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89 In 2006, female high school students— called “Rocket Girls”—earned headlines in Japanese newspapers reporting that during the summer break the Akita University Innovation Center for Engineering Design and Manufacturing created a project designed to slow the loss of female students from science fields. Thirteen young women from Akita Prefecture and Tokyo participated. One student said, “The joy you get from making something is worth the effort. This is the first time I have experienced such pleasure” (“‘Roketto gaaru’ sodate. . .”2007). Other recent newspaper coverage has testified to the efforts of universities and business also trying to encourage young women in secondary schools to major in science. Many experimental classes began to target female students with such slogans as “Backing Young Women in the Advanced Study of Science,” and “Young Women, Welcome to Science!” Another, “Come on, Science Girl!” beckons senior high school students to join special school visits, where “Science Angels” introduce the work of women scientists to them. Women’s magazines have also begun to focus on technological developments made by women that are used in everyday life, including the i-mode mobile phone, and such household appliances as the refrigerator, and drinks that reduce triglycerides in diets. If the year 2006 has marked the beginning of activity to encourage the participation of women in the field of science and technology, it has come, in part, as a response to the United Nations Development Program’s Gender Empowerment Measure, in which Japan has ranked thirty-eighth, even behind the Philippines, and thus far behind all the developed countries. There is now a Japanese budget specifically to support measures to raise the percentage of women researchers in all science and engineering fields combined from the current 10 percent to the quantitative target of 25 percent . In 2000, the Science Council of Japan compiled a list of demands for improving the work environment for women scientists (Nihon gakujutsu kaigi 2002), and science-related organizations have begun to take specific Atsuko Kameda Translated by Malaya Ileto the advancement of women in science and technology 6 90 steps towards new goals. Thus, some sixty years after women were first granted the right to attend university, we are finally beginning to see positive measures to promote the advancement of women’s education in science fields, where they have been, until now, very few in number. In this time of declining birthrates, women are finally being recognized as “visible” human resources necessary to maintain the skills base of the nation. In both education and employment, the advancement of women in science in Japan has finally begun. The Historical Gap between Women and Science Most people cannot name a Japanese woman scientist. Both historically and today, the link between women and science and technology is extremely weak. Nevertheless, we can glimpse a few women interested in science in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. For example, the daughter of Genkei Nakane—whose name is lost to us—was a scientist who researched Dutch astronomy. Similarly, Tozo Chiba, who published the book Sanpo shojo (Algorithm girl) in 1775, describing how to make calculations, writes that his daughter helped in the book’s creation (Sogo joseishi kenkyukai 1993, 241). In addition, we can name Ineko Kusumoto (1827-1903), daughter of the German physician Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1866), who came to Japan in 1823 as the first European to teach Western medicine. Kusumoto studied Dutch medicine and carried out work similar to that of a physician. Certainly some women may have worked in science with their fathers or husbands, but it is safe to say that such women were rare. Still, among the few exceptions is Umeko Tsuda (1864-1929), a scientist who emphasized the importance of science education for women. In 1871, at the age of seven, Umeko Tsuda and four other young girls were sent by the Japanese government to the United States for study. Ten years later she returned to Japan for a visit, and then went back to the US to enter Bryn Mawr College. Her father, Sen Tsuda, was an agriculturalist with an interest in many things, including English, technology, and agricultural development , and these interests were passed on to his daughter. The expectation was that she would remain at Bryn Mawr College after completing her studies in biology and pursue a career as a scientist, but after graduating she returned to Japan. Her parents’ friend, Anna C. Hartshorne, recollected that Umeko Tsuda wanted Japanese women to study science, but that...

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