Wherefore Ecological Feminism in Japan?

• In Event: On Feminism and Ecology: Kamanaka, Tomiyama & Ueno After 3.11

Abstract

In Japan ecological feminism has for many years been shirked and evaded. We can trace its fate to the so-called “ecological feminism debate” of the 1980s, when Ueno Chizuko strongly criticized it. Because Ueno combined her critique of ecological approaches with a formidable critique of the Austrian philosopher Ivan Illich (1926-2002), whose writings from the 1980s celebrated essentialized gender categories and a return to pre-capitalist femininity, the theorization of ecology itself came to be regarded as a risky proposition in many circles. In this paper I reconsider the debate by sorting through what exactly ecological feminism has attempted to problematize. In tandem with an inquiry into how the relationship between women and ecology is represented in Kamanaka Hitomi’s 2014 documentary Little Voices From Fukushima, I discuss how the relationship between women and ecology has been evolving in Japanese academic feminism, particularly in the work of Ueno’s students, myself included. How has 3.11 changed the terms of the debate?

Author

• Yuki Senda, Musashino University