The Synergy of Change: Feminist Protest, Pedagogy, and Legal Transformation in Japan

• In Event: Collective Behavior and Social Movements Section Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 12: The Intersection of Law and Movements

Abstract

Social movements employ strategies to pursue policy change, including advocacy, public education, and protest. While each has its own strengths and limitations, they can work synergistically, reinforcing one another to amplify a movement’s impact. This paper examines the 2023 criminal code reform on sex crimes in Japan as a case study to explore how feminist movements employed a multi-strategy approach to enact significant legislative change. The reform included renaming the offense from “Constructive Forcible Sexual Intercourse” to “Nonconsensual Sexual Intercourse”. The feminist activists secured a major victory through a combination of strategic action. A survivors’ advocacy organization played a pivotal role by navigating opaque policy-making processes and engaging persistently with politicians and bureaucrats. This advocacy was bolstered by a coalition of 12 feminist organizations, which provided institutional support and collective legitimacy. Meanwhile, the public protest campaign Flower Demo raised national awareness of sexual violence and exerted visible pressure on political elites. At the cultural level, various feminist groups developed educational programs on sexual consent in schools and universities, helping to shift public discourse and build societal support for legal reform. This case demonstrates how diverse forms of feminist activism can interact to produce meaningful policy outcomes, even in politically challenging contexts.

Author

• Kanoko Kamata, Keio University