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131 In 1991, the so-called “men’s lib” movement in Japan made its formal debut, when I and four other men living in Osaka and its surrounding area, called Kansai, organized what we called the “Men’s Lib Research Group (Tentative Title).” As the last part of our group’s name suggests, we were at first completely unsure about how to make our claim. Of course, our work was preceded by earlier examples of men working together on sensitive gender-related issues, such as the “men’s lib” allies of the women’s liberationists during the 1970s, and the creation of such groups in the 1980s as Ikujiren (Child Care Hours for Men and Women Network), and another organization focused around issues specific to raising boys. These organizations were spearheaded by men who had been influenced by the women’s liberation movement and feminist theory, and who wished to begin taking on the responsibilities of child rearing. Also preceding our work were groups of men who raised questions regarding a man’s way of life from the perspective of human rights, including an organization working on the issues around the sex trade in Asia (Oyama and Otsuka1999). These groups naturally gave close consideration to the hardships experienced by men, such as the reality of exceedingly long working hours. But they did not fully expose all of the problems that men faced within a society that could essentially be characterized as male supremacist. This was the task, then, that was assumed by our tentatively titled “Men’s Lib Research Group”: to build upon the work of previous men’s groups by beginning to address and dissect the inconsistencies and contradictions facing men within this male-dominated society. In this respect our group represented a new direction in the men’s movement. Working with the Women’s Movement Insofar as the women’s movement itself was the catalyst for the establishment of our group, however, it cannot be said that our movement sprang up solely Kimio Ito Translated by Kimberly Hughes the formation and growth of the men’s movement 9 132 through the effort of men. Our activities were first launched on the occasion of a conference titled “Can Men Become Feminists?” that was sponsored by the Women’s Studies Society of Japan in September 1989. The men attending this conference, most of whom were members of the Kansai branch of Ikujiren, subsequently sponsored a gathering in Osaka the following year in September 1990 that was titled “Symposium By, Of, and For Men: Living and Enjoying Ourselves Free From the Constraints of Masculinity.” Following this conference, I got together with four other male participants —a journalist, a student, a culinary researcher, and a day laborer/activist —in order to consider just how a lifestyle freed from “the constraints of masculinity” could be achieved (Menzu sentaa 2005; Ito 2005). The fact that the catalyst for our movement was our encounter with women’s groups in a sense set a certain direction for our movement. In other words, all five of us shared the fundamental ethos of “freeing ourselves from the constraints of gender.” Needless to say, however, not all men participating in the men’s lib movement share the same philosophy. While many of them sympathize with the ideals of feminism and favor promoting greater participation by women in society, there are others who are strongly against such principles. While we therefore hold debates with regard to our differing opinions, it is important to point out that as a rule, we do not exclude or reject particular viewpoints. Era of the“Male Problem” Why did the men’s movement come about when it did? What were the social currents at work during this particular period in time? As I have written elsewhere, I began working on what would now be called “men’s studies” or “masculinity research” during the late 1970s. Around the end of 1989, I wrote a piece for the evening edition of the Asahi shimbun newspaper where I predicted that “we will shortly be entering an era where we will begin fully confronting the ‘male problem.’” I felt sure that as men’s sense of their gender identity began to waver, they would inevitably confront numerous contradictions in their lives, and that at times this would become manifested in a variety of social pathologies (Ito 1993, 1996). Indeed, as I had envisioned, the beginning of the 1990s saw the rate of suicides, and suicide-hotline calls begin to...

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