Our panel of activists describe what it’s like speaking out as a woman in modern Japan – and what can be done to stem the rising tide of online abuse. The group also has a great discussion about privilege, how to recognize it, and why so many people would rather dismiss the concept entirely.
This is part of our continuing discussion with Unseen Japan Live! co-host Sachiko Ishikawa and activists Ayana (Yana) Wyse and Wakako Fukuda.
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Panel Participants
Jay Allen – Publisher, Unseen Japan. Japan nerd. White. Bald. Resides in Seattle and (occasionally) Tokyo.
Sachiko Ishikawa – Japanese Feminist and activist. Co-host of the Unseen Japan Crowdcast. Resides in Tokyo. (Read Sachiko’s piece on Japan’s Flower Demos)
Yana – Photographer, event organizer, and American from New York (“NOT the city!”) living in Osaka, Japan for the past nine years. One of the organizers of the Black Lives Matter Peaceful March in Osaka. Co-host of the Kurly in Kansai podcast. Member of the Black Creatives Japan collective.
Wakako Fukuda – Japanese Feminist and activist. Former member of student activist group SEALDs, which led protests against the Secrets Information Protection Act passed by the Abe administration. Resides in Tokyo. (Read a translation of one of Wakako’s recent essays on Unseen Japan)
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Notable Quotes
Yana on Handling Online Abuse
“I think for me, how I deal with hate, basically I block, mute, I don’t engage, I just let it go. So a lot of times I’m like, Oh I don’t get anything – but actually, I kinda do. I just mute it really quickly.”
Wakako On Speaking Up in Japan as a Woman
“I was getting a lot of comments and backlash – more than 200 to 300 of them every single day, including death threats and everything. That’s what happens when you speak up in Japan. And especially, when you’re a woman, it gets even worse. That ended up turning me into a feminist, so it wasn’t all bad, I guess….
“A big part of activism is being on social media, whether we like it or not – it’s inevitable if you want to speak up and make change. I didn’t deal with it well. After SEALDs disbanded, most of the female members deleted their social media because they couldn’t deal with it anymore. But male members still had their social media accounts because it wasn’t as bad for them.”
Sachiko on Activism
“I think that’s the thing about activism. You talk a lot about other people, and you talk about oppression. But you don’t talk enough about privilege. And you don’t look at yourself enough. I’m Japanese but I’m also half-white. So there’s a huge layer of privilege I have that I wasn’t looking at.”
Wakako on The High Level of Anonymity on Japanese Twitter
“People not…revealing their identity, it’s because they can risk their lives. Not that somebody’s gonna kill them or anything. But they could lose their jobs. That was one of the most common things that people told us as students [when we were protesting in the group SEALDS] – ‘You can’t get a job if you do that, you can’t talk about anything related to politics here.'”
