfare services for victims fleeing early 1980s, the Japanese publishing pornographers who use extortion and industry was exporting pornographic violence to keep them in the industry. products to its East Asian neighbours. Products produced on the basis of Japanese pornography found its way Reinventing these kinds of human rights abuses are to Taiwan in the mid-1980s, when exported to the countries of East Asia illegal cable TV operators broadcast Japan that were subject to the prostitution manipulated Japanese adult videos. In entrepreneurship of Japanese men. South Korea, in 1980, 28,000 offensive, This entrepreneurship included not violent or obscene comic books from

24 EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 Japan were confiscated by authorities. are ‘imported from overseas, through different means. By all accounts, Japanese primarily from Japan’. Knowledgeable commentators pornography continues to flow into On the Chinese mainland, around the world now condemn Taiwan. In 2013, Taiwan’s supreme authorities mostly interdict the the historical wartime military court refused to grant leave to a internet transmission of pornography prostitution system as an institution Japanese pornographer to pursue into the country, so pornography of female sexual slavery, but the copyright claims over piracy activities imported from Japan is not found contemporary activities of Japanese by local Taiwanese pornography there in large volume. Yet there is pornographers are yet to be similarly distributors, in spite of lost earnings evidence of disk-based Japanese judged. While Japanese pornographers for the company reaching an estimated products being illegally smuggled into are pimping their countrywomen 1 billion Taiwanese dollars (over China via Hong Kong. to the men of East Asia in this way, US$30 million). South Korean society, The violation, torture and their home-grown pornography acts to a lesser extent, now faces the same degradation of Japanese women and as an enticement to transnational influx of pornographic material girls that is transmitted to East Asia fraternal complicity in sexual abuse, after import bans on Japanese cultural via pornography exports set a standard and therefore silence about gendered products were fully lifted in 2004. for sexual mores in the region. This crimes in the region’s history. EAFQ Chyng Sun and colleagues note that standard was similarly instituted pornography production in South within the Greater East Asia Dr Caroline Norma is Lecturer in the Korea is heavily policed, and so most Co-Prosperity Sphere during the Master of Translating and Interpreting products consumed in the country years of the China and Pacific wars, if degree at RMIT University.

Young Taiwanese leaf through Japanese manga at a book fair in Taipei. International relations scholar Hiro Katsumata says ‘the spread of Japanese cultural products can be considered an “East Asian” phenomenon’. picture: CHIANG YING-YING / AP PHOTO / AAp

EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 25 women migrants picture: yonhap news agency / AAP

Migrant wives, dressed in the apparel of their native countries, after graduating from a Korean-language course. The ‘strangest others’ find a place at home

Hyun Mee Kim commodity with concrete value in the considerable proportion since the global market. This is not only due to 1980s, due to low fertility rates, a HE most significant change the widening economic gap within rapidly ageing population and a decline T in inter-Asian migration in Asia, which has activated intra-Asian in able-bodied workers. Japan, South recent years has been the shift from migration parallel to that from Asia to Korea and Taiwan have each sought male-centred production migration the West. East Asian countries, such to tackle these demographic problems to reproductive migration. Of all as Japan, South Korea, and Singapore, through interventions in marriage and migrants in Asia, women represented and Taiwan, have successfully family structures that aim to secure 42 per cent in 2015. Reproductive sustained economic development, a stable population and build the migration is voluntary migration to improving well-being through workforce. Women who enter these form partnerships, help raise children, activities including childbearing, countries as marriage migrants are or work as nurses or domestic carers. childrearing, labour and welfare. accepted as potential citizens in an The number of female reproductive However, the recent crisis of social effort to restore a balanced ratio in migrants in Asia has increased reproduction experienced in these the marriage market, especially for dramatically. This has resulted in the countries has played a significant role lower-class local men. These women ‘feminisation’ of migration. in the change. legitimise their claim to citizenship on Reproductive and caregiving labour These nation–states have been the basis of their reproductive role as has increasingly become a marketable facing a demographic crisis of bearers of children.

26 EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 It has become increasingly difficult perform the most intimate functions, children has given rise to a racialised for women in Japan, South Korea are often regarded as the ‘strangest discourse that conveys a eugenic and Taiwan to stay at home and others’ due to their ethnicities and attitude of ethnic inferiority. The perform the traditional household class status. Singaporean government deports duties of wife and mother within the The presence of foreign wives, women migrants working as domestic family. More women have joined domestic workers and nannies, helpers or nannies who become the labour force and the size of the especially those from Southeast Asia, pregnant or give birth while they are in ageing population has increased, so has often sparked anxiety among the the country. many men and married women seek public in the host countries. Northeast On the other hand, there have been substitutes to perform these duties. Asian societies have traditionally some positive efforts to accommodate These nations have thus turned regarded the reproductive sphere of multiculturalism. Since the 1990s, the rising need for care work into family and marriage as being at the the concept of multiculturalism has a profitable market niche. Migrant core of their national culture and been introduced in these countries as women from less developed Asian ethnic identity, but this private domain a new way to manage the ‘differences’ countries are recruited to provide now faces critical challenges from that exist between the mainstream reproductive labour. This includes the growing dependence on foreign majority, ethnic minorities and migrant domestic workers and women. Chief among these challenges migrants. ‘Multicultural coexistence’ in marriage migrants. is the question of how to preserve Japanese society, ‘multicultural society’ a homogenous ethnic society in the in South Korea and ‘multiculturalism’ OMEN currently form the face of the increasingly hybrid culture in Taiwan have been adopted in social W majority of foreign residents that has emerged with the reliance on discourse to promote coexistence of of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, reproductive migration. locals and foreigners. representing 53 per cent, 55 per Ethnocentric responses to female cent and 72 per cent of the foreign migration are common in these LTHOUGH there is increased resident population, respectively. countries. The discourse on women A acceptance of multicultural Social reproduction, which in the past migrants is strongly racist. It is often realities and lifestyles, the shift has been largely conducted by the based on the idea that foreign women from a mono-ethnic ideology to a family and the state, is now becoming are inferior and their mere presence multicultural society has triggered a de-regionalised through inter-Asian diminishes the quality of the host rise in jingoistic rhetoric and anti- gendered migration. society and its people. Policy has foreigner sentiment. The discourse This was mainly due to the emphasised their biological otherness, of aversion and suspicion around significant increase in the tuition fees and their maternity rights are often foreign migrants on the internet and with the marketisation of education denied. In Japan, for example, a child social media are ample evidence that and the lack of welfare benefits to born out of wedlock to a foreign deep-seated views of what it is to be support care for children and the woman is given citizenship rights Japanese, Korean or Taiwanese have elderly population. These have brought only when a Japanese biological father yet to substantively change. substantial financial burdens on proclaims his fatherhood of the baby Despite controversies over the families, and hence have thwarted the before it is born (that is, when it is still term ‘multiculturalism’, new social expectations for a better quality of a foetus). accommodations have yet to reduce life through having a family. People The South Korean government inequalities in power among diverse are increasingly likely to postpone designates families formed groups, especially ‘women migrants marriage and have fewer children. out of international marriages at home’. The problems of equality, But these so-called ‘intimate as ‘multicultural families’. The gender rights and citizenship are not mobilities’ into the domestic sphere government has implemented a fully addressed in the age of of high do not necessarily enhance affective strongly assimilationist model through female migration in East Asia. EAFQ connections of Asian people in terms a variety of programs designed to of cultural contact. Women migrants quickly ‘Koreanise’ ethnically different Hyun Mee Kim is Professor in the in these countries, who have come to marriage migrants. In Taiwan, anxiety Department of Cultural Anthropology, occupy the most intimate spaces and over migrant women and their Yonsei University, South Korea.

EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 27 promoting equity Japan’s military battles its own male-dominated culture

Sabine Frühstück 2011, and subsequently implemented a goal that from 2016, 30 per cent of in the context of the gender equality all new MOD staff should be female, N 4 November 2014, Lieutenant- policies pursued by the administration but it makes no concrete target for O Colonel Chizu Kurita of the of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. For its uniformed SDF personnel beyond a Japan Ground Self-Defense Force part, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ commitment to increase the female became the first Japanese military new National Action Plan on Women, proportion of new recruits from its officer to be attached to NATO Peace and Security highlighted how current level of 7.6 per cent. headquarters in Brussels. As advisor SDF personnel were being provided Many women are motivated to to the NATO Special Representative with training on gender issues, sexual join the SDF to liberate themselves for Women, Peace and Security in the violence and ‘women’s care needs’ from the gender and class restrictions office of the Secretary General, she has before their deployments. of their predominantly rural, been primarily advising the body on But although the administration of working class or lower middle class the how to better integrate a ‘gender Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has widely communities. Their decision often perspective’ into its policies and publicised its efforts to advance gender faces opposition from family members activities. equality throughout the public sector, who are concerned as much about the Kurita’s role in Brussels is a the Ministry of Defense (MOD) goals recruit’s safety as their prospects for politically important gesture, but it for 2016 and beyond remain modest. having a family of their own down the also draws attention to the troubled Japan’s 2015 defence white paper sets line. Since being a service member condition of gender integration— picture: kyodo news agency / aap calls for the willingness to move on or ‘gender mainstreaming’, as the to a new base every two or three Japanese administration puts it—in the years, some female recruits perceive Japanese Self-Defense Forces (SDF). geographical mobility as their only Tellingly, Kurita herself is one of only shot at the social mobility they desire. a handful of high-ranking female Not surprisingly, gender equality officers. is a concern for potential female Between 1986 and 1993 almost recruits. A considerable number all branches of the SDF opened their of women who join the SDF do so doors to female recruits. By the year with two expectations: that they will 2000, most restrictions for women had be advanced on the basis of their been formally lifted. The SDF’s most performance, and that they will significant remaining barrier to gender be treated as equals to their male integration—its overwhelmingly colleagues. The defence white paper male military culture—had also been for 2015 does report significant targeted so as to ‘modernise’ the advances for female uniformed SDF institution, which could then promote personnel. Their numbers have itself as providing greater gender increased at SDF staff offices and equality than corporate Japan. headquarters. Some female members That self-promotion was articulated now board escort vessels and pilot in such policy documents as the both antisubmarine patrol aircraft and Ministry of Defense’s multi-year Basic Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, whose administration transport aircraft. Plan for Gender Equality, released in has launched several plans for gender equality. Yet significant restrictions based

28 EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 picture: ministry of defense, japan on maternity and privacy concerns still exclude women from specific assignments to tanks, submarines and fighters. As a result, in the past 20 years, the percentage of women in the SDF has risen only minimally, from just under 5 per cent in the mid-1990s to 5.6 per cent today—about 13,000 service members out of a total of 232,143. Why has the gender composition of the defence and security apparatus changed so little? For one thing, while the SDF invests heavily in the gender management of its public image, the ideal it publicises does not match its reality. For example, SDF public relations materials eagerly feature female service members—attending to victims of natural disasters, playing with or performing for children, or simply smiling prettily while saluting Lieutenant-Colonel Chizu Kurita giving directions to a squad. Though her appointment to Brussels as in uniform—far more prominently advisor to the NATO Special Representative for Women, Peace and Security is ‘a politically important than their numbers justify. Ultimately, gesture’, she is one of only a handful of high-ranking women officers in the Japanese services. the welcome that new female recruits believe they will receive does not last managerial positions also continue to when Prime Minister Abe claimed long. be overwhelmingly occupied by men. Japan’s right of collective self-defence Outdated ideas about war being But a different reality looms on the in July 2014. only the realm of men persist in horizon, resulting from two significant The other is demographics. Japan’s the military. Though engaging in factors. One is that the forces have low fertility rate—widely believed to be female-exclusionary practices is endured a recruitment shortage of the result of young women’s resistance constitutionally prohibited, many men for decades that only worsened to traditional life paths that largely male service members at all levels and exclude them from serious careers— ranks actively resist the integration . . . significant restrictions will further exacerbate the decline in of women, who then feel isolated numbers of young men eligible for and marginalised. As a result, female based on maternity and military service. service members lack opportunities These factors will likely lend a for the tactical and strategic-level privacy concerns still greater sense of urgency to efforts to planning and decision-making further integrate and advance women experiences that are crucial for career exclude women from in the defence and security complex. advancement. The numbers say it EAFQ all: only 2.8 per cent of current field specific assignments to officers or higher are female, there is Sabine Frühstück is Professor of only a handful of female colonels and tanks, submarines and Modern Japanese Cultural Studies there are no female generals. in the Department of East Asian In many ways this situation simply fighters Languages & Cultural Studies, reflects the state of gender affairs in University of California at Santa civilian society, where career paths and Barbara.

EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 29 the look of success Women’s image transformed: femininity in North Korea

picture: lesley parker Bronwen Dalton and Kyungja Jung

MPORTANT changes are taking place inside North I Korea. The collapse of the command economy, and the emergence of capitalism in its place, is ongoing. A burgeoning moneyed elite and increasing exposure to foreign pop culture are transforming how North Korean femininity is conceived. These changes are reaching far beyond Pyongyang to affect many, if not most, women in the country. Officially, North Korea’s founding juche (self- reliance) ideology supports gender equality. In practice the leadership cult that was entrenched under Kim Il-sung, who led the country from 1948 to 1994, gave patriarchal relations a significant boost. Under Kim Il-sung, the nation was recast in line with traditional, largely Confucian, male-dominated family structures—a considerable backslide from the progressive gender norms promoted by the early Korean socialist movement. Despite its rhetoric, Kim Il-sung’s juche ideology directly perpetuated gender subordination. To this end, North Korea’s leaders were active in controlling women’s behaviour and appearance to ensure alignment with state prescribed ideals of femininity. For decades the embodiment of the feminine ideal was Kim Il- sung’s mother, Kang Ban-sok. Kang, who is eulogised as a passionate revolutionary fighter and leader of the Korean women’s liberation movement, is referred to as ‘the Great Mother of Korea’. Unlike other socialist regimes that embraced masculine clothing as a symbol of revolutionised women, Kang Ban-sok consistently appears in state iconography in native Korean dress and with a traditional hairstyle. This depiction served to reinforce femininity as tied to a traditional, subservient, ‘purely Korean’ selfless mother. Sonia Ryang, Director of the Chao Center for Asian Studies at Rice University, argues that this interpretation of women was so dominant that while ‘the category “mother” exists in North Korea, the category “women” is hardly recognised, thereby effacing the notion of gender altogether from the surface of the state politics’. A stylish young woman strolling in the streets of Pyongyang. ‘Capitalist’ Under Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il authorities sought hyper-femininity is evident in all of North Korea’s major cities.

30 EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 to reinforce this ideal by controlling In this increasingly materialistic and range of counterfeit designer clothing. women. Policing women’s dress and consumerist society, Kim Jong-un’s Cosmetic surgery is performed suppressing the wearing of trousers, wife, Ri Sol-ju, has become a visible throughout the country and local blue jeans and earrings, for example, and influential trendsetter. North markets do a brisk trade in earrings, were part of a range of official attempts Korea’s state news agency has featured handbags, clothing and make-up from to eradicate Western culture that could Ri at various public events wearing China and South Korea. potentially corrupt the purity of North high heels and form-fitting, stylish But market participation and Korean women. clothes. She has even been spotted fashionable clothing do not indicate a The famine of the mid-1990s, sporting a variety of designer brooches more liberal order or any substantial during which hundreds of thousands— in place of the ‘dual portrait’ lapel pin, empowerment of women. North Korea and perhaps as many as two million— which carries the images of former remains a heavily state-controlled and North Koreans died, challenged this leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il. patriarchal country. status quo. Largely in an effort to Other North Korean fashion icons Despite running most of the stalls ensure that they and their families include the women in the country’s at local markets, North Korean survived, North Korean women most popular girl band, Moranbong. women have nowhere near the same took a leading role in establishing an Their short skirts, high heels and opportunities as men in terms of emerging market economy. sequined outfits have inspired or careers and money-making. In this Ongoing female participation in the reinforced the trend among women to context, dressing extravagantly could market and, in particular, their new wear brighter, better-cut clothing. be seen as a normalised, tactical role as family breadwinners, afforded approach for women aspiring to North Korean women many new Now social status is secure a good career, marriage or opportunities, including a modicum even a boyfriend. Women may prefer of economic power. This relation is becoming more closely conspicuous consumption that signals reflected in the common usage of status to others. expressions such as ‘a man’s only use is connected to financial Under juche ideology, women’s to be a lock to secure the house’, or to bodies were regulated and controlled be ‘a guard dog that stays at home all success by North Korean authorities. The day’, or ‘a light bulb during the day’. aim was to meet a set of ideals closely There is some evidence that a aligned to the traditional role of the preference for sons has diminished, woman as producer, reproducer and with parents seeing women as more Today, many North Korean women child rearer. Now social status is likely to reap benefits in the emerging prefer logo-emblazoned goods, as becoming more closely connected to economy. But recent developments in well as anything that can incorporate financial success. Women increasingly the social construction of femininity sequins or diamantes—tops, hairpins embody the markers of status suggest that the relationship between and even high heels. The latter, and wealth through the conspicuous market participation and female especially, have become de rigueur. consumption of material goods, thus empowerment is complex. Perhaps In Pyongyang the wives, daughters playing a key role in modern status ironically, the North Korean form of and mistresses of the new rich, or reproduction. As North Korea capitalism that women have helped donju (‘masters of money’), are changes, a new femininity has begun to create is likely to frustrate any immaculately turned out. Unlike to emerge. EAFQ substantial change in gender relations. other symbols of wealth, such as North Korean capitalism has fridges or air conditioners, being Bronwen Dalton is the Director of continued apace under the benign accompanied by a fashionable female the Masters of Not-for-Profit and neglect—and tacit encouragement—of is a conspicuous way of displaying Community Management Program at Kim Jong-un. Now North Korea is wealth. the University of Technology, Sydney. undergoing a transition from a society This ‘capitalist’ hyper-femininity is where status is prescribed by the state evident in all of North Korea’s major Kyungja Jung is Senior Lecturer in the to one where social status is tied to cities. There are reports of tailors Social and Political Sciences at the success in the market. across North Korea producing a huge University of Technology, Sydney.

EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 31 enduring debates picture: EUGENE HOSHIKO / AP PHOTO / AAP

Closing the gender gap in Japan

Vera Mackie empowerment. often part-time, when their children Japan has almost closed the gender reach school age. Although the curve OMEN in Japan voted and gap in education and in health, but is becoming shallower, there remains W stood for office for the first time much more has to be done in terms of a significant gap between the number on 10 April 1946. It was the country’s economic and political participation. of women working and the number of first postwar election and the first Japan now ranks equal 157th of women wishing to work. election after the Japanese government 191 countries in women’s political The female employment rate is 63.6 amended the Electoral Law to include participation according to the per cent, compared with around 95 women. Of the 79 female candidates, International Parliamentary Union. per cent for men, with women more 39 were elected to Japan’s national After the 2014 election, 45 out of likely to be found in non-regular parliament, the Diet. 475 lower house members were employment. Some 43.9 per cent Seventy years on, what is the women (9.5 per cent) and after the of women leave work on childbirth. state of gender relations in Japan? 2013 election, 38 of 242 upper house These figures reflect the continued What issues now stimulate feminist members were women (15.7 per cent). difficulty in reconciling paid work with campaigns and activism? In 2015, 22 per cent of ministerial domestic work, as has been pointed The most recent Global Gender positions in Japan were held by out by feminist critics since the mid- Gap Report, which measures the women, but only 25 individual women 20th century. gaps between men and women in have served in Cabinet in the whole Much progress on gender policy each society, ranked Japan 101st out postwar period. in Japan was made in the 1990s. In of the 145 countries surveyed. Of As for work, for much of the line with the recommendations of the the report’s four subindices, Japan postwar period, women’s labour-force Beijing Platform for Action, which ranked 106th in women’s economic participation has been characterised came out of the 1995 United Nations participation and opportunity, 84th in by an M-shaped curve, whereby World Conference for Women, gender educational attainment, 42nd in health women leave the workforce on the issues became a central policy priority. and survival and 104th in political birth of their children and return, The late 1990s saw the passing of the

32 EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 Basic Law for a Gender Equal Society, order to improve women’s labour mother. ‘What I finally realised’, she the Plan for a Gender Equal Society participation. This policy has been wrote, ‘is that I should never hand over and the creation of the Office for criticised for entrenching the idea that to the next generation the difficult Gender Equality, now in the Cabinet housework and childcare are women’s working and living conditions I Office. responsibilities. It leaves intact a experienced as a working mother … This growing feminist influence work culture that makes it difficult we must change them.’ on gender policy was met by a for full-time employees to take part The history of the Asia Pacific war conservative backlash, led by current in childcare and domestic labour and continues to be a matter of debate in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of the achieve work–life balance. feminist circles, seven decades on. Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), in It is likely that only elite At the end of 2015 the governments the early 2000s. As part of the LDP’s professionals would be able to afford of Japan and South Korea attempted project team for ‘Investigating the such assistance. This policy will do a bilateral resolution on the issue of Status of Radical Sex Education and little to assist the large numbers wartime military sexual slavery. The Gender Free Education’, Abe and his of women who still leave work on agreement proposed that the Japanese allies attacked various initiatives that the birth of their children and can government would provide support to they saw as detrimental to what they only find part-time work when they the elderly survivors through a fund to called ‘traditional’ cultural values. This return to the workplace. It would be administered by the South Korean prompted media panics about such also entrench regional inequalities as government. issues as sex education in schools. those from poorer nations travel to Since his return to office in 2012, richer nations to engage in domestic HIS attempted resolution was Abe has sought a more progressive work and care work. Policies on T roundly criticised, not least by image on gender issues. A range gender relations need to be seen in a the survivors themselves. The two of policies, such as increasing the transnational and regional frame. governments had failed to consult number of available childcare places, The ‘baby-boomer’ generation survivors, the major stakeholders, have been proposed under the slogan of feminists who led the women’s thereby displaying ignorance of the ‘womenomics’. liberation movement of the early principles of restorative justice. The International legitimacy, as much 1970s and the reformist feminist agreement also failed to include as domestic policy, is a guiding groups of the 1970s and 1980s are survivors from countries other objective behind the slogan—as Abe’s now at retirement age. They must be than South Korea. It is thanks to 2013 womenomics speech at the experiencing a sense of déjà vu, as transnational feminist activism— United Nations indicated. ‘I have been the issues of work–life balance that bringing together networks of activists working to change Japan's domestic they raised in the 1970s are still being from throughout Asia and the structures’, he announced. ‘However, debated and seem far from being Pacific—that this issue has stayed at this is not confined merely to domestic resolved. This cohort of baby-boomers the forefront of international attention matters … this is also a thread guiding is also dealing with the issues of Japan’s seven decades after the war. Japan's diplomacy.’ ageing society. Many face their own Nearly three years on from Abe’s retirement while dealing with their womenomics speech, this flawed ONTRARY to the stated own ageing family members’ need for bilateral agreement reveals the need C goals of womenomics, Abe’s care. for more thorough integration of government recently made it easier Issues of work–life balance and the feminist perspectives not only in for employers in Japan to exploit gendered dimensions of the ageing Japan’s domestic policies but also in its temporary workers—a group which society appear prominently in recent international relations. EAFQ is disproportionately female—on editions of feminist magazines and the long-term contracts, removing earlier websites of NGOs. A recent seminar Vera Mackie is Senior Professor of restrictions. held by the Women’s Action Network Asian Studies and Associate Dean, Another controversial policy (WAN) was aligned with international Research, in the Faculty of Law, encourages the use of immigrant campaigns on ‘decent work’. The Humanities and the Arts at the domestic workers in specially- WAN website brought these issues to University of Wollongong. designated economic zones, in life with the testimony of a working

EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 33 LOOKING FOR LEADERSHIP Women and politics in East Asia

Katharine H. S. Moon of 1991 deepened democratisation their district nominations and 50 by decentralising power and by per cent of appointed proportional HIS is supposed to be the requiring all local and provincial representatives. South Korea’s T Asian century, with East Asian governments to include women, and National Assembly election of April countries leading the way. The world other underrepresented groups, in 2016 yielded 49 female members, or 17 admires many East Asian countries for governance. per cent of available elected seats—a their miraculous economic growth, Japan, the wealthiest country in record high. democracy-building and cultural the region, falls far behind, with Since 1996 a similar 30 per cent innovation. But can East Asia also women holding only 11.5 per cent quota has existed for civil service provide a model for developing of nationally elected offices as of positions. As the number of women women’s rights and political power? April 2016 and a mere 3 per cent of in civil service positions grew, the East Asia has no coherent pattern to the senior-level positions in central government also set a 30 per cent boast or export. government ministries and agencies quota for men in 2003 to combat fears East Asians are known for creating as of early 2014. Yet in the last two that men were getting ‘left behind’. wealth nationally and personally but national elections (2013 and 2014), Despite this, only 4.5 per cent of this does not necessarily produce women made up about 53 per cent of high-level government positions are women’s political empowerment or the voters. occupied by women, although this participation. One of the poorest This is puzzling, given that Japan is number should grow as women in countries in the world, Rwanda, sits the most developed democracy in East entry-level positions climb the ranks. atop the very wealthy Nordic states, Asia in addition to offering a relatively As The New York Times reported in the United States and newly rich Asia high quality of life. No doubt Japanese 2010, ‘47 per cent of those who passed with the highest female representation government institutions and cultural the state examination that selects in national politics worldwide. norms in political life are unfriendly, midlevel officials to be groomed for In East Asia, the Philippines boasts if not hostile, to women. But that goes senior posts in agencies other than the the highest representation of women for many other East Asian societies Foreign Ministry were women. In 1992 in political institutions. Nearly 30 per that have nonetheless produced it was 3.2 per cent.’ cent of the Philippines’ lower house is significant numbers of female political occupied by women, and women form leaders in government and civil OUTH Korean women have a quarter of the upper house. In local society. Marriage and children have S also made the most gains in the politics, women also fare well, with 17 also become less and less popular, but diplomatic corps. In the 2010s about out of 80 provinces having voted for Japanese women who choose work or 60 per cent of those who passed the female governors in 2013. Since 2010, careers have tended to avoid politics. entrance exam were women. This women have also made up 40–45 Neither Japan nor the Philippines has is a stunning leap from just 1.1 per per cent of the highest civil service a quota for female representation in cent in the 1980s, 7.7 per cent in the positions. national politics, but Japan ranks lower 1990s and 47 per cent in the 2000s. Of all East Asian societies, the than the Philippines, China and North In 2008, ‘the passing rate of women Philippines is the most advanced Korea. outstripped that of men by two to in integrating women’s rights and South Korea does have an electoral one.’ Merit-based entry requirements development through legal codes quota system, which requires are regarded as fairer in democratic and administrative practices. For political parties to include at least South Korea than they were during example, the Local Government Code 30 per cent of female candidates in the country’s period of military

34 EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 picture: AARON FAVILA / AP PHOTO / AAP

Two elderly Filipina voters help each other with ballot papers at a voting station in San Juan, near Manila.

authoritarianism. This might help Standing Committee of the Politburo, Shenzhen, ‘only 30 per cent of marital explain why in Thailand the number of the top governing body. Since 2013 home deeds include the woman’s female parliamentarians dropped after two women have occupied seats in the name, even though over 70 per cent the military coup of 2014, from 16 per 25-member Politburo, the first time of women contribute to the marital cent to 6.1 per cent. since the early 1970s. home purchase’. Given that real estate China defies conventional logic. is a major source of new wealth for Despite decades of communist OMEN’S property rights are Chinese, women are in a losing game. indoctrination and legal changes W also less secure now, when Despite admirable progress, there that reversed thousands of years more women have money, than they is a long way to go yet. While East of sanctioned male privilege, were in the 1950s. In 2011, China’s Asia, with China at the centre, may contemporary China is rolling Supreme People’s Court interpreted be on the rise, it still lags behind in back women’s rights and political the revolutionary 1950 Marriage Law terms of women’s rights and political participation. Women form small and its amendments, which granted representation. EAFQ minorities at all levels of the political numerous freedoms and rights system: 21 per cent of the Chinese including common marital property, in Dr Katharine H.S. Moon is Professor of Communist Party and 23 per cent of favour of men. Now, marital property Political Science at Wellesley College national civil service jobs. About 1 essentially belongs to the person and SK-Korea Foundation Chair of per cent of village committee chairs, whose name is on the property deed. Korea Studies and Senior Fellow at the which most directly relate to people’s As Leta Hong Fincher reports, Brookings Institution. everyday lives, are women. A woman in the top real estate markets of has never been selected for the Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and

EAST ASIA FORUM QUARTERLY APRIL — JUNE 2016 35 JOIN THE PUBLIC POLICY THOUGHT LEADERS

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