Ulrike Wöhr

Andrea Germer

The Handbook of Feminisms in Japan seeks to give a broad and, even without prior knowledge of Japan, easily accessible introduction to a range of feminisms in this non-Western context. With a useful comparative framework, it aims to advance transnational and international perspectives on feminisms around the world. It identifies discourses, theoretical positions and areas of feminist activity or intervention that readily correspond with those of feminisms in other countries, presenting chapters on topics such as radical feminism, maternalism, anarchism, literature, religion and pornography, but it also includes entries on specific historical and socio-cultural configurations, such as Japan’s women’s liberation movement, Uman Ribu. Building on a growing body of erudite scholarship in Japanese, English and other languages, each chapter succinctly traces historical developments of particular discourses or movements and situates them in the local political and societal context while also making reference to the wider Asian and global contexts. The authors identify the central actors and discuss the theoretical implications and political dimensions of particular feminisms or aspects of feminism in Japan. The discussion in each chapter is based on relevant primary and secondary sources, thus introducing the reader to material for further reading and research.

Handbook of Feminisms in Japan

Vera Mackie

Gender, Nation and State in Modern Japan makes a unique contribution to the international literature on the formation of modern nation–states in its focus on the gendering of the modern Japanese nation-state from the late nineteenth century to the present. References to gender relations are deeply embedded in the historical concepts of nation and nationalism, and in the related symbols, metaphors and arguments. Moreover, the development of the binary opposition between masculinity and femininity and the development of the modern nation-state are processes which occurred simultaneously. They were the product of a shift from a stratified, hereditary class society to a functionally-differentiated social body. This volume includes the work of an international group of scholars from Japan, the United States, Australia and Germany, which in many cases appears in English for the first time. It provides an interdisciplinary perspective on the formation of the modern Japanese nation–state, including comparative perspectives from research on the formation of the modern nation–state in Europe, thus bringing research on Japan into a transnational dialogue. This volume will be of interest in the fields of modern Japanese history, gender studies, political science and comparative studies of nationalism.

Ulrike Wöhr

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