Women’s Cross-border Activism in East Asia

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

Gender Analysis of Sex, Body, and Reproduction

Gender Analysis in the History of Anti-pollution/environmental Movements

Gender in the Transformation of Global Governance and the Restructuring of Nations

Literary/artistic Cultural Representation and Gender

Working Conditions and Agency of Migrant Female Domestic and Care Workers in Japan

Aya Sadamatsu (Keisen University) [Principal Investigator] Fumie Ohashi (Associate Professor, IGS) [Co-investigator] Keiko Hirano (Yokohama National University, Affiliated Researcher, IGS) [Co-investigator]

IT-BPO International Division of Labor and Gender in Emerging Asia

Fumie Ohashi (Associate Professor, IGS) [Co-investigator],
Mariko Adachi (Visiting Researcher, IGS) [Co-Investigator],
Yoshie Hori (Professor, Waseda University) [Principal Investigator]

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.

Constructing a New Theory of the State through Feminist Theory: From the Concept of Care and the Resonception of Security

Changes in Life Order and Gender in Rural China During the People’s Commune Period

Fumie Ohashi (Associate Professor, IGS) [Co-Investigator] 
Tadashi Horiguchi (Professor, Osaka Metropolitan University) [Principal Investigator]

Migrant Women and the Reproductive Sphere in Hong Kong: Gender Analysis of Hong Kong as a Global City

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.

Exploring Aspects of Mobility, Sex, and Power in “Karayuki-san”

Norway-Japan: Bridging Research and Education in Gender Equality and Diversity

［Norway Research Council, INTPART, 287699］

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.