ABSTRACT
The lack of consensus and persistent debate about women’s status is a feature of modern Japanese society. Since the late nineteenth century, Japanese publishing culture has created venues for feminist debate, starting with the Meiroku zasshi and including Seitō and Fujin kōron. Many debates featured in these publications are still relevant today, including debates on abortion, motherhood, housework, and employment. For abortion debates, factors including poverty, eugenics, and disability rights were prominent, in contrast with the US debate on fetal life versus women’s choice. Beginning with the “motherhood protection debate” in the 1910s, debates about labour for women, including housework, childcare, and paid employment, have continued in the years before and after World War Two. The women’s lib movement of the 1960s and 1970s coincided with heated debates on women’s economic independence. While the 1980s marked a golden era for feminist debates due to a flourishing print culture, the paradox of workplace equality and celebration of the full-time housewife preceded the passing of the Basic Law for Gender Equal Society in 1999. Recent debates have focused on the declining birthrate and work-life-balance. In the twenty-first century, feminist debates continued while moving increasingly from print to online venues.
