Paper short abstract:

Lesbian writer Yoshiya Nobuko's Toki's Voice (1964) is a history of the Japanese Salvation Army's anti-prostitution movement. The paper considers her diverse rhetorical styles for recovering the voices of prostitutes given the limited documentation available to her.

Paper long abstract:

Just after the close of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, popular lesbian writer Yoshiya Nobuko began to serialize in the Yomiuri her historical novel Toki no koe about figures, in the Japanese Salvation Army and the modern anti-prostitution movement. While Toki no koe (lit. Voices of our Times) was the Japanese name of the Salvation Army newspaper The Salvationist, Yoshiya also found the name "Toki" in the logs at the Jokanji Temple, among the records of Yoshiwara corpses abandoned there. "Toki" died in 1888, so her "voice" was not recoverable. But through Yoshiya's novelistic account of this history, she revived women like her. She could have created a novel with dialogue and the fictionalized voices that the title seemed to promise, but I argue that Yoshiya instead tried to depict the social and political framework that had silenced them and rely on the empathy and imagination of readers to bring to life what women like Toki might have thought and said even as they were cast aside. In order to produce these "voices" that are under-documented, she turns actively to literary works, ranging from Higuchi Ichiyo's fiction from the Yoshiwara to poetry by women of the area to lesser known short stories that depicted comfort stations during the Pacific War, an institution that she witnessed during her time as a war reporter in 1941 Cambodia, and to which she ties the temporary silencing of the anti-prostitution movement during the war. She called also on her own fictional practices in serialized fiction of depicting the inner thoughts of women experiencing unwanted sexual contact, including young women in arranged marriages who preferred the company of their women friends. At the same time, she ran up against limits of access and needed to rely largely on men activists writing in The Salvationist for her information. The paper considers the diverse rhetorical methods for eliciting the voices of those silenced through anonymity, and the ways that modern media and shifting sexual identities created spaces and challenges for reviving them.

Paper short abstract:

The aim of this paper is to explore feminist voices in Japanese contemporary literature vis-à-vis recent feminist movements. I will focus in particular on Jizoku kanō na tamashii no riyō (The Sustainable Use of Our Souls, 2020) by Aoko Matsuda.

Paper long abstract:

In Japan, feminist voices have been raised against gender-based violence, but they are often barely heard: the #metoo movement, for instance, has not gained much popularity, compared not only with Western countries but also with South Korea. Nevertheless, other movements have raised their voices: in 2019, the #KuToo movement started fighting against the high heel policy in workplaces; in the same year, Flower Demo, a movement to protest sex crimes and sexual violence, was initiated by some feminist activists, with monthly gatherings where participants are given the stage to speak up about their experiences of sexual assault.

Furthermore, literature has also been a place where women could raise their voices against discrimination and violence: Jizoku kanō na tamashii no riyō (The Sustainable Use of Our Souls, 2020) by Aoko Matsuda (b. 1979) is an important example in this regard. In her novel, Matsuda has depicted two worlds: on the one hand, her characters struggle to survive in a misogynistic society where women are either sexual objects used to satisfy men’s desire or victims of male violence; on the other hand, she has created a world where all “middle-aged men” (ojisan) disappeared and women became able to speak out against violence.

The aim of this paper is to explore feminist voices in Japanese contemporary literature vis-à-vis recent feminist movements: through an analysis of Jizoku kanō na tamashii no riyō, with a focus on both the author’s and the fictional characters’ voices, I will show how fiction can be a powerful tool that can break the silence of gender-based violence. I will also investigate male voices, focusing in particular on male characters who do not fully adhere to the dominant ideal of masculinity.

Finally, I will touch upon the influence of Korean feminist literature in Japan vis-a-vis Aoko Matsuda's work.

Paper short abstract:

Through a textual analysis, this paper will explore the way contemporary Japanese female writers like Murata Sayaka and Imamura Natsuko approach different aspects of child abuse in their works by giving voice to traumatized children. Hoochigo and other relevant phenomena will be explained as well.

Paper long abstract:

In 2018, the death of Funato Yua, also known as the "Meguro Ward Child Abuse Case" was widely reported on Japanese media and raised social awareness of the lack of effective child protection structures in Japan. Following this and other tragic child abuse cases, the Japanese Cabinet has recently approved amendments to the current Child Welfare Act and the Child Abuse Prevention Act, such as banning corporal punishment against children by their parents. Also, as the global #metoo movement has reached Japan, victims of sexual abuse have made public appearances, urging society to realize the problem and take steps against sexual harassment in schools, workplaces and other environments.

Literature, on the other hand, has been trying to raise awareness about these issues for a long time. Uchida Shungicu's (b. 1959) semi-autobiographical novel Fazaafakkaa (Fatherfucker, 1993) or Tendo Arata's (b. 1960) novel Eien no ko (The Eternal Child, 1999) from the Heisei Era can be considered as early examples of literature that reveals the urging problem of child abuse in Japanese society.

After giving a brief outline of the history and typology of child abuse in Japanese literature, this paper will explore the way contemporary Japanese female writers such as Murata Sayaka (b.1979) and Imamura Natsuko (b. 1980) approach different aspects of child abuse in their works. I shall argue that narrated by a verbally and physically (sexually) abused woman, Murata's latest novel Chikyuuseijin (Earthlings, 2019) along with some of her earlier works such as Tadaima tobira (A Welcoming Door, 2012) can be considered as attempts to give voice to traumatized children and shed light on both the short and long-term effects of child abuse. Imamura's works such as her debut novel Kochira Amiko (Amiko Here, 2011) and the short story Ahiru (Duck, 2016) will be discussed from the perspective of neglect, a common form of child abuse in Japanese society. Through the analysis of the texts, this paper will also give an explanation on contemporary phenomena such as hoochigo (left-alone-child) or dokuoya (toxic parents) in order to provide a better understanding of the problem of child abuse in Japan.