Speaking at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Japan this January, Tokyo University professor and well-known gender-rights advocate Chizuko Ueno accused the Tokyo Metropolitan Government of censorship.

Last July, Professor Ueno was chosen by a citizens’ group in the Greater Tokyo district of Kokubunji as the first speaker in a series of lectures on human rights; the events were to be sponsored by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
But according to the group, Tokyo officials objected to the choice of Ueno because she might use the phrase “gender-free” – a poorly defined term originally intended to mean free from sexual bias. The citizen’s group refused to find another speaker and instead cancelled the series of events.

Ueno lambasted what she termed a repression of free speech: “I have strong objections to any official agencies banning the use of any words in public, unless they are discriminatory expressions or hate speech.” She also claimed that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s (TMG) move was part of a pattern of similar actions. “I am afraid it may be part of an ongoing backlash by neo-nationalists.”

“Gender-free” is an imported English phrase that has been used in Japan since the mid-1990s. Some progressive teachers and local education authorities have used the phrase to promote liberal sex education, and the mixed listing of boys and girls on school roll calls. The latter is contentious in Japan where traditionally boys’ names are read out first.

Originally a near synonym to gender equality, it has become highly controversial. Ueno accused conservatives of deliberately hijacking the phrase and distorting its meaning. She noted that the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has a special body set up to oppose gender-free education. The “Extreme Sex-Education Gender-Free Education Survey Project Team” was set up in March last year and is chaired by Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary. The grandson of Nobusuke Kishi, a class A war criminal and later prime minister, Abe is widely predicted by political commentators to be the next premier.

The project team’s Web page criticizes “out of control education” that “denies differences between the sexes.” It cites examples of older elementary school pupils forced to stay overnight in the same room, and includes photos of anatomically correct dolls the site says were used in Tokyo schools “to teach sex acts.” A fax number is given at the bottom of the page with request: “Everyone, please send us examples of inappropriate education taking place near you.” The project team says it has produced a 100-page report put together from 3,500 messages it has received.

In Tokyo, the phrase “gender-free” has been officially banned by the Metropolitan Board of Education since August 2004 and cannot be used by instructors in schools. “The phrase gender-free is not properly defined, so it is likely to cause confusion,” explained the board’s Shinichi Egami. He added that the board could not support Ueno as a speaker for the Kokubunji lectures in case she used the phrase. “We can’t support a lecture that conflicts with the policy of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.”

The term gender-free is also criticized in the Office of Gender Equality’s recent revision to the “Basic Plan for Gender Equality.” The document includes examples of “extreme” education similar to those on the LDP’s Web site. Professor Ueno suggests there is a clash between progressives and conservatives in the party, pointing out that the current Minister for Gender Equality, Kuniko Inoguchi, is known as a progressive advocate of gender equality, while her deputy, Eriko Yamatani, is a much more conservative politician.

Sophia University Professor Inoguchi herself hinted at conflict within the LDP when she spoke at a briefing for foreign journalists this January. She first praised reform of Japan’s economic structure, then went on: “Now it is time for social structure. This is more complicated, more delicate; I have to listen to many traditional voices. And if you go too far, you lose everything.”

One of the loudest traditional voices is Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara, ex-novelist and a right-wing firebrand. He is known abroad also for his 1989 book “The Japan that Can Say No,” co-written with then Sony Chairman Akio Morita. In a 2001 interview with women’s magazine Shukan Josei he described “old women” as “the worst evil and malignant being that civilization has produced,” adding that “it is said that old women who live after their reproductive function are useless and are committing a sin.”

On Jan. 27, six women’s groups presented a petition with more than 1,800 signatures to both Ishihara and the Metropolitan Bureau of Education protesting the cancellation of Ueno’s speech. But speaking at his regular press briefing, the governor denied that Ueno was censored. “The city government has no recollection of making such a rule,” he said. He also criticized the phrase gender-free. “The phrase itself is sloppy and vague. We are Japanese, so we don’t use English.”

Ueno, however, is adamant that the Tokyo government’s actions amounted to censorship. “If it were any private organization, it is perfectly all right to have any particular criteria to choose a speaker,” she said. “But the TMG is a public body supported by tax payers . . . [this] is a political intervention by power, which is to be called censorship.”

Lawrence Repeta, a professor at Omiya Law School, compared Ueno’s case to more than 200 teachers in Japan who have been disciplined for refusing to stand for the flag and sing Japan’s national anthem during graduation ceremonies. “The government is forcing them to stand even though it conflicts with [the teachers’] personal beliefs and causes them personal anguish,” said Repeta. “This is worse than censorship. It is a form of behavior control.”

Authorities have also targeted NGO activists. In February 2004, three anti-war activists were arrested and imprisoned for 75 days after distributing pamphlets at a residential complex for Self-Defense Force personnel in the Tokyo suburb of Tachikawa. Amnesty International took up their case, calling them “prisoners of conscience.” Eventually the charges against them were rejected by the Tokyo High Court.

The fringes of the Japanese press are feeling the heat too. In July last year, the editor of a small Kobe scandal magazine, Kami no Bakudan (Paper Bomb), was arrested. After being charged with defamation against Aruze Corp., a manufacturer of Pachinko gambling machines, editor Toshiyasu Matsuoka was held in custody for 6 months and released on bail Jan. 20.

These apparent attacks on free speech coincide with a rightward shift in the Japanese political climate. Koizumi’s controversial visits to the Yasukuni shrine, which honors 14 class A war criminals along with Japan’s other war dead, have angered Japan’s neighbors. Tokyo Gov. Ishihara and Chief Cabinet Secretary Abe have also been to pay their respects at the shrine, and Foreign Minister Taro Aso recently called for the Japanese emperor to visit. Relations with Korea and China have been further strained by the publication of revisionist history textbooks that gloss over Japan’s wartime actions in Asia.
Yet even a political shift shouldn’t change constitutional rights, stressed Repeta. “Maybe you have political leaders who are very nationalistic, and they are popular, they are elected . . . but that doesn’t change the constitution,” he said. “The constitution guarantees freedom of expression, and it guarantees the freedom to hold personal beliefs to all people.”

The gender-free censorship controversy comes at a time when gender issues are already in the spotlight. In the government’s revision to the 2000 Basic Plan for Gender Equality, work-place equality was a prominent topic — the lack of which is being blamed for Japan’s extremely low birthrate and shrinking population. If the baby bust continues, the UN has predicted there could 20 million fewer people in Japan by 2050.

Japanese women are being forced to choose between starting a family and pursuing their careers — and many plump for the latter. Although Japan has a law saying that firms are obliged to give one year of maternity leave, according to the Gender Equality Bureau, 70 percent of women are effectively forced to resign from work when they get pregnant. Barely 1 in 5 women take maternity leave, and despite being legally entitled to paternity leave, virtually no men (0.56 percent) take time off.

Many women report being told to quit or being bullied into leaving when they become pregnant. One young mother, Miyako (who asked that we not her last name), took maternity leave from her job at a trading company shortly before her son was born, but she doesn’t know yet if she will go back to work or not. “My boss told me, ‘Your position might not still be available when you come back.’” Despite that, she says that her company is relatively considerate to female employees. She said she has heard of expectant mothers made ill by the stress at other companies.

The controversy over the term “gender-free” seems to have become a distraction from the real issues of discrimination Japanese women face. If so, perhaps some of the controversy could be avoided by a change in terminology. Professor Ueno herself has said that despite Tokyo officials’ fears, she doesn’t generally use the term gender-free because it is not in currency outside Japan. “I have an alternative suggestion,” said Ueno, “to substitute the words ‘gender free’ with ‘gender equality’. What’s wrong with that?”

In an increasingly media-saturated society, television, the Internet and the latest high-tech gadgets have penetrated more deeply into everyday life than ever before, although most of the Japanese public is unaware of their harmful effects on children, experts say.

Children are constantly surrounded by video game systems, CD and DVD players, cell phones, large-screen TV sets and computers with Internet access.

According to a 2004 study by the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, 69.3 percent of Japanese households use a computer while 37.7 percent did in 1999, and 84.7 percent of them use a cell phone, compared with 64.9 percent in 1999. The number of Internet users in Japan stood at 79.5 million in 2004, well over half of the population — a dramatic increase from 27 million in 1999 — the same study showed. In addition, 62.8 percent of children between 6 and 12 years old surf the Internet, while 90.7 percent of 13- to 19-year-olds do, the study said.

Addiction to media can deprive children of sleep and opportunities to communicate with others and play outdoors, which can in turn affect their physical and mental development, according to the Fukuoka-based non-profit organization Children and Media.

Another 2004 study by Children and Media showed that approximately one-fourth of primary school and junior high school students spend more than six hours in contact with various media, a problem that the group called “serious.” That pushes back the normal bedtime hour, the group said. For example, only 25 percent of children in fourth grade and 10 percent of those in sixth grade go to bed before 9 p.m., according to the group’s study, which was commissioned by the Ministry of Education, Sports, Culture, Science and Technology.

“Children stay up that late because they keep watching television,” said Mariko Yamada, the group’s executive director and professor of clinical psychology at Kyushu Otani Junior College in Fukuoka.

During a visit to Germany, Yamada asked German counterparts what time their children usually go to bed. She was told that their bedtime hour was between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.

“When I was asked about Japanese children’s, I could not say that their average bedtime hour then was actually 9:40 p.m. But, I said it was 9 p.m.,” she recalled. “Still, they were appalled, gasping in surprise. It was so embarrassing.”

The average 3- to 5-year-old’s bedtime has now passed 10 p.m., said Yamada. “The wakefulness degradation is considered to cause more children to have concentration problems and problematic behaviors, becoming upset or impulsive.”

“That’s why we have more harried and distracted children,” said Atsuo Saito, best-selling author of children’s literature and former executive managing director of Fukuinkan Shoten, a Tokyo-based publishing company.

“Perhaps these children are very good at playing video games. But they are not good at communicating with their parents and other children,” said Yusaku Tazawa, vice chairperson of a children and media committee at the Japan Pediatric Association. “That has been detrimental to forming the foundation of their heart. The problem gets aggravated year after year.”

The lack of communication between a child and his or her parents could also lead to family breakdown, Saito said.

One of the gravest concerns of these groups in recent years is that more babies and younger children are exposed to media for longer hours. That can affect when babies start talking, according to the Japan Pediatric Society. While examining 1,900 18-month-old babies in three different regions, pediatricians found that babies exposed to television for longer hours start talking later. To make matters worse, most parents are ignorant of such harmful effects, the group added.

“This is one of the most serious problems in Japanese society today although most people are unaware of [it],” emphasized Saito.

The Japan Pediatric Society recommended that parents not allow their children to watch television and videos for long periods of time.

While more and more teachers at kindergartens and nursery schools are aware of the harmful effects of media on children, unfortunately many elementary school teachers, government officials and even some pediatricians are not, said Yamada.

On the contrary, the government and teachers encourage children to use the Internet these days with more computers introduced at school, which could expose them to harmful pornographic or violent images in cyberspace.

“Some [innocent] Internet search could whisk them to Web sites that contain sexually explicit contents,” Yamada explained.

“What one sees in childhood affects one’s behavior,” said Saito, a frequent lecturer on the potentially harmful effects of media on kids. “Young parents who love horror movies watch them with their baby. And such a baby is not likely to smile, instead, she occasionally has a horrified look.”

In 1998, the United Nations warned the Japanese government about the overexposure of children to media, although most of the public is unaware of the report.

The U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child said they were concerned at “the insufficient measures introduced to protect children from the harmful effects of the printed, electronic and audio-visual media, in particular violence and pornography,” and recommended that the Japanese government “introduce additional measures.”

Despite the U.N. recommendations, the Japanese government has done little to implement them, according to the Japan Pediatric Association.

Government officials rejected such criticism, saying they have been working on the problems with some non-profit organizations like Children and Media in Fukuoka.

While the government and major media organizations were downplaying the harmful effects of media, critics said, the Japan Pediatric Association issued recommendations. The group said children aged 2 and under should avoid watching television and video; children should stop watching television and video during meals; children’s media exposure should be limited to two hours a day or to 30 minutes a day for video games; television, VCRs, DVD players or computers should not be kept in a child’s room; and children and parents need to lay out specific ground rules regarding use of these media.

More parents have become aware of the problem and have started to limit children’s media and video game exposure, said Tazawa of the association’s recent campaign. “However, I’ve seen the gap of that awareness among the public widening. There are still so many people who don’t know the danger.”

Three-year-old children watch television for an average of three to four hours a day, added Tazawa, who is also a pediatrician at Sendai Medical Center in Miyagi Prefecture. “More of them probably [have] almost no contact [with] television because of [parental] restriction, while some watch it for even longer hours.”

Tazawa now has more opportunities to talk to parents, children and other pediatricians about media’s negative effects.

“Even before I talked to parents, many of them had been already suspicious that children hooked up on media would have a personality disorder, communication problems and difficulty in telling reality from virtual,” Tazawa said. “But they did not know what caused such problems.”

Since there are many parents who are themselves obsessed with television or text messaging, Saito said, educating the public remains a daunting task.

Are the media and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Japan friends or foes? How should the media cover NGOs? Should NGOs stage media stunts? Those were some of the questions posed to a panel of activists and journalists in Kyoto last month. Though the Japanese civil society sector has traditionally been smaller than in other major developed countries, the growing role of NGOs is one of most fundamental changes occurring in Japan today.

Since 1998, when a law was passed making it easier for organizations to register as NPOs (non-profit organizations), 23,608 groups have gained NPO status. As NPOs take up their new role in Japanese society, how NPOs use traditional and new media, and how the media portray NPOs and their work, will be crucial to the development of Japan’s still relatively young civil society sector.

The Nov. 12 seminar, titled “Human Rights NGOs and the Media: Allies or Adversaries?”, was held at Kyoto Sangyo University as part of the 2005 Peace as a Global Language Conference. Moderated by Eric Johnston of the Japan Times, the seminar featured Masami Ito, a Japan Times reporter, Yuji Yoshitomi, an Osaka-based writer from weekly tabloid Friday magazine, and activist, writer and American-born naturalized Japanese citizen Debito Arudou.

The first speaker, Masami Ito, explained how her work covering immigration issues brings her into contact with many NPOs. She stressed the importance of objectivity. “News reporters are not activists. News reports must just communicate facts and it’s our job to let the readers form their own opinions.” Ito also gave advice to activists hoping to communicate through the media, suggesting that they “network with media people and become a source of information.”

Yuji Yoshitomi, Friday magazine journalist and author of “Osaka Bankrupts”, an expose of corruption in the Osaka city administration, spoke next. In his speech Yoshitomi confided that he has never deliberately set out to write about everyday NPO work, but he has had to report on NPOs involved in acts of criminal deception. He said he has been told by police sources that some organized crime Yazuka groups have set up NPOs as a front for their activities.

Debito Arudou was on hand to give an activist’s perspective. He had plenty of practical advice for activists dealing with the media. “Activism in Japan can be a tough job, but not impossible,” he said. “I do not consider [the media] ‘adversarial.’ It’s a matter of having the right message and knowing your audience.”

Arudou stressed that anyone with a message to spread can hold a press conference. “Contact the press club connected with the agency or outlet you are trying to canvass, and tell them the time and place. Simple as that.” Although organizing the kind of coverage you need may be a different matter, he said, “Remember any article your issue gets is a minor miracle—a major one if they get the information right.”

He also had advice for those dealing directly with journalists: “Even more miraculous is a one-on-one with a reporter. But remember that due to editors and editorial constraints, things rarely, if ever, come out in an article as you wanted.” Arudou recommended that activists provide primary sources because “reporters love photocopies.”

Lastly, Arudou listed some barriers to activism that he has bumped up against in Japan. They include: a culture of information control (“just about every organization, and especially the bureaucracy, is closed to outsiders”); the press club system (“one-stop shopping, but also self-censorship and information control”); and the threat of violence from extremist groups.

In the question-and-answer session, moderator Eric Johnston introduced the question of credibility: how do journalists tell if NPOs are bona fide or not? Japan Times reporter Ito said she began by checking NPO’s past activities and how they have spent their funds. She also talks to her own legal and NPO contacts. Friday magazine journalist Yoshitomi noted that some NPOs have no choice but to get involved in business because they have considerable trouble raising funds. Activist Arudou countered that some NPOs are bad, but so are some companies and government institutions; NPOs should be prepared to be judged on their deeds.

Another questioner asked the panelists if they thought the media’s attitude to the NPO sector had changed significantly in recent years. While Ito and Arudou were unsure that it had, Yoshitomi argued that “the work done by NPOs and NGOs is now more appreciated by the mass media. NPOs involved in low-profile activities have come up with visible outcomes.” He drew on an example from his research on the Osaka administration. “An NPO was the first to disclose evidence of corruption by the Osaka authorities,” he said. “The mass media have strongly praised their work.”

One more question from the audience drew the seminar to a close: “Are media stunts necessary or useful for activists in Japan?” Arudou was emphatic that they are. “You have to draw attention to an activity. It’s not news if it’s not new,” he said. “Sometimes stunts are very useful.” He referred to one well reported stunt he undertook last year with a group of fellow activists. Dressed as seals they held a picnic on the banks of the Tamagawa river in Yokohama in protest against the issuance of a residency certificate to “Tama-chan,” a seal living in the city’s Tama river—something denied to non-Japanese human taxpayers.

While Yoshitomi was unconvinced that such stunts are really necessary, Ito described one “unintentional stunt” she witnessed during a press conference with a group of Kurdish asylum seekers. When news of one member’s deportation came mid-press conference, the family started weeping in front of the cameras. Even Japan’s right-of-center Yomiuri daily newspaper carried the story. “I don’t know if stunts are good or bad,” Ito said, “but when something conspicuous happens, it gets media attention.”

By chance, NPOs were in the news only a few days before the event with controversy surrounding the Japanese branch of the global “Whiteband” anti-poverty campaign. Earlier this fall the media reported that none of the money from sales of 4 million 300-yen wristbands was actually going directly to developing world charities. Initially, the group stressed that the campaign’s aim was simply to raise consciousness of the poverty issue. Following further hostile publicity and hundreds of angry e-mails from purchasers of the bands, in early November the group of NPOs backtracked and pledged to give $250,000 (30 million yen) to Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and $50,000 (6 million yen) to various related civil society activities.

While some might see this and other coverage of apparent NPO scandals as evidence of the media hostility towards NPOs, Temple University professor Jeff Kingston stresses that the media in Japan have in general been “cheerleaders for the NPO movement.” He says that the media’s support dates back to the 1995 Kobe earthquake when the media contrasted the incompetence of the official response with the effectiveness of volunteer groups. The earthquake was a powerful impetus to the development of the NPO movement.

Kingston noted how publications of differing political perspective support NPOs for their own different reasons. The left-of-center Asahi newspaper supports NPOs as watchdogs and a check on establishment power, but the financial daily Nikkei supports NPOs because they advocate small government. He says if the media focuses on scandals, it is because most of the day-to-day work of NPOs is less obvious – and perhaps less likely to sell newspapers. “The media is not well suited to focus on the gradual and incremental changes and mundane work that are ongoing now because they won’t be bearing fruit for 10, 15, 20 years down the road. Ultimately, the media has a short attention span and much of the work of NPOs is not headline-grabbing.”

As for NPOs themselves, how they make use of the media – particularly the Internet and new media—is likely to have a big influence on the success of their activities. “Create a Web site,” said activist Arudou. “You need an information center, and a Web site will act as your 24-hour setter of the record straight. Saves time, energy, and money. It will also give reporters a place to shop for information beforehand. Many reporters write their articles before they even meet you, and are just looking for live quotes.” Arudou also recommends that activists build an e-mail list of supporters and journalists. “Takes years before it becomes effective, but I have thousands of recipients (and hopefully readers), some of whom forward around what I write, even to fellow reporters.”

So what does the future hold in store for Japan’s NPOs and what role will the media play? In his book Japan’s Quiet Transformation: Social Change and Civil Society in the 21st Century Jeff Kingston argues that the growth of NPOs, as well as new information disclosure legislation and judicial reform, are fundamental changes that are incrementally and fitfully bringing about a quiet transformation of Japanese society. He says that the economically stagnant 1990s, rather than being a “lost decade,” were “a time of dynamic transformation and reform.”

Kingston argues that the government may do its best to keep NPOs “on a short leash,” but are unlikely to be successful in the long run. “I think what the government wants is to control them and decide,” he says. “Ultimately, I think society is going to play a role in deciding what role [NPOs] play, and the media will play a big role in shaping people’s awareness of them.”