National Women’s Education Center of Japan

NWEC held a training course for leaders who promote gender equality from May 16 to June 12, 2023 (partly co-hosted by The National Council of Women's Centers), with the theme of "Building a Sustainable Community from a Gender Perspective." There were 437 participants, including leaders, managers, and directors from women's facilities, local governments, and groups across Japan. This course included a keynote address based on this year's theme, a policy explanation by the national government, a briefing session on actual projects, and a panel discussion. Participants learned the latest information and actual cases on gender equality shared in the course, and had the opportunity to think about how to ascertain and tackle their regional situations and issues.

Prof. Nobuko Nagase (Ochanomizu University), who studies the relations between labor, family formation, and social institutions, delivered the keynote address, titled "Gender Equality—Future Policies for a Sustainable Society." In the first half, Prof. Nagase explained reasons why it is necessary to provide support for young people and children. In the second half, she showed many statistical data and illustrated the relations between the modern-day labor market, social security, falling birthrate, and the gender pay gap."

In the panel discussion, three people who have been taking measures from a gender-equal perspective in their worksites, such as a neighborhood association, a local government, and a gender equality center, shared their practices and efforts, as well as emerging results and issues with participants. After that, the panelists exchanged their opinions and answered questions from the participants.

Besides these programs, the national government's latest measures and collaborations between gender equality centers and related organizations were also shared during the training course. A lecture was given on actual cases to resolve three urgent, present-day issues common to all regions: participation of young generations and women; resolving the poverty of middle-aged, single women in non-regular employment; and changes in men's work style and lifestyle.

Participants made comments on this course, saying "I was able to understand various issues related to promoting gender equality from multiple angles," and "I was very inspired and realized that I need to review my work and restructure that process."

This exhibition was held from March to September 2024. Japan established a medical system and regulations on midwives to provide a better childbirth environment in the Meiji period, adopted a population policy to increase its fertility rate during World War II in the Showa period, underwent a baby boom after the war, and saw a drop in its birth rate as the result of the spread of the family planning movement in the 1950s, when the place of childbirth rapidly shifted from homes to hospitals. After that, there were also increases in "natural childbirth," which avoids relying on modern medicine, and the attendance of husbands and other family members at children's births. The purpose of this exhibition was to guide people through the above history with relevant records and provide them with an opportunity to learn about the many different types of childbirth today and to think about the realization of a society that ensures women can give birth safely and securely by viewing the concurrent "Childbirth of 100 People" photo exhibition, organized by the Childbirth of 100 People Project to introduce today's childbirth landscape.
The exhibition also included materials collected by the Research Group on the History of Midwives as part of the KAKENHI Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research project (FY2021–FY2023) "A Historical Sociological Study of Midwifery Based on Digitized Historical Records about Midwives and Childbirth Records in Japan." The catalogue of materials collected by the society and digital images of some of them were made available in the Women's Digital Archives System in March 2024 under the title "Archive Group 42: Collection of the Society for Research on the History of Midwives."

This exhibition was held from October 2024 through March 2025. The year 2025 marked the 50th anniversary of the International Women's Year (1975), which was designated by the United Nations with the aim of promoting women's empowerment. In 1975, the World Conference on Women, the first of its kind, was held. The conference adopted a World Action Plan and designated the period from 1976 through 1985 as the United Nations Decade for Women, during which time member countries carried out their own initiatives. Japan adopted its National Action Plan in January 1977 and opened the National Women's Education Center that same year. The United Nations adopted the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 1979. Japan, which sought to enhance its legal framework—for example, through the revision of the Nationality Act, the establishment of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act, and provision of gender-neutral home economics education—also ratified the convention in 1985.
The Fourth World Conference on Women, held in Beijing in 1995, adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Although Japan established the Basic Act for Gender Equal Society in 1999, the country's gender disparities in politics and economics have not narrowed, resulting in the country's continuing low ranking in the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Index.
As today many problems remain to be resolved despite advances in women's empowerment, this exhibition looked back on the past 50 years using materials stored in the Women's Archives Center to encourage visitors to think about solutions to issues faced in promoting gender equality.
The Lib Shinjuku Center Preserved Materials Exhibition displayed newly donated materials and was held concurrently in order to coincide with the aforementioned exhibition. It showcased materials owned by the Center, which since the 1970s, when the Women's Liberation Movement gained momentum in Japan as well, had addressed issues of domestic violence by husbands, contraception, abortion, pregnancy, menstruation, and other topics that remain relevant today.

NWEC held a training course for counselors and staff members in charge of counseling service at women's centers, and workers in charge of counseling service at local governments from June 20 to August 26, 2023. This year's course was comprised of two sections: the online basic training section aimed at teaching the fundamental knowledge and skills needed to provide counseling service and the face to-face step-up training section aimed at teaching counseling service and management from a gender perspective and how to handle difficult cases. In total, 650 people participated in the basic training section and 48 people in the step-up section.

In the basic training section, participants learned how the Act on Support for Women in Difficult Situations was legislated and how they should support women in counseling ahead of the enforcement of the act next year. They also deepened their understanding on how to identify regional issues and needs from individual consultations and reflect them in their service and administrative measures, as well as the significance of this process. They actively exchanged information on many different themes, such as how to provide counseling, counseling via social media, issues and good ideas on male clients, and how to secure and train skilled people.

The step-up training section was carried out face-to-face so that participants can learn how to manage counseling service from a gender perspective and to acquire the skills to deal with difficult cases. In this section, they were able to focus on learning, interact actively, and share their opinions and knowledge on their daily service with other participants and lecturers, by making full use of this face-to-face opportunity.

From their daily concerns on how to deal with individual counseling cases and flaws in their organizations' systems, to changes in society such as amendments of laws, participants were able to talk about various issues and establish relations that could last even after the training course. They said they were satisfied with the outcome of this training course. "This course specialized in the management of counseling service at women's centers, which was very rare. It was good to get a lot of information that was unavailable online and to make many connections through face-to-face interaction," one participant said. Another also said, "I learned many technical things and realized many things through my interaction with people from different organizations and shared the same concerns with them. I'm glad I joined the course."

From July 25 to September 25, 2023, NWEC held a training course for directors and committee members of school boards, members of boards of education or education centers, school managers, and school staff, with the theme of "Aiming to Promote Women to Managerial Positions." The aim of this course was to give our society momentum to encourage women to participate in the decision-making process in the field of school and education. There were 431 participants from across the country.

In school education, the proportion of women in management positions is growing, but it is not high enough. In addition, it varies depending on the region and type of school. In the training course, lecturers with rich experience and expertise explained why it was necessary to encourage women to hold executive positions now, as well as the basic principle of gender equality and the role of schools and school staff in creating a gender-equal society. They also mentioned several challenges, such as barriers that women faced when they try to build their careers at school or in the field of education and an entrenched notion of fixed male and female roles behind the lack of female leaders.

In the round-table talk, panelists discussed how to build an organization where diverse workers display their abilities, foster female leaders, and promote them to management positions, emphasizing the significance of women's participation in the decision-making process. Following the round-table talk, participants were divided into groups and discussed advantages of having women in management positions and the support and process needed to increase the number of female leaders, from three perspectives: the reform of working style and review of conventions, balancing work and life and supporting women's career growth, and the workplace climate and personnel training.

For the rest of the training course, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology shared information on personnel training and career growth at schools and on organizational reform, while boards of education spoke about their attempts. Lecturers also shared the viewpoints needed to approach issues at schools going forward and actual cases.

A participant commented, "I was inspired to make more efforts to promote a reform of the school climate and working style, raise female teachers' awareness, and enhance their motivation."

NWEC held a seminar titled "It’s shame not to know about it! Summer Seminar on How to Research Gender-Related Information" on August 28 to 29, 2024. The aim of this seminar was to provide younger generations with support for study and learning because they are expected to play a vital role in promoting gender equality. The seminar was designed to teach them how to do research and find documents when they write reports and theses on gender-related issues. In total, 16 university
students and graduate students participated in this seminar.

A lecture entitled "Methods for Writing Reports and Articles" helped participants to learn fundamental ideas about research, the characteristics of gender and feminism studies, how to organize their thoughts and set themes, how to collect and organize prior studies, how to do research, the basic structure of a table of contents, and other topics.
After study tours of the Information Center for Women's Education and the Women's Archives Center, participants who were still unsure about their own themes asked tutors for advice, while those who had already decided on their themes collected documents and information at the Information Center.
The dinner was followed by a social gathering in which they shared the documents and information they had collected with each other and exchanged opinions.
On the second day, participants continued to collect information and consulted the tutors. Each created a worksheet and gave a presentation.
The course received positive comments from participants, such as "The social gathering gave me an opportunity to speak to people pursuing themes similar to my own and to elucidate my own theme, and I was able to find documents I had never seen before in the Information Center," and "The program taught me how to conduct research on a theme of my interest, which is invaluable; it has motivated me to continue to study."

The basic training program held online started with a keynote address titled "What Diverse Viewpoints Are Needed for Disaster Prevention? — To Create a Society Where No One is Left Behind." In this speech, Visiting Professor at Kansai University of International Studies Yoko Saito, who studies disasters and recoveries from a gender perspective, explains several possible approaches to provide quality support while considering the different perspectives of each individual. After that, participants gradually learned about disaster prevention from the basic knowledge to effective problem-solving approaches through a lecture by the national government, a lecture based on actual cases, and an online exchange of opinions. It was a good opportunity for them to explore possible approaches while considering regional circumstances.

In a step-up training program, 50 members, who had also participated in the basic program, came to NWEC to learn practical skills and build a network of people in charge of disaster prevention.

NWEC conducted a campaign in response to the Cabinet Office promoting a movement to end violence against women, from November 12 to 25, 2023.

This campaign was designed to raise public awareness of human rights and to encourage improvement in education, claiming that violence against women was a serious human rights violation and a critical problem to be solved in order to realize a gender-equal society.

The movement to end violence against women is also called the Purple Ribbon campaign, because the purple ribbon has become a symbol of this campaign to increase awareness about the unacceptability of all forms of violence against women.

As part of the campaign, NWEC illuminated its building in purple. NWEC volunteer staff members displayed a campaign banner and posters to call for the eradication of violence against women to a wider audience.

NWEC staff members conducted a running event called Purple Ribbon Run where participants ran wearing purple clothes and live-streamed the event to raise public awareness.

These campaign events were very inspiring and are expected to further expand in the coming years.

NWEC held the FY2023 Gender Equality Promotion Forum from November 15 to December 21, 2023, with the aim of prompting participants engaging in gender equality promotion to interact regardless of region, organization, and discipline, and to create a wider network. While NWEC provided a keynote speech, 46 organizations that had publicly applied, such as gender equality centers across Japan, NPOs, NGOs, companies, university seminars, and groups of scholars, published online what they had achieved in their daily activities and studies. They were divided into eight groups by theme such as "expansion of women's participation in the policy and decision-making process," "education and media," "activities of gender equality centers," and "scientific technology and gender." Throughout the forum, diverse and quality programs were held with approximately 1,200 people taking part.

Viewers seemed to be interested in Mayor Kishimoto's policy that focused on local sovereignty, respect for human rights, and gender equality, and sent many questions to her. Kishimoto responded to their questions and spoke about her opinions and future visions. In the viewers' questionnaires, one said, "The issue of women's participation in politics seemed to be difficult. But it is not a problem to be solved only by women. Thinking of younger generations and the distance between politicians and us, I feel that we need to make some changes in politics." "I realized that the community was able to change with a citizencentered policy," another said.

The keynote speech is available on NWEC's official YouTube Channel.

In the round-table talk, participants held an enthusiastic discussion about barriers and resistance in offices when promoting DE&I, expenses to implement DE&I and executives' commitment, and how to deal with the claim that gender equality gives women privileges and creates reverse discrimination against men.

The coordinator summarized the discussion and presented these two issues that Japanese companies have to address immediately: (1) to ascertain the degree of unexplainable inequality and redress it, and (2) to defeat unconscious biases.

NWEC held the FY2023 Project Planning Training in Communities to Promote Gender Equality from January 16 to February 13, 2024, for workers in charge of project planning and operation at government offices, women's facilities, and community centers. In this training course, participants were expected to learn the knowledge and skills to sort out regional issues and draw up a draft of a project (program design). There were 182 participants in the on-demand course that included various lectures, and those who wished to participate in the group work course had the option to do so. Some programs were distributed ondemand and others were live-streamed.

In addition, a lawyer spoke about copyrights in relation to copying, photographing, publishing digital data, and performing other tasks related to archived materials, including the latest trends. The Tohoku University Archives and Society for Research on Local Women's History also reported the following activities.
The Tohoku University Archives held "A Century of History Starting with KURODA Chika, Japan's First Female University Student" in 2023 as a special exhibition commemorating the 110th anniversary of the admission of Japan's first female university students. In the same year, the archives made public the "KURODA Chika Materials," one of Japan's most extensive collections of information materials about Japan's first female university student.
The Society for Research on Local Women's History, which was established in March 2024, is a nationwide research association comprising individual members specializing in research on local women's history. To commemorate its 10th anniversary, the society carried out two activities: 1) issuing a bulletin collection entitled "Bulletin of the Society for Research on Local Women's History: Living and Exceeding Where We Are Now" and 2) publishing "The Constitution of Japan and I" and "Women's History and I" in the "10th Anniversary Feature: Voices of Members" section of "Research on Local Women's History" Vol. 4, in addition to research articles and notes.