뉴스레터

Matsui Yayori Says Opening at ‘The Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan's Military Sexual Slavery’

ⓒVAWW RAC

Twenty years ago, in December 2000, The Women's International War Crimes Tribunal was held in Tokyo, Japan, where he convicted Japanese Emperor Hirohito for a ‘comfort women’ issue. This tribunal is a civil court that was made by transnational solidarity of Asian victims who were Japanese ‘comfort women’ and feminists of the world to re-trial the issue of wartime sexual violence that was not covered in the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. Matsui Yayori(1934–2002) is a journalist and feminist, a figure who has played a central role in proposing and opening the tribunal.

Presidents of the Republic of Korea and the Soviet Union sign a joint declaration(1990)

President Roh Tae-woo, who is visiting the Soviet Union officially, 

signs a joint declaration with Soviet President Gorbachev 

ⓒPresidential Archives

Matsui Yayori, Experiences Various Discrimination

Matsui Yayori was born on April 12, 1934, in Iwakura, Kyoto, Japan, as the eldest daughter of four sons and two daughters. The name 'Yayori' means living in Christian faith. Matsui Yayori grew up influenced by Christianity and thought Christianity was 'a thought that was not captivated by the border'. This has had a profound impact on her various transnational moves.

Matsui Yayori, who entered the elementary school in 1942 when the Asia-Pacific War began, lived in Yaita, Tochigi Prefecture, to avoid the Tokyo air strike. She experienced a variety of discrimination there. She experienced discrimination because Japan did not tolerate Christianity at the time. And she also experienced discrimination because she was an urban migrant in a rural area filled with anger about the city after modernization. In addition, when she was injured and her legs were uncomfortable, she experienced discrimination. She also witnessed violence by soldiers. These experiences helped to understand how brutal the Japanese military had done in foreign countries.

In 1957, when she was attending the British and American Studies Department of Tokyo Foreign Language University, Matsui Yayori went to the United States and France as an exchange student to experience a wider world beyond Japan, where oppression against women was widespread. But she was despised for being Asian in both countries. She suffered how harshly and unscrupulously the West ruled, robbed and slaughtered the non-Western. Matsui Yayori was disgusted by Japan, which had longed for such a western world, and by taking over Asian countries to follow such a western world, and by taking military aggression and atrocities.

Write an Article from a Gender Perspective

Matsui Yayori graduated from college in 1961 and joined the Asahi Shimbun as a social reporter. She served as Singapore correspondent and editor and retired in 1994. In the 1960s, political and economic coverage was not even given opportunities because it was mainly handled by male reporters. So she decided to differ from others. She focused on the back of Japanese growth in the 1960s, covering consumer, pollution, welfare, environment, and human rights issues from a different perspective than male reporters.

She has been exposed to Western feminism in the 1970s, covering various countries such as the United States. So, Matsui Yayori realized how male-centered not only the newspaper but also the entire Japanese society was, and from then on she decided to write an article from a gender perspective. Through the article, She dealt with oppression and discrimination against the socially disadvantaged, such as the disabled, children, women, migrant workers, and the third world people living in the shadow of the economy in the West. She served as Singapore correspondent, devoted herself to the responsibility for war and the issue of violence. Until then, Japan's peace movement was biased toward victims, so few thought of the perpetrator's responsibility. Matsui Yayori thought it was the journalist's mission to convey the fact that it was necessary to recognize as an assailant.

She also covered the sexcursion issue of Japanese men in the 70s with interest. In this coverage, she felt desperately about how difficult it was to deal with the human rights issues surrounding sex in the male-dominated media. She thought that countries Japan had trampled on with military power in the past, now infringing on economic power again. If Japanese women pretend not to know it, they decided that they would join rather than stop the invasion war. So Matsui Yayori thought that her country's system of suppressing Japanese women suppressed Asian women.

President Moon Jae-in and President Vladimir Putin's summit(2018) 

ⓒCheongwadae

Matsui Yayori, Forms and Leads a Transnational Community

Matsui Yayori became interested in the issue of 'comfort women' by covering the sexcursion. In the early 80s, she involved in earnest on comfort women issues, covering Roh Soo-bok in Hajai, Thailand and Bae Bong-gi in Okinawa. In 1988, she also made a connection with Professor Yoon Jung-ok, who visited Japan to investigate the issue of comfort women. She covered the comfort women of Asian countries such as the Philippines and China as well as Korea.

In 1997, Matsui Yayori, together with the Philippine Women's Human Rights Asia Center, held an international conference on the theme of "War and Violence against Women" and discussed the punishment of sexual violence during the war. She then organized the transnational network VAWW-NET with women from all over the country and became the representative of VAWW-NET Japan.

In the end, Matsui Yayori thought of the ‘punishment problem’ as the last task. So, at the NGO Forum(1998) held by the UN Commission on Human Rights and the 5th Asian Solidarity Conference, She proposed to hold 'The Women's International War Crimes Tribunal' in the form of Civil Court like Russell Tribunal in 1966. Of course, the preparation process until the proposal was accepted and the court was held was not easy. 64 victims of comfort women from eight countries participated in this tribunal, and more than 1,000 people attended every day. The Women's International War Crimes Tribunal is regarded as a meaningful court created by the women's movement and the human rights movement in a transnational solidarity to end sexual violence during the war. This was an opportunity to inform the international community about the comfort women issue. In addition, the victims were healed from wounds and injustices while together in the courtroom where the responsible person was punished while the whole world watched.

She returned from Afghanistan in 2002 to meet women suffering from the war, was diagnosed with cancer and died after a short battle. Matsui Yayori, who based her experiences as a war, various discrimination, studying abroad, newspaper reporter, and Christian and feminist ideas on life. She was a feminist leader who ran to the scene of discrimination and oppression, sympathized with the victim, formed a transnational network to solve the problem, and demonstrated leadership on the side of the weak.