Feminist Studies / Activities in Japan: present and future

Abstract

The essay provides an overview of feminist studies in Japan nowadays, exploring in particular how new perspectives on sexuality and postcolonial theory have been gradually incorporated into feminist studies since the 1990s. In relation to sexuality, approaches to gender-sexuality have been enriched by the incorporation of new theories from areas such as literary criticism, art or history, among others. This has allowed for new critical examinations of heterosexism and of questions about gender and sexuality, and has eventually derived in the institutionalization of feminist studies with a poststructuralist influence in the Japanese academia. The article also analyzes the incorporation of postcolonial studies into feminist studies, as well as the impact that the question of prostitution during the war has had on them.

Keywords

• feminist studies
• Japan
• sexuality
• gender
• postcolonialism
• war and prostitution