Aya TAKEUCHI
Freelance writer
【The article below is the same as the article that appears in the ninth issue of the CGS Newsletter.】
On November 17th 2007, Delta G held a workshop entitled “‘Pride Work’ Talk - Convincing and Satisfactory Jobs” for women and sexual minorities. The guest speakers were Mr. Issho Kon, Ms. Kyoko Okutani (Representative, WWB Japan) and Mr. Shigeru Yamamoto (Representative, Kotoba no Atelier). Okutani and Yamamoto both feature in Kon’s new book, Pride Work. WWB Japan, the Japanese branch of Women’s World Banking, was established in 1980 with the support of the United Nations and the World Bank in order to nurture women entrepreneurs. Kotoba no Atelier provides employment assistance for NEETs (young people Not in Education, Employment or Training) and hikikomori (individuals in self-confinement at home due to acute social withdrawal), through various activities such as their “All Neet Nippon” net radio program and the Tokiwa-so project. The event featured talks on actual practices such as Social Venture (social business organization), with the main theme being “Sustainable Work for Society and the Individual.”
The host, Delta G, was established in October 2007 with the intention of forming an all new lesbian media on the internet. As lesbians do not have or spend much money, businesses such as lesbian bars and magazines are hard to sustain. An additional dilemma is that the technical know-how and history have not been passed down. Thus, another purpose of this event was to explore new possibilities for Delta G.
Kon talked about how he came to be involved with social ventures, remarking that “there is no deficit or surplus with social ventures, which is what makes them sustainable.” This led to stimulating accounts by both Okutani and Yamamoto on their actual experiences. However, when a Delta G member asked the speakers whether sustainable business is possible for lesbians, many ideas were presented, but regrettably none seemed to be realizable.
The expansion of the LGBT market in Europe and North America is widely thought to be due to the recognition of LGBTs as new consumers. Yet, although LGBTs with high disposable incomes are granted a measure of respect, the structure of discrimination still prevails. Yamamoto asserted that “everything has a ‘strength,’ and as long as you have the ability to apply it, and the determination to get things done, the demand will automatically appear.” Yet, what is the strength of a lesbian? Determination alone is not enough to overcome the great barriers presented by economic discrepancy and heterosexism. The strength of lesbians was, in the past, perhaps only marketable within the lesbian community and burned out due to low funds and exhaustion. The inability to come up with innovative and realistic ideas seems to exemplify the difficulty of making “being a lesbian” commercially viable.
One Delta G member proposed to explore new possibilities by increasing the number of those who understand what Delta G questions, rather than those who simply share the same lesbian “branding.” Another member stated that “it is a matter of how skillfully one can lie. Of course one should choose what kind of lie it is though.” Eco-business, for example, is an achievement hardened by a certain kind of lie. No matter how much the word “eco-friendly” becomes a brand, governmental policies which depend on nuclear reactors and are harmful to the environment still continue to prevail. While looking forward to the future business developments of Delta G, I would also like to explore its possibilities. The first step in the mission→needs→business model→sustainable flow chart is the most important. Social movements seem to face the same challenges. They are not passed onto the next generation because they burn up during the mission stage. The answers will not be easy to find, but I intend to tackle this issue with patience and determination, forming networks with as many people as I can along the way.