October 6, 2022

The Japanese Communist Party Tokyo Metropolitan Committee on October 4 held an open seminar on gender equality, inviting JCP Vice Chair Tamura Tomoko (House of Councilors) as a speaker.

Tamura spoke about "gender backlash" and the pressure on resisting gender equal moves.

According to Tamura, rightwing groups and the Liberal Democratic Party in 1990 began attacking and obstructing gender-related efforts which dealt with sex education in schools, sexual minorities, and Japan's war responsibility related to the "comfort women" issue. Tamura said that the JCP by engaging in debates and feminism movements has been confronting this backlash.

She pointed out that after the 1975 UN Decade for Women, the international community witnessed developments in women's human rights, and that the 1995 Beijing Declaration stipulates the need for gender equality and women's sexual and reproductive health.

In 1999, local governments in Japan one after another enacted ordinances to promote gender equality and the "gender backlash" subsequently began to appear, according to Tamura.

She said, "The backlash included praise of patriarchy under the former Constitution of the Empire of Japan. The LDP and rightwing groups both in the Diet and municipal assemblies continue to conduct attacks against women's right to self-determination such as the right to abortion."

Tamura expressed her determination to overcome the backlash by increasing solidarity in regard to gender equality.