Women’s Experiences with the Great East Japan Disaster: Critical Feminist Participatory Analyses through Photovoice

This contribution focuses on women’s experiences with the Great East Japan Disaster, a cascade of massive earthquakes, colossal tsunamis, and grave nuclear accidents. We present the findings from a feminist participatory action research project with women affected by the disaster, the PhotoVoice Project, initiated in 2011 shortly after the disaster in collaboration with local women’s NGOs.

Using PhotoVoice methodology—a participatory method involving repeated photo-taking, small group discussions, and creation of voices (written messages), the project seeks to promote more inclusive, gender-responsive disaster policies and programs in Japan and beyond.

Since 2011, across 10 sites, over 65 women of diverse backgrounds have co-produced knowledge with researchers and local collaborators. Through their photographs and voices, participating members have explicated various ways in which gendered structural inequity, social norms, and socioculturally rooted practices impacted women and children in and after the disaster.

Ongoing participatory analyses of members’ photographs and voices have also exposed failures and contradictions of disaster policies and responses, which compromised the safety and rights of women and children affected by the disaster. Through repeated discussions, we have interrogated various widely advocated notions, such as Build Back Better and disaster resilient society while also problematizing policies and governmental actions, such as repatriation-focused interventions and the promotion of so-called Fukko Olympics (Olympics Games to support reconstruction).

Increasingly, members have been participating in social action, obtaining certifications and appointments as disaster prevention specialists, running for office and winning, and advocating for policy and institutional changes through various channels.

In addition to the long-lasting impact of the disaster and radioactive contamination, this presentation will also present visions for the future, promoting disaster prevention, risk reduction, and reconstruction grounded in the rights and needs of local residents.