Japan Press Weekly

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2011 March 9 - 15 [WOMEN]

International Women’s Day 2011 in Tokyo

Celebrating the 101st anniversary of International Women’s Day (IWD) on March 8, women in Tokyo participated in a related event under the slogan, “Let’s make use of our Constitution and the U.N. covenant on gender equality in our day-to-day lives!”

March 8 is the international day of action for women around the world to stand up for “Bread, Peace, and Human Rights”. This year’s events took place as the organization “UN Women” was established to accelerate progress towards achieving gender equality.

Participants in the Tokyo rally called for achieving residents-oriented policies in the nationwide local elections slated for April.

Exclaiming, “Let’s raise our voices against the TPP free-trade agreement!” “We, the young people, will lead the campaign to establish a world without nuclear weapons!” “Let us unite to remove all U.S. military bases from Japan!”, women activists representing various fields spoke at the rally.

A Japan Airlines worker who is fighting in court for a retraction of her dismissal, stated, “I will continue making efforts to have JAL put priority on flight safety and withdraw its unfair dismissals of pilots and cabin attendants.”

Koike Akira, a progressive independent candidate for Tokyo governor, spoke as an invited guest to the rally audience, stating, “I will do my best to establish a Tokyo focusing its attention on providing social services.”

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Takahashi Chizuko also attended the rally as a guest speaker and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon sent a message of solidarity to the event.