Debrief session of IGS Affiliated Researcher

A debrief session of IGS affiliated researchers was held on July 30, 2018 (Mon).  Dr. Keiko Hirano and Maura Stevens reported on their researches as IGS affiliated researchers in 2018.

Dr. Hirano, the first reporter, reported on her research which she has been conducted at the Grant-in-Aid from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) with the presentation title of “Becoming skilled” and the Unionization: Protection of Migrate/Domestic Workers’ Rights in Indonesia. The International Labor Organization’s Convention #189 (ILO C189) is to define decent work of domestic workers, but Indonesia has not ratified it. She introduced that C189 brought the enactment of the Migrant Workers Protection Act, then promoted to the establishment of domestic worker union in Indonesia and raised consciousness of domestic works as decent work through the rights movement for domestic workers. However, there is no regulations to protect domestic workers yet in Indonesia. It is necessary to have social dialogue between the labor union of domestic workers and the users’ (employers’) organization of domestic workers to improve the work environment of domestic workers in the future, but the users’ organization hasn’t existed yet. No users’ organization also conduces that migrant domestic workers are not respected as skilled workers after they return to their home countries because domestic workers cannot get social approval about their skills. She mentioned that it could be the limitation of the rights movement of domestic workers in India.

Maura Stephen, the second reporter, presented her research with the title of Medical Anthropological Research on Menstruation in Japan. Ms. Stevens is a Ph.D. candidate of the University of Hawaii and stayed at IGS about 10 months as a Japan Foundation Fellow. During her stay at IGS, she interviewed 20 Japanese female university students on their menstruation. From the viewpoint of medical anthropology, she analyzed the problems of medicalization of women’s body through their experience related to menstruation and institutional and policy supports including menstrual leave. At the time of reporting, no clear result was shown because it was in the middle stage of the survey, but she showed the detailed data on how and when women learned about menstruation first time, memories about the onset of menarche, anxiety and worries about menstruation, physical/emotional/mental changes before/during/after menstruation and sanitary products. Those data from the research will be analyzed in full swing after she will return to the University of Hawaii, and the research will eventually be published as an oral presentation, a dissertation, or a book at a conference.

(Yukari Semba, Project RF of IGS, Ochanomizu University)