On International Women’s Day this year, I was one of the hundreds who joined a protest march through Tokyo. Observing the participants gathered at the capital’s famous Shibuya scramble, I was struck by a difference in atmosphere compared to similar demonstrations in Europe. There was an air of wariness among the protesters; the organisers had warned us we’d be filmed and there was a significant police presence.
“Does being here make me an activist?” I heard someone ask with a nervous giggle. The word seemed to carry a weight that I would not normally attribute to its English equivalent. This was despite the presence of numerous well-established organisations and many veteran street protesters, far from hesitant to be associated with the feminist movement.
One week later, the same streets were populated by youth climate strikers. The week after that, I found a square populated by an anti-nuclear rally. I realised that I had never come across any of these groups in either international or Japanese media.
