#MeToo in Japan and South Korea: #WeToo, #WithYou

ABSTRACT

This article compares the impact of the #MeToo movement in South Korea and Japan. In South Korea, #MeToo inspired many women to go public with their accusations in numerous high-profile cases. Those accusations inspired the mobilization of mass demonstrations and demands for legal reform. In South Korea, the movement’s impact is evident in policy proposals and the revision of laws on sexual harassment and gender-based violence. In Japan, however, the movement has grown more slowly. Fewer women went public, and if they did, many remained anonymous. The movement remains limited to a small number of cases that resulted in the formation of a professional network to support women journalists. We argue that the different outcomes in these countries can be explained by the strength of women’s engagement in civil society and the nature of the media coverage in each case. In both countries, however, women continue to face a powerful backlash that includes victim-blaming and social and professional sanctions for speaking up.

KEYWORDS:

• Japan
• South Korea
• #MeToo
• #WeToo
• #WithYou
• gender
• sexual harassment
• activism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. “A Conversation with Tarana Burke: Founder of the Me Too Movement” hosted by the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia on August 14, 2018, at the Suzanne Roberts Theater in Philadelphia, PA.

2. Alyssa Milano is a film and TV actress and feminist activist who is active on Twitter. This is her original tweet: https://twitter.com/alyssa_milano/status/919659438700670976?lang=en. She has used her platform to create greater awareness about various feminist issues. Her original tweet was in response to Harvey Weinstein and the problem of sexual harassment in the film industry in Hollywood and to elevate Burke’s movement (see King 2017).

3. Japan is the 114th and South Korea the 118th on the Global Gender Gap Index 2017 by the World Economic Forum. See: http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2017/ (December 9, 2018).

4. Women, however, are also active participants in demonstrations and protest rallies in Japan. For example, a large number of women participated in the demonstrations against nuclear power and Japan’s security bills. On March 11, 2011, the northeastern coastal area of Japan (the Tohoku region, which is about 227–48 miles north of Tokyo) was struck by a 9.0 earthquake, which triggered a tsunami. The waves went over the protective barriers at a local nuclear power plant and caused its cooling system to malfunction. This brought attention to the problems of regulating the nuclear power plant industry and galvanized women, especially mothers to protest the government over nuclear power. In the summer of 2015 thousands protested the passage of the national government’s security bills, which would mark a shift from Japan’s pacifist orientation and significantly empower its military to take action abroad.

5. “Comfort women” is the English translation of the term “ianfu/wianbu” used in World War II-era Japanese government documents to refer to women and girls held in sexual servitude to the Japanese military during the 1930s and 1940s. Although open to critical appraisal, it is the term most often used in scholarly and many activist circles in the United States. An estimated 80% of these women were from the Korean peninsula (McCarthy, Mary and Hasunuma 2018). Kim Hak Sun was the first women to go public with her experience as a comfort woman (Allen 2015).

6. No Japanese woman came forward and spoke out.

7. See: http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/society/society_general/830046.html (September 14, 2018).

8. See: Lee, Yong-chang. 2018. “61.6% Women in Prosecutor’s Office Experienced Sexual Violence and Harassment.” http://www.hankookilbo.com/News/Read/201805171494083817 (accessed August 17, 2018).

9. “The wording of these laws, which has remained virtually unamended since 1907, 13 is characteristically broad and does not really enlighten us as to how rape is understood in the Japanese courtroom. Legal scholar George Koshi attempts to clarify this by outlining the key aspects of rape law: (1) penetration of the vagina by the penis, (2) without the consent of the victim, (3) achieved by the perpetrator’s use of force or intimidation” (Burns 2004, 85).

10. Interview with Yoshiko Hayashi, cofounder of WiMN (September 9, 2018).

11. Interview with Kanoko Kamata, on October 13, 2018. She is a community organizer and activist in Japan who has been lobbying members of Japan’s main parties with proposals to better protect women from harassment and sexual violence.