Did Japanese Women Writing on Cultural Issues in Post War Japan Create Solidarity Among Themselves? a Case Study of the “Kusanomi Kai” (Kusanomi association)

In post-war Japan, many Japanese women have been writing about their everyday lives, their opinions on social problems, or politics in major newspapers. These readers’ columns helped in founding the “Kusanomi Kai” (Kusanomi association), an association of writers and readers, in 1955.

In my presentation, I will examine how and why a community of writers was created between 1955 and 1958. First, I will explain why they founded the communication association and made it their primary media. Back in the 1950s, women often found it difficult to get their opinion published in major newspapers, since some men were of the view that women were inferior to men and consequently criticized women’s opinions that appeared in the readers’ columns. To avoid being criticized, some women made “Kusanomi Kai” their primary media to communicate amongst themselves.

Second, I will discuss the practice of writing followed by the “Kusanomi Kai” members and the use of media studies. Those days, most women had little experience of making a speech in front of an audience. However, as they were good at writing, they used the skill for expressing their opinions about gender or social problems and read them out as they appeared in print. To do this, they would go to a meeting of “Kusanomi Kai” and talk about their writing in the media.

Third, I will outline the profile of the women who participated in the “Kusanomi Kai” and the categories of members in the association. The association was made up of not just housewives but also a few working women. They wrote about their opinion on issues that mattered and discussed them with each other in the group meetings. This is how they developed a sense of intimacy and built their collective identity, not as “housewives” but as “women.”