April 2004 Archives

Download The first issue of the CGS newsletter

The first issue of the CGS newsletter has been published on April 1. You can read abstracts of many articles in newsletter and full-texts on the webpage. First newsletter features the profiles about twenty CGS staff members who are interested in Gender Studies from various academic fields. There are also many articles about Japanese law, ordinance, trial and TV drama from the perspectives of Gender Studies.

We plan to publish newsletters biannually. Your comments and reactions will be welcome.

The College of Liberal Arts and the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences of International Christian University (ICU) form a united department system in both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Students are able to study and research freely without being constrained by their own departments. Similarly, CGS brings together professors from a diverse range of fields, who share an interest in gender and/or sexuality. Below you will find a list of the CGS members and their 1) majors & research areas, as well as their 2) current interests & a short message about their research and its relation to gender studies.

In addition, we will introduce the research institute assistants who are involved in the management of CGS, as well as the researchers associated to the center.

(2017.10.24 update)

Tanaka, Kazuko : Director of the Center for Gender Studies [CGS NewsLetter 001]

The Center for Gender Studies (CGS) at International Christian University (ICU) opened in April 2004.

The CGS has three primary goals: (1) to facilitate a network of Asia-based researchers in the fields of women's studies, men's studies and gender studies, (2) to go beyond the mere absorption and translation of Western-based studies and to make Asia-based studies available worldwide, and (3) to develop a tri-fold genderstudies model that incorporates not only the social sciences and the humanities but also the natural sciences.

s073837: David Jeffries [CGS NewsLetter 001]

　The phrase 'military prostitution' resounded across the room, across imaginations of water and of violence, around conceivable images of young soldiers and communities of women. As I listened to Professor Katherine Moon's lecture regarding this 'military prostitution' and its presence in Korea, my mind expanded. As Moon spoke, I began to stretch my imagination to picture the current situation in Iraq. My two-dimensional questions of 'what is happening with the soldiers and with the country', bends further now to gain more depth, as I begin to wonder of the perspectives of women, or of a single woman in Iraq?perspectives of which I suddenly realized I have yet to hear, or read. I began to wonder what is being negotiated beyond my non-mobilized, male imagination in spaces of women and war. Regardless of what I am able to conceive, what things might surely be happening in Iraq...in Korea...in Japan...or in my home country, the United States regarding women and prostitution? My ignorance on these issues of prostitution, and how prostitution is related to the military, humbled me as a male who dares to say that he cares for women's issues, as a male who dares to call himself a feminist in the year 2004. Far beyond this humbling, however, Professor Moon also reminded me during her lecture of my privilege as a male, a privilege that allows me to slip past the narratives of these women, whose voices compile stories that are also, in some way, relative to my own life. After all, as women, as prostitutes, as nationals, and as mothers, these women share the world with me. They are family members to others as my mother and sister are family to me. These women and myself belong to the community that I most often forget about: the international community. Listening to the voices of some of these women through Moon's lecture has brought me back to the fact that I do indeed share space with such women, and that I must, therefore, take part in these issues surrounding military prostitution.

h061202: Kawasaka, Kazuyoshi [CGS NewsLetter 001]

On December the nineteenth 2003, Ms. Kamikawa came to ICU to give a lecture of the commemoration seminar for the Human Rights Day. In 2003, she became the first person in Japan to register as an election candidate with a gender different from that listed in her official family register. She was elected as a councilor of Setagaya Assembly officially announcing that she is a transgender. Transgender is "A person with Gender Identity Disorder (GID) suffers from the discrepancy of one's identity: between one's body and one's identified sex". The World Health Organization acknowledges it, according to her homepage.

h031313: Nitta, Yuko [CGS NewsLetter 001]

"The local volunteer Mitaka citizen group is currently making a tentative plan of City Ordinance of Equality of Both Sexes. This ordinance aims to make a society where both men and women can equally demonstrate their individuality and it includes an Anti-Domestic Violence and an Anti-Sexual Violence Clause. In February, some students from ICU Gender Legal Study Group participated in the group's conference and discussed the tentative plan with other members.

Languages: Hibiya, Junko [CGS NewsLetter 001]

ICU is now planning to launch the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies (PGSS) in AY2005. In the contemporary development of learning, "gender" is considered to be an important concept and analytical framework. It is necessary not only for the Humanities and the Social Sciences, but also for the Natural Sciences to investigate from the gender perspective in order to develop new academic understandings. Up to now at ICU, there have been several gender related courses. From AY2005 ICU is preparing to offer the curriculum with the consistency and continuity and to integrate the gender courses in an organic way, aiming to meet the request of the students who are interested in gender and sexuality studies.

As the plans above are still tentative, please get in touch with CGS PGSS preparation office for more detailed information.

SS: Oishi, Nana, IS: Tanaka, Kazuko [CGS NewsLetter 001]

ICU Center for Gender Studies announces that our First Annual International Workshop will be held in November 2004. Entitled "Creating 'Knowledge' on Human Security and Gender: From Asian Perspectives," this workshop sets its focal point on "Human Security," integrating "Peace, Security, and Conviviality", which we conceive as the best representation of the essence and our goals of the workshop.

s051470: Shimizu, Yudai [CGS NewsLetter 001]

Introduction
On the plenary session of Diet held on July 10, 2003, the ruling and opposition parties voted unanimously to pass the "Special Law on Gender Identity Disorder" that would allow people with gender identity disorder to change their officially registered gender in their family registries under certain conditions. This law will go to effect from July 16 of this year. In this article, the author will give a brief introduction on the enactment process and the content of the law, and point out the problems of it in order to clarify the relations between the GID patients and law as well as society.

ICU Student: KUBOTA, Hiroyuki [CGS NewsLetter 001]

To bridge the gap between Gender Studies and Legal Science, the First Annual Conference of Gender Legal Studies was held at Waseda University, Tokyo, on December 6th and 7th of 2003. A large number of judical practitioners, scholars and sociologists participated and discussed legal issues through gender perspectives. I saw the possibility of the newly emerged Gender Legal Studies.

s051470: Shimizu, Yudai, i052005: Kubota, Hiroyuki [CGS NewsLetter 001]

The lawsuit of Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd., a widely watched women's labor suite over the Equal Employment Opportunity Law, reached an out-of-court settlement in January 2004 with an overall victory of the plaintiffs. And it is considered a landmark for the women's labor issue as far as the content of the settlement is concerned. In this lawsuit, two female employees of Sumitomo Electric Industries sue the firm, alleging it discriminated against women in terms of pay and promotion, as well as the government, who had turned down the mediation. They had demanded a compensation of some 160 million yen, including the salary difference between them and male employees who had worked at the firm for the same length of time.

Humanities: Miyasaka, Natsumi [CGS NewsLetter 001]

TV drama is an interesting research material, especially for those scholars of gender expression in fiction like myself. Stating this as an excuse, I habitually watch popular TV dramas, both Japanese and foreign, and I cannot help noticing the huge difference that lies between Japanese and English (or American) dramas. The latter, reflecting social maturity perhaps, seldom contains the old gender-stereotype. For instance, they do not differentiate any occupation by sex. We see male and female lawyers fighting evenly in a courtroom. There are as many female doctors as male ones, and male nurses as female ones. We see a couple with a wife as an office worker and a husband as a homemaker. Whether or not these images sincerely mirror the actual situation in society is another issue. At least, these dramas do not impose on women negative images as their role models through such a public and influential media as TV.

CGS will enrich gender-related links in order to facilitate the network among Asian centers and universities. If you would like to introduce some suggested website for our link page, please contact us at cgs@icu.ac.jp.

The CGS stands for the Center for Gender Studies at International Christian University (ICU) in Tokyo. Established in April 2004, this center offers a new communication space to anyone who is interested in the issues of gender and sexuality.