IGS Research Project 2020
Gender and Politics in East Asia |
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| Researcher | Ki-young SHIN (Professor, IGS) Mari MIURA (Professor, Sophia University) Jackie STEELE (Designated Associate Professor, Nagoya University) |
| Outline | East Asia has attracted global attention as a region that has achieved economic development, but the path of development of political democracy is not uniform. The aim of the research is to undertake a comparative analysis by surveying both male and female legislators in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, to find out what factors improve or hinder women’s political representation in the East Asian countries, and how to put political systems that foster gender diversity in place. |
Women’s Cross-border Activism in East Asia |
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| Researcher | Fumie OHASHI (Associate Professor, IGS) |
| Outline | Today we find many feminist activists raising their voices in various public spaces, such as the streets, squares, public transportation, university campuses, chambers of parliament, media, cyber space, etc. Through activism in such spaces they achieve global solidarity in working towards solutions for common problems. This study will discuss how such activism has evolved in East Asia, especially focusing on (1) The joint labor movement of the local/migrant domestic workers in regard to the ILO Convention on Decent Work for Domestic Workers (C189); (2) Women’s anti-militarization activism; and (3) The transregional/transnational activism of Chinese feminists in the 2010s. |
Gender Analysis of Capital, Body and Mobility |
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| Researcher | Mariko ADACHI (Visiting Researcher, IGS) Hiroaki ITAI (Project Lecturer, IGS) Fumie OHASHI (Associate Professor, IGS) |
| Outline | This project analyses changes in the function of capital after the global financial crisis by focusing on Saskia Sassen’s concept of ‘expulsions’. Examining the ‘normalisation’ of ‘expulsions’ from a gender perspective enables comprehension beyond the conventional analytical frameworks of ‘fragmentation of the body’ and the inclusion/exclusion dichotomy. |
Reexamining “Liberal Feminism” |
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| Researcher | Hiroaki ITAI (Project Lecturer, IGS) |
| Outline | This research project reexamines the ideas and movements that characterize the first wave of feminism, which includes works of Mary Wollstonecraft and John Stuart Mill. The project aims to clarify matters by undertaking a textual analysis of The Subjection of Women by J. S. Mill, and to create momentum for a reexamination of liberal feminism by completing a new translation of The Subjection of Women. |
Assisted Reproductive Medicine and Gender |
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| Researcher | Yukari SEMBA (Project Research Fellow, IGS) |
| Outline | Assisted reproductive medicine has advanced remarkably in recent years, and medical technologies including the use of donated sperm/eggs/embryos and surrogacy have become common in society without enough discussion on their pros and cons within society and expert groups. In this situation, women, as the sex who give birth, are more affected by these medical technologies. This research aims to investigate the influence of reproductive medicine on women both domestically and overseas. |
Gender Analysis of International Labor Migration from the Perspective of Sending Countries |
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| Researcher | Keiko HIRANO (Project Research Fellow, IGS) |
| Outline | Global political and economic factors affect the immigration policies of receiving countries. As well, economic and cultural factors in sending countries have affected international migration policies. This project examines international migration issues from the perspective of sending countries, examining such cases as 1) Mexico and US migrant labor and 2) Migration policies in the General Election 2019 in Indonesia. |
External Funds 2020
Migration Policy Interactions Between Receiving Country-Sending Country: A Comparative Study from International Sociology[JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A), 19H00607] |
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| Period | 2019 – 2021 |
| Researcher | Keiko HIRANO (Project Research Fellow, IGS)[Co-Investigator], Akihiro KOIDO (Professor, Hitotsubashi University) [Principal Investigator] |
| Outline | This research project aims to analyze migration issues by examining the effect of dynamic policy linkage between receiving–sending countries. Co-researcher conducts the analysis of migration policies in Indonesia, and will interview migration policy makers at its Manpower ministry. |
Hurdles for Women’s Political Participation: Surveys of Diet Members and Party Officials[JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B), 18H00817] |
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| Period | 2018 – 2020 |
| Researcher | Ki-young SHIN (Professor, IGS) [Co-investigator], Mari MIURA (Professor, Sophia University) [Principle Investigator] |
| Outline | This research examines the hurdles for women to enter the legislative politics in Japan. Drawing on international comparative research on countries with similar mixed member electoral systems, it will focus on the recruitment process of women and men candidates and how the process is gendered in a way that women and men face different opportunities and challenges. |
IT-BPO International Division of Labor and Gender in Emerging Asia[JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B), 20H01468] |
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| Period | 2020 – 2022 |
| Researcher | Fumie OHASHI (Associate Professor, IGS) [Co-investigator], Mariko ADACHI (Visiting Researcher, IGS) [Co-Investigator], Yoshie HORI (Professor, Waseda University) [Principal Investigator] |
| Outline | This joint research project envisages a new theory of international political economy through empirical study of Information Technology and Business Process Outsourcing (IT-BPO) industries developed in different regions of Asia. Comparative analysis of each region will provide insights into many questions, such as ways in which female labor is allocated under the latest modes of the international division of labor; ways in which the emergence of a middle class and their consumption will pan out; the manner they witness the urbanization; and just how democracy will accommodate the shift of socioeconomic relations. |
Domestic and Care Workers in Japan in the Age of International Gendered Division of Reproductive Labor: A Genealogy of Solidarity[JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B), 19H01578] |
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| Period | 2019 – 2021 |
| Researcher | Fumie OHASHI (Associate Professor, IGS) [Co-investigator] Keiko HIRANO (Project Research Fellow, IGS) [Co-Investigator] Aya SADAMATSU (Professor, Keisen University) [Principal Investigator] |
| Outline | This research project will discuss how Japan is facing an international division of reproductive labor by focusing on the following two topics: (1) Unequal relations of employers/agencies/labor; (2) Labor regime surrounding the domestic workers and care workers, arguing that this regime can be changed through workers’ individual/collective actions based on their limited social capital. |
Research on How Other Countries Dealt with the Conflict between Gamete Donor Anonymity and Donor Offspring’s Right to Know[JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C), 18K00034] |
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| Period | 2018 – 2020 |
| Researcher | Yukari SEMBA (Project Research Fellow, IGS) |
| Outline | In Japan, donor insemination has been carried out anonymously since its first implementation. Recently, egg donation is receiving increasing attention, and it may generate discussions regarding donor anonymity. This research aims to explore what kind of discussion took place before passing legislation for securing donor offspring’s right to know, and to clarify their situation after the law took effect in other countries. |
Politics of Gender Quota: Institutionalization and Backlash
[JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C), 19K12604]
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| Period | 2019 – 2021 |
| Researcher | Ki-young SHIN (Professor, IGS) |
| Outline | This study analyzes the effects of the gender quota system, that was introduced to enhance women’s representation in the Korean legislatures. South Korea has introduced a gender quota system in the early 2000s by which parties are required to nominate women to a certain percentage of political party candidates. However, women still make up less than 20% as of 2019. This outcome has raised questions about the effect of the current quota system. Previous studies have pointed out that one of the reasons the quota system did not work was quota backlash, that is, various forms of resistance to quota’s implementation and defamation of the quota women. This study aims at clarifying the reasons why gender quota system does not work in South Korea by analyzing parties’ recruitment pattern, the political career path of women legislators elected by quota, and (in)formal forms of quota backlash over the past 15 years. |
Migrant Women and the Reproductive Sphere in Hong Kong: Gender Analysis of Hong Kong as a Global City[JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C), 19K12603] |
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| Period | 2019 – 2021 |
| Researcher | Fumie OHASHI (Associate Professor, IGS) |
| Outline | This research project will analyze how the reproductive labor power of migrant women has been allocated in Hong Kong by collecting oral histories from Chinese domestic workers, foreign domestic workers, and their employers. Hong Kong has shifted its economic strategy from export-oriented manufacturing in favor of becoming a “global city.” While establishing itself as the international financial/trade center of East Asia in the 1970s-1980s, Hong Kong started to accept foreign domestic workers. This trend coincided with the labor reallocation of Chinese women who migrated from mainland Canton, becoming domestic workers in Hong Kong. Even today, this dynamism of the trans-local and trans-national migration of women has been affecting the socio-economic relations of Hong Kong. By collecting “memories of care” from the different migrant women and employers in Hong Kong, this project will shed light on the shift of labor in the? reproductive sphere against the background of “global city” development. |
“The Women Question” in the late 18th-century Britain: Toward a Possibility of the Utilitarian Feminism.[JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C), 19K01570] |
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| Period | 2019 – 2021 |
| Researcher | Hiroaki ITAI (Project Lecturer, IGS) |
| Outline | This research project focuses on utilitarian feminism that has been criticized in the history of feminist thought for its patriarchal support. In particular, it examines aspects of utilitarian feminism in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, considering Bentham, Thompson, and J.S. Mill’s ideas of women and families. It reveals the theoretical and practical influence of classical utilitarianism on feminism and its uniqueness. |
Transformation of “Migrant/ Domestic Workers” in Indonesia[JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C), 19K01570] |
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| Period | 2017 – 2020 |
| Researcher | Keiko HIRANO (Project Research Fellow, IGS) |
| Outline | This research project analyzes the transformation of “migrant/ domestic workers” in Indonesia through analyzing migration policy change and the style of dispatching domestic workers, such as via smartphone application. In concert with the emerging middle class in Metropolitan Jakarta area, housing style have been changing recently. [Housing styles in Metropolitan Jakarta have adapted to meet the demands of the emerging middle class.] This new housing has led to engaging living-out domestic workers and gig-economy style domestic workers. This research aims to examine human rights issues by comparing the rights of living-out and live-in domestic workers against these shifts in housing styles and urban life. |
Norway-Japan: Bridging Research and Education in Gender Equality and Diversity［Norway Research Council, INTPART, 287699］ |
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| Period | 2019 – 2021 |
| Researcher | Masako ISHII-KUNTZ (Visiting Researcher, IGS) Ryoko KODAMA (Professor, Ochanomizu University/Researcher, IGS) Yoko TOTANI (Director, IGS/Professor, Ochanomizu University) Yukari SEMBA (Project Research Fellow, IGS) Kumi YOSHIHARA (Project Research Fellow, IGS) Junko SANO (Project Lecturer, Keio University/Affiliated Researcher, IGS) Derek Kenji PINILLOS MATSUDA (Lecturer, Center for International Education) The Center for Gender Studies, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) |
| Outline | A collaborative project with the Center for Gender Studies of NTNU. This project analyzes the current state of gender equality and diversity in Norway and Japan, considering the social, cultural, historical and political backgrounds of both countries. The aim of the project is to develop new perspectives for researching gender and diversity issues through comparative understanding of the differences and similarities of the two societies. Individual research projects are organized according to members’ research interests. |