Dear SSJ-Forum member,
The Department of East Asian Studies - Japanese Studies at the University of Vienna would like to draw your attention to the upcoming hybrid u:japan lecture:

Chiara Fusari:
"Anti-rape activism in Japan from the 1980s"

Date and time: Thursday, November 28, 2024, 18:00~19:30 (CET, UTC +1h)

Location: Onsite @ Campus of the University of Vienna Department of East Asian Studies, Japanese Studies room JAP 1 (2K-EG-21), University Campus Hof 2.4, Spitalgasse 2, 1090 Vienna, Austria
https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/index.php?id=23548#c646040

Online: Join the lecture via Zoom (no registration necessary):
https://univienna.zoom.us/j/69287997146?pwd=QcbVpCxnn3aVsOMMFA6j30rZpSbVH7.1
Meeting-ID: 692 8799 7146 | Passcode: 053651

Abstract: Since the late 2010s, sexual violence has increasingly gotten attention in Japan becoming a topic of discussion in media, politics, and society. In 2017, Ito Shiori went public accusing a senior journalist of raping her and in the same year the Penal Code's articles on sex crimes were reformed for the first time in 110 years. In 2019 a series of non-guilty verdicts for rape cases sparked public outrage which was channelled by feminist activists into the Flower Demo movement. In 2023 the Penal Code was reformed once again and the BBC released a documentary exposing the sexual abuse of young boys perpetrated, since the 1970s, by Johnny Kitagawa, founder of one of the most famous talent agencies in Japan. However, sexual violence is neither a new problem in Japan nor a new issue discussed by feminists. While it certainly has been, and still is to a degree, a taboo topic in Japanese society, women's groups in Japan have been tackling the problem since the early 1980s. They established the first support services for victims filling in an institutional void, they spoke out about rape myths and deep-rooted sexism, and they engaged in social actions to raise awareness about the issue. This lecture by Chiara Fusari (University of Zurich, CH) will explore an often-forgot page of Japanese feminism retracing the history of anti-rape activism in Japan: the first grassroots women's groups in the 1980s and 1990s, the first advocacy efforts for legal reforms in the 2010s, the emergence of the #MeToo movement and the Flower Demo in recent years, and the two reforms of the Penal Code.

For more information on the speaker and future events at u:japan, please follow the link below:
https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/

We look forward to your participation!
Christopher Kummer, Florian Purkarthofer, Elisabeth Semmler, Astrid Unger and Ralf Windhab

PS: If you missed a lecture or want to review, head to our recorded lectures section:
https://japanologie.univie.ac.at/ujapanlectures/records/

u:japan lectures
Department of East Asian Studies / Japanese Studies at the University of Vienna
E-mail: ujapanlectures.ostasien@univie.ac.at

Kindly sponsored by the Toshiba International Foundation:
https://www.toshibafoundation.com/