Japan NGO Report 2009
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JAPAN ＮＧＯ ＲＥＰＯＲＴ ２００9 For Beijing＋15 October 2009 Ｊ Ａ Ｗ Ｗ （ Japan Women ’ s W a t c h ） On Publishing Japan NGO Report 2009 The coming year 2010 will be an important year for women’s movements worldwide since it marks the 35th Anniversary of the UN International Women’s Year, 15 years after the Fourth UN World Conference on Women, and 10 years after “Women 2000.” It has been agreed that the 54th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) to be held in New York in March 2010 will focus on “Beijing+15” activities, discussing how the issues incorporated in the “Beijing Platform for Action” adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing from 4-15 September, 1995, and the so-called “Outcome Document” adopted at the 23rd UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) “Women 2000” held between May 30-June 10, have been fulfilled, and what other emerging issues have been discussed at the UN since 2000, and what the remaining issues are for the future. JAWW (Japan Women’s Watch) was organized in 2001 and began working on the publication of Japan NGO Report 2004, which dealt with the 12 critical areas of concern (from A through L) listed under the “Beijing Platform for Action” (BPFA) as well as other five areas of concern. In this Japan NGO Report 2009, we discuss the 12 critical areas of concern in Part I (from A to L) in BPFA and five other areas of concern in Part II (1~5). We regret we have not been able to include a chapter on Youth, which is a very important topic for the 21st century. In the meantime, the UN has decided to hold high-level intergovernmental meetings in the five regions in the world from Africa, Asia Pacific, West Asia, Europe (including North America) and Latin America and the Caribbean in 2009. In the Asia Pacific region, the UNESCAP (UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific) High-Level Intergovernmental Meeting is to be convened from November 16-18, 2009 in Bangkok, Thailand to review the regional implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action and the Outcome Document 2000 and other emerging issues. Prior to this meeting, APWW (Asia Pacific Women’s Watch) decided to organize an Asia Pacific NGO Forum on Beijing +15. Many women NGOs in the Asia Pacific region are to meet together at the Forum which will be held at Miriam College in Quezon City, the Philippines under the Convenorship of Dr. Patricia B. Licuanan, the President of Miriam College, from October 22-24, 2009. In response, women in the Asia Pacific region have begun to prepare their reports in each sub-region and country from the viewpoint of NGOs. As an organization with the mission of being a Steering Committee member of APWW and in charge of the Secretariat of APWW (July 2008-June 2010), JAWW also has the responsibility of conducting this Asia Pacific NGO Forum. We all hope that the contents of our Japan NGO Report 2009 will reflect the compilation of the voices of women in the Asia Pacific region, which in turn is expected to be mirrored in the outcome documents at UNESCAP and CSW meetings. Those who have been involved in preparing this report all support the Beijing Platform for Action and the Outcome Document of the Women 2000 Session. However, even among them there is a variety of views and expressions that they contend should be used. Therefore, the editors have decided not to unify the terminology and present diverse claims on each point in issue without resolving the differences. For reasons of space, this report has a limitation in that it may fail to give full explanations and the sources used to support the argument. Nevertheless, we are extremely pleased to be able to report in and outside of Japan our views derived from our daily life experiences and research in this document from the NGO’s standpoint. Women NGO members in Japan have been acquiring valuable experiences by taking part in the international fora and meetings held outside Japan. In 1975, about 240 Japanese women attended the International Women’s Year Tribune held parallel to the First World Conference on Women in Mexico i City, followed by about 400 women at the second in Copenhagen in 1980 and about 870 women at the third in Nairobi in 1985. In 1995, as many as 5,385 women from all over Japan participated in the Beijing Conference partly because of its vicinity. Likewise, through the participation of approximately 10 to 12 JAWW members at CSW sessions in New York held in March every year from 2001 through 2009, JAWW has been accumulating exchanges with the participants worldwide. Those experiences have led us to reconsider our own living and life, think about the world community and Japan’s future, and strengthen our solidarity with people worldwide. With the immensity of the issues humans face in the future ahead, we are highly committed to the important responsibility of passing on our achievements to younger generations and of working together with men in Japan and in the world. In closing I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the many people and organizations that have sacrificed their time and offered their cooperation in the publication of this booklet. JAWW (Japan Women’s Watch) Hiroko Hara Convenor October 4, 2009 ii Table of Contents On Publishing Japan NGO Report 2009 Assessing the implementation of the critical areas of concern of the Beijing Platform for Action and the Outcome Document of the 23rd UN General Assembly Special Session and other emerging issues Part I A. Women and Poverty Chieko Akaishi 1 B. Education and Training of Women Reiko Maruoka 8 C. Women and Health Hiroko Hara 13 D. Violence against Women—Beijing+15: Our Progress in Eliminating All Forms of Violence Against Women Tomoko Endo 19 E. Women and Armed Conflict Asia Japan Women's Resource Center (AJWRC) Women’s Active Museum on War and Peace (WAM) 26 F. Women and the Economy—Globalized Economy and Financial Crises from a Gender Perspective— Mari Osawa with Yasuko U. Muramatsu 31 G. Women in Power and Decision-making Kay Fusano 44 H. Institutional Mechanism for the Advancement of Women Hiroko Hashimoto 51 I. Human Rights of Women Mikiko Otani 57 J. Women and the Media Yasuko K. Muramatsu with Yoko Kunihiro, Rika Tanioka, Satoko Matsuura, Reiko Aoki, Miiko Kodama, Akiko Sugawa, Miho Takeshita, Kaori Hayashi, Keiko Ikeda and Toshiko Miyazaki 61 K. Women and the Environment—Mainstreaming Women’s Sensitivity Makes a Difference to the Environment— Akiko Domoto, Eri Nakajima, and Yuko Honda 68 L. The Girl-child—Obstacles and Challenges Mariko Asano and Masako Tanaka 78 Part II 1. Elderly Women Takako Sodei and Keiko Higuchi 86 2. Migrant Women— Present State and Pressing Issues Ruri Ito and Chiho Ogaya 93 iii 3. Minority Women Minako “Minata” Hara 3-1 Sexual Minority Women 101 3-2 Ainu, Buraku, Zainichi Korean, and Ryukyu Women—Beijing+15: The Progress and the Challenges of the NGOs of Ainu, Buraku, Zainichi Korean, and Ryuku Women in achieving self-determination and eliminating all forms of discrimination 104 3-3 Women with Disabilities 113 4. Rural Women 4-1 Women in Agriculture Masami Shinozaki 116 4-2 Women in Fisheries Hitomi Nakamichi and Natsuko Miki 121 5. The Role of Men and Boys in Achieving Gender Equality Miwako Shimazu 123 About JAWW 141 iv Part I: 12 critical areas of concern in BPFA A. Women and Poverty Chieko Akaishi (Single Mothers Forum (NGO); Anti Poverty Network; Josei to Hinkon Network1) Translated by Miwako Shimazu (JAWW) In Japan, as the issue of economic gaps captured the general public’s interest around 2006, the word “poverty” came to be considered as a domestic problem confronting Japan. Now news reports abound on young people as dispatched workers making a living on daily wages and lodging at Internet cafes, men dying of starvation as a result of deprivation of welfare benefits, and male dispatched workers who have lost both the job and home due to forced termination of work contracts, and the like. Relatively speaking, poor men rather than poor women seem to be getting more attention. Since its establishment in 2007, Anti Poverty Network has been making some progress in highlighting poverty as a grave social problem by forming a network among the poor--ranging from the homeless, to so-called “freeters2,” dispatched workers, single mothers, the disabled, the sick, multiple debtors, and recipients of welfare benefits—and their supporters. At the very start of the year 2009, the Haken-mura (literally meaning dispatched workers’ village) program launched by labor unions, civil groups, and other concerned groups for the relief of former dismissed workers rendered visible the fact that even in Japan widely recognized as an affluent industrialized nation, there is a whole array of people hovering between life and death after becoming jobless and homeless. More importantly, women have experienced poverty long before then and now they are being exposed to even more severe poverty. Visit a 24-hour open McDonald’s at night, and you will find several cart-carrying women staying the night there. These women cannot live on the street because of possible danger. Single mothers have been poor long before. Among the causes of women’s poverty are the structure of sex division of labor which has compelled women to work on a low wage to supplement the family budget, the present expansion of non-regular workers, reduction of expenditures for welfare and social insurance, and the tax system favoring the upper income class.