A Study of the Movement for Women's Suffrage in Pewar Japan ―Political Education of The Woman's Suffrage League of Japan―

Abstract

  The aim of this paper is to clarify the position and characteristics of Political Education in the activities of The Woman's Suffrage League of Japan (WSL) which was organized to agitate for women's suffrage in 1924.

  The most important aim of WSL was to achieve women's suffrage. Therefore they lobbied the Diet. They assumed that Political Education would become more familiar to women and a more important part of their activities after they got the vote. The movement for women's suffrage made progress in this period.

  After “Mansyu-Jihen” (1931), however, lobbying for women's suffrage at the Diet began to decline gradually. To cope with this difficult situation, WSL began to cooperate with local governments instead of going directly to the Diet During this process, they realized that connecting Political Education with the everyday lives of women would arouse their political interest.

  This Political Education was meant to increase the popularity of the movement to get women's suffrage by focusing on the everyday lives which women were living. It was also meant to convert their individual demands into political opinions, through their everyday lives.