This paper explores the history of welfare and poverty in Britain while considering changes in its interpretative framework. While early studies primarily focused on the development of state policy, recent ones have developed new approaches including studies of the “mixed economy of welfare”, which examines the role played by voluntary social provision (including self-help and mutual aid bodies), as well as studies of the growth of state intervention in meeting welfare needs. Olwen Hufton has coined the phrase “make-shift economy” as an essential element in the survival of the poor, examining the more proactive, entrepreneurial efforts of the poor in response to the poor relief and charity dispensed by overlapping multiple authorities. The paper introduces the competing theoretical explanations for the growth and decline of the British welfare states in the early modern/modern and the postwar era, establishing a base for examining the British experience in a comparative context with Japanese cases.

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This article examines the early history of the food stamp program which was launched by the Federal Surplus Commodities Corporation (FSCC) under the Department of Agriculture in 1939. It explores how the issue of gender emerged in the operation of the program until its termination in 1943. “Hunger in the midst of commodity surpluses” was a serious concern during the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. It was the result of contradictory orientations of agricultural policy and public relief programs. In order to remedy the problem, Milo Perkins, the director of FSCC, introduced the food stamp program which gave low-income people two kinds of stamps to purchase food and agricultural surplus commodities. By giving participants the freedom to choose food through grocery store shopping, the program attempted to transform the image of destitute women as miserable victims lining up for food at commissary into autonomous “consumers” who enjoyed purchasing food for their family. However, participation in the program was almost completely limited to “male breadwinners” currently receiving work relief or “deserving widows” who raised small children with the help of public assistance. These gendered ideas became standard administrative criteria of eligibility for the program and women outside these categories were marginalized and excluded from the benefits of the program. At the same time, participants of the program became a target of nutrition education by the Bureau of Home Economics of the Department of Agriculture. By publishing recipes and giving cooking lessons, nutritionists of the bureau diffused scientific knowledge of nutrition so that poor women could be good housewives and wise mothers who prepared nutritious meals with inexpensive ingredients. Yet the program did not necessarily reflect the dietary realities of low-income families, because it required participants to spend a minimum of one dollarʼs worth of stamps each week for each family member.

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In earlier scholarship the Empress Jingu was presented in conflicting ways: on the one hand, her image was used in the interests of the Japanese empire and its overseas expansion as a “symbol of nationalistic politics and plans,” and on the other hand used in beliefs associated with safe childbirth as “a female symbol reflecting modern female norms.” Scholars have noted that the medieval/early modern images of the Empress Jingu are at odds with modern norms for women. In the medieval and early modern historical view, Empress Jingu, who ascended the imperial throne and led military forces despite being a woman, is presented as a woman who wished to break away from the view of women as incompetent. This paper analyses the changing images of Empress Jingu held by individuals involved in the Meiji-era struggle for improvement of womenʼ s rights as presented in Jogaku Zasshi (Journal of Womenʼ s Studies) and Jogaku Shinshi (New Journal of Women's Studies). The analysis shows that while the first issue of Jogaku Zasshi, which had the Empress on its cover, seemed to present the Empress as a woman who had matched the accomplishments of men, presentation in later issues slowly changed the Empressʼ s image to one that matched with Meiji government ideas about good wives and wise mothers. Although the first issue of Jogaku Zasshi and the 24^th issue of Jogaku Shinshi presented images of the Empress Jingu, in the end images of Empress Jingu lost their appeal as a model of womanhood, and these journals increasingly featured Empress Komyo and Princess Shoken.

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Beheiren (“Peace for Vietnam!” Committee) played a central role in the anti-Vietnam War movement in Japan. Beheiren was founded in 1965 and continued until 1974. During that time many local Beheiren groups were formed across the country. Beheiren developed a new style for organization, which reduced hierarchy, respected spontaneity, and allowed anyone to join.

This paper focuses on Nagasaki Beheiren, which was formed in Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture in January 1968. The paper, based on oral history, shows how gender impacted the early development of the movement. The main source material is oral history interviews with one of the participants who played a key role in the early movement, who is referred to as an “unknown” “woman” in Nagasaki Beheiren, one “regional” group. This paper discusses three elements that have not received much attention in previous studies on Beheiren: “unknownness”, “women”, and “region”.

The results can be summarized in the following three points. First, the activities of the “unknown” “woman” were restricted by three factors: social prejudice and the pressure of police authority on anti establishment movements, precarious employment with gender asymmetricity, and sexism among colleagues. Second, the unknown woman performed her own movement under the restrictions. Her firm resolve and action were rooted in her experience as a child of atomic bomb survivors, which shows the “regional” historicity of an atomic-bombed area. Third, the above-mentioned restrictions and her thoughts and actions were not reported in the mass media. In contrast, the mass media utilized women as a symbol of the diversity of the movement based on gender bias, which means that there was sexism in the mass media as well.

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In recent years, LGBT rights, particularly marriage equality and transgender rights, have been the subject of heated political debates in North America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and East Asia. Among the East Asian countries, grassroots conservatives against gender equality in South Korea and Japan have joined in “solidarity” with the trans-exclusionary feminists, who target the communities and activism of and for sexual minorities in an effort to block their solidarity. This paper analyzes the transnational dissemination of transphobia by inspecting the trans-exclusionary discourses in South Korea.
Focusing on the South Korean military and conscription, I assert that the hegemonic masculinity of being cisgender, heterosexual, and reproductive is historically constructed. On the other hand, the mainstreaming of feminism since the 2010s has led to the proliferation of trans-exclusionary discourses among younger women. I read this as a departure from the previous generation of feminism, which valued the alliance with the LGBT movements. And it is with this proliferation of trans-exclusionary discourses that the “solidarity” between TERF and the conservatives was formed.
This paper examines the trans-exclusionar y discourses using an historical approach and transnational lenses. This research argues that the promotion of trans rights is, once and for all, necessary in the fight against transphobia, as well as against [hetero]sexism. This fight, therefore, is an urgent and critical enquiry in not only trans/queer studies, but also feminism and gender studies.

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