In societies where women are oppressed, women are treated exclusively as sexual beings and forced to engage in non-consensual sexual acts. Men are taught that it is okay to assault women sexually, their sexual conquest of women is celebrated by their male peers, and there is a widespread belief that the victim is at fault. The damage is hidden as shame, not talked about, nor understood.

  To change this situation, feminism and other movements have pointed out and corrected myths and prejudices surrounding sexual violence, developed research that shows the depth and impact of sexual violence, including trauma, and given a name, “sexual harassment,” to sexual violence that takes advantage of a position or status. They have argued that this is a problem of “rape culture” which covers society and have called for a shift from a “No means Yes” framework to a society that holds perpetrators accountable.

  In Japan, many people have been working on this issue and changing the situation, including the first significant revision in 110 years of the criminal code’s sexual offense provisions in 2017. The ensuing #MeToo and flower protests have led to even more substantial changes in the situation, and new policies are being issued. We talked in this symposium about how sexual violence occurs, how sexual violence has been reported and talked about, and how the “sexual crime” regulations that hold perpetrators accountable will be further discussed and amended.

  Currently, at least one “one-stop center for victims of sexual violence” has been established in each prefecture, and victims ask for their consultation on a daily basis. The report rate for sexual violence is low. Still, many victims consider filing a report with the police because they cannot forgive the perpetrator or want to prevent the perpetrator from reoffending. However, even if you consult the police, there are legal barriers, such as the victim’s report not being accepted unless it is proven that the victim was assaulted or threatened and tried to resist or that the situation was such that they were unable to resist. There was a legal barrier. In 2017, sexual crimes under the Criminal Code were significantly revised for the first time in 110 years, but the requirement for “threat of violence,” which requires the victim to resist, was not revised. In 2019, four acquittals were made public, sparking flower demonstrations in which the parties and supporters across the country chanted, “We need another legal reform.” Then, in June 2023, the Penal Code was amended and became a crime of “non-consensual sexual intercourse, etc.,” which states that “sexual intercourse without consent is a crime.” However, on-site checks are required to ensure they are interpreted and applied appropriately. The government has also come up with measures to strengthen measures against sexual crimes and sexual violence. Still, there is no legal basis for one-stop centers, the financial base is weak, and significant regional disparities in support content exist.

  Under Japanese criminal law, to constitute a crime of forced sexual intercourse or a crime of quasi-forced sexual intercourse, it is not sufficient enough to assert that the victim did not consent to sexual intercourse or other sexual behaviors; it is necessary to prove that assault or intimidation took place in a violent manner with intimidation to the extent that it would be extremely difficult for the victim to resist, or that sexual intercourse took place under a similar degree of irresistibility. Even if the person freezes and is unable to resist, the perpetrator will make the excuse that they assumed consent was given because they were not resisting. If you resist, it will be judged that you are able to resist and can defend yourself. The requirements of assault, intimidation, and inability to resist have long caused victims of non-consensual sexual intercourse, etc., to suffer.

  In March 2023, six years after the sexual offense provisions of the Penal Code were revised for the first time in 110 years in June 2017, the assault/intimidation and inability to resist requirements were changed to “forming, expressing, or A bill has been submitted to the Diet that would amend the crime from “forced sexual intercourse, etc.” to “non-consensual sexual intercourse, etc.” with the requirement that it be difficult to complete the act. The proposed amendment raises the age of consent for sexual intercourse (the age at which it is a crime regardless of the consent of the other person) from under 13 to under 16. In addition, to deal with sexual crimes that take advantage of status-related relationships, the bill includes a provision for “crimes of non-consensual sexual intercourse, etc.,” including “crimes of sexual intercourse, etc., that are caused by influence based on economic or social status. An example of this is the phrase “to cause concern about disadvantage.” We discuss whether the current amendment bill is sufficient to make damages such as non-consensual sexual intercourse punishable, including the circumstances that led to the amendment.

  This report examines sexual violence and sexual damage in Japan from the viewpoint of the current situation surrounding the media, especially from three perspectives: the perspective of victims, the perspective of the standpoint of supporting victims, and the perspective of reporting. Female journalists have been subjected to sexual assault and harassment by their male fellow reporters, who are primarily public authorities. For a female reporter to continue her work, sexual harassment occurs within the structurally dominant relationship she has with her interviewees. One of the reasons for the lack of improvement is that the Japanese media is an overwhelmingly male-centered organization, with only 20% of reporters being women, so the problems faced by female reporters have not been made visible. In addition, men dominate editorial decision-making, and journalism tends to be biased from a male perspective. This homosocial system is a factor in determining news value, which, as a result, lacks diversity. The homosocial structure of the media also influences the way sexual violence and sexual damage are reported and treated. When describing cases of sexual violence, some media use words such as “assault” and “roughness” to replace crimes such as forced sexual intercourse and rape, which can trivialize the damage and lead to the denigration of the victims. In the future, the media must work together with gender research to avoid reinforcing prejudice and discrimination based on rape myths, such as the idea that victims should remain silent and not expose their injuries publicly.

  The small number of female researchers in Japan, particularly in higher-level career positions, presents a social issue. Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology launched the Program to Support the Research Activities of Female Researchers in 2006 to address this issue. However, considering the existing data, the program has yet to prove its effectiveness. In this paper, we discuss the findings of interviews conducted with 13 female researchers who participated in the Higher Position Development Program implemented by universities involved in the national program. These interviews provided information about the researchers’ motivations for participating in the program and the changes they experienced. By conducting and surveying these interviews, we came to the following conclusions. (i) The programs have had a positive effect on the career development of female researchers. (ii) The correlative relationship between the effectiveness of the program and the researchers’ motivations for participating was weak. Positive effects for career development could be expected even when the motivation was negative. (iii) Interview participants do not necessarily define “career development” with becoming a professor or manager. Based on the findings, this paper proposes the following suggestions. (1) Improve female researchers’ research and working environments, including professors and managers. (2) Create a career map including various research-related career paths. (3) Innovate the evaluation method of researchers.

  This paper analyzes how Western-style makeup methods became popular in Japan from the 1900s to around the 1930s and how changes in values surrounding makeup were linked to gender. Specifically, I focused on the process by which many women, regardless of their social class, were forced to become involved in the cultural domain of makeup during modernization.

  Therefore, I adopted the method of discourse analysis and focused on the role of the “hairdressing” profession that emerged along with the modernization process. Initially, the profession of “beautician” was dominated by men, and it was always viewed as a lowly job by the public. Therefore, female “hairdressers” actively created the discourse that “hairdressers = women” within the media space to assert their legitimacy. As these “hairdressers” spread Western-style makeup methods, they appealed to the women of the new middle-classes about the legitimacy and necessity of wearing makeup and the rationality and economics of purchasing cosmetics, which are tools for makeup. In this way, in pre-modern times, makeup was used to make one’s social status visible, regardless of gender. Still, in the modernization process, the image of the person wearing makeup and the person working in the makeup industry converged to be female.

  Notably, it has been argued that intimacy and equality within the family are precariously situated. Particularly in married heterosexual relationships, it is widely assumed that gender inequality is even more difficult to capture than in other relationships, as “affection” or “love” because these conditions are believed to be the premise of the relationship. This paper aims to clarify the gender-equal status of intimate relationships between husband and wife and elucidate how “equality” should be considered.

  First, referring to the concept of “intimate goods,” this paper pointed out the difficulty of considering gender equality in intimate relationships. Equality and equity in intimate relationships are difficult to capture univocally, and intimate relationships provide “goods” that are less amenable to distribution by the market. In considering gender equality in intimate relationships considering this difficulty, I not only focus on feminist discussions that use “care” as a critical term but also present a perspective that views marital relationships as “personality care relationships” in which people know each other well, care about each other as individuals, and share a common history, rather than relationships merely based on romantic love. Furthermore, based on Miwako Aruka’s (2011) “feminist theory of justice” and Martha Minow and Mary L. Shanley’s (1997) “theory of relational rights and responsibility,” this paper argues for gender equality through the ideas of not only guaranteeing people the intimate goods derived from personality care relationships as a right, but also making injustice visible in terms of the responsibility for personality care.

  The military masculinities of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) are rarely discussed within Japanese scholarship on men’s studies or studies of men. Even studies of gender and the JSDF have not focused on the diversity of military masculinities, especially from the perspective of the valorization of warfare. I suggest that there are two difficulties in theorizing the military masculinities of the JSDF: firstly, Article 9 of Japan’s Constitution places restrictions on JSDF participation in combat missions. In contrast, military masculinities are a concept capturing the fact that men are urged to fight as soldiers by associating manhood with warfare. There is a gap between the idea and the situation of the JSDF, and a theory to solve this problem is needed. Secondly, since the JSDF is ‘isolated’ in post-WWII Japanese society, it seems almost impossible to analyze the military masculinities of the JSDF, considering forces present outside the organization. To resolve these two contradictions, I draw on feminist IR, military culture studies, and studies on the JSDF. Building on existing literature, I argue that JSDF’s military masculinities can be understood as ones that compete between the valorization of combat missions and the valorization of the avoidance of war. This competing picture is constructed not only by the practices of the JSDF but also by the influences of Japanese society. Also, shifts in hegemonic masculinity within the JSDF can be analyzed by focusing on changes in the security environment and the economic climate, as well as the ways of memorializing the war.