University of Michigan: Ten Years Later: Addressing Gender Disparity in Japan’s Disaster Response
Featuring Teruko Karikome (Women’s Space Fukushima), Reiko Masai (Women’s Net Kobe), & Etsuko Yahata (Hearty Sendai); moderated by Professor Mieko Yoshihama, U-M School of Social Work.
Delivered in Japanese with English translation.
Disasters have been known to exacerbate pre-disaster inequalities, with greater impact on vulnerable populations. In 2011, the “3.11 Great East Japan Disaster” — a cascade of a M9.0 earthquake, massive tsunamis, and a nuclear accident — struck Japan, which at that time ranked just 98th of the 135 countries on the Global Gender Gap Index (121st of 153 as of 2020). Now 10 years after 3.11, panelists will discuss the disaster’s effects on women through their own experience and grassroots activism, illuminating ways in which structures and norms of Japanese society contributed to women’s increased vulnerability in this time of crisis. They will provide invaluable first-hand accounts of how women in Japan organized and exposed post-disaster gender-based violence, advocated for more gender-informed disaster policies and response, shattered societal indifference and denial, and created change.
