Chizuko Ueno | |
|---|---|
上野 千鶴子 | |
 Ueno in 2014 | |
| Born | (1948-07-12)July 12, 1948 (age 77) |
| Alma mater | Kyoto University |
| Occupation | Professor of sociology |
| Known for | Japanese feminism |
Chizuko Ueno (上野 千鶴子,Ueno Chizuko; born 12 July 1948)[1] is a Japanesesociologist andJapan's "best-knownfeminist".[2][3] Her work covers sociological issues including semiotics, capitalism, and feminism in Japan.[1][4] Ueno is known for the quality, polarizing nature, and accessibility of her work.[5] She was married toDaikichi Irokawa.[6][7][8][9]
Ueno was raised as aChristian, which she notes as being "very unusual" because only 1% of the Japanese population is Christian.[10] Her father was a physician.[11] In an interview withThe Japan Times, she describes her father as "a complete sexist" who had extremely high expectations of her two brothers but only considered his daughter as a "pet girl", which allowed her the "freedom to do whatever I wanted to do".[10] The marriage between Ueno's parents was unhappy, and her mother repeatedly fretted about the difficulty that divorce would bring should she pursue it. Ueno would later describe monogamous marriage institutions as "the root of all evil".[12] Ueno studiedsociology atKyoto University,[1] where she participated in theZengakuren student protests of the 1960s.[10] Ueno has stated that during her time as a student, she faced sexual discrimination.[13]
Chizuko Ueno has spent her entire career advocating gender equality in Japanese society by researching diverse issues of gender and contributing to the establishment of gender studies as an acknowledged field of research in Japan.
In 1982, Ueno authoredThe Study of the 'Sexy Girl' (セクシィ・ギャルの大研究) andReading the Housewife Debates (主婦論争を読む), texts that would be referred to as "The Flagbearers of 1980's Feminism".[1] Her work investigated the relationship between the "Women's Lib" (ウーマン・リブ) movement of the 1960s and the Women's Liberation Movement (女性解放運動) of the 1970s.[1] The primary perspective of these works was the application of structuralist and semiotic theory to sociology in order to investigate gender-centric mechanisms in society. This public debate coincided with the prominence of other scholars such asAsada Akira, Nakazawa Shin'ichi, andYomota Inuhiko, a period known as the New Academicism Boom (ニュー・アカデミズム・ブーム).[1]
After dropping out of her doctoral courses, Ueno worked in a marketing systems think tank and produced many works on the debate over consumption and society.[14]
From 1979 to 1989, she was a Lecturer and later Associate Professor at theHeian Women's College. She was an Associate Professor and Professor atKyoto Seika University in the Department of Humanities from 1989 to 1994.[1] In 1993, after being rejected by many other universities as a strident feminist scholar, she received an invitation from theUniversity of Tokyo.[10]
She is a special guest professor at the Graduate School of Core Ethics and Frontier Sciences atRitsumeikan University and a professor emeritus at theUniversity of Tokyo.[15] She retired from this position in order to take the role of Chief Director of the Women's Action Network (WAN),[16][17] an organization designed to connect and introduce feminists from different backgrounds.[18] The Women's Action Network website hosts news, essays, popular media reviews, and promotes certain merchandise.[16]
In 1994, Ueno received the Suntory Arts and Sciences award for her work,The Rise and Fall of the Modern Family.[1]
Ueno is on the editorial board of theJournal of Women, Politics & Policy.[19]
Ueno's research field includesfeminist theory,family sociology, and women's history. She is best known for her contribution togender studies in Japan. As a public intellectual, she played a central role in creating the field of gender studies in Japanese academia.[10]
Ueno is a trenchant critic of postwarrevisionism and criticizes the whitewashing ofJapanese history, which she claims attempts to justify itscolonialism,wartime atrocities, andracism bothbefore andafterWorld War II. In particular, she has defended the compensation of Koreancomfort women who were forced into prostitution by theEmpire of Japan.[10] She is also a staunch advocate of global women's reproductive rights,[20] and a critic of monogamous marriage institutions.[12]
Ueno often discusses the semiotics and accessibility of feminism, claiming that feminist discussion in Japanese can frequently lack the language needed to make its concepts readily understandable and approachable.[3] Moreover, Ueno has engaged in publicly provocative expressions and publications in order to invite dialogue on otherwise less-discussed feminist issues in the Japanese media, for which she has received both praise and criticism from other feminists.[5] In the mid-1980s, Ueno was also involved in a public debate with Japanese eco-feministAoki Yayoi.[5]
Her work has argued that a key component of Marxist-Feminist thought is the recognition that sexism is an inherent, inseparable aspect of capitalist economies, and that sexism in the modern family does not owe its origins to pre-modern traditions, but rather is an acute product of post-industrial economic structure.[1]
Ueno has stressed the need for an accessible legacy of feminist thought.[21]
Ueno is classified as anpostcolonial feminist in Japan. However, South Korean scholars have criticized her for not completely abandoning her 'colonialist' perception due to limitations ofJapanese feminism. She opposed the criminal punishment ofPark Yu-ha, who openly instigated historical revisionism on the issue of Comfort Women in South Korea, citing freedom of expression. She was accused of being a 'colonialist' by manySouth Korean feminists andKorean nationalists.[22] Park Yu-ha's view of the comfort women is considered morally identical to that of 'Japanesefar-right' or 'Holocaust Negationism' by many South Korean scholars.[23][24]
In 2016, at a debate at the University of Tokyo in Japan, Ueno said "it was the judiciary of Korea that filed a criminal complaint against [Park Yoo-ha]", causing controversy in South Korea. Yang Jing-ja (Korean: 양징자), aZainichi scholar who participated in the forum, said, "The charges against [Park Yoo-ha were] made by the victims, and the prosecution tried to reconcile with the victims through mediation. It was Professor Park Yoo-ha who rejected the prosecution's mediation plan," he countered, after which Ueno suddenly handed over the microphone and stepped down from the podium, saying, "[I'm] busy".[25]
In 2023, Ueno's work gained sudden prominence in China after a video of her 2019 matriculation speech at the University of Tokyo went viral. Consequently, Chinese translations of Ueno's books gained popularity. As of April 2023, Ueno's books had reportedly sold more than a million copies in China, of which 200,000 copies were sold in January and February alone.[26] Her bookOfuku shokan: Genkai kara hajimaru (Correspondences: Starting at the Edge) was selected as book of the year on Chinese book review platformDouban.[27] In 2024, she was included on theTime magazine's annual list of100 most influential people and cited as a "surprising superstar" in China.[28]
