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by Kana Kobayashi, Staff Writer

In Japan, an attempt to link the issue of nuclear weapons with the issue of gender, a topic not yet fully explored in Japan, is underway in the country, with young people at the forefront. Yuki Tokuda, 22, a fourth-year student at Sophia University, in Tokyo, has formed a group with others that goes by the moniker “GeNuine.” Through lectures and the production of animated films, the group is working to communicate the importance of inclusion of a diversity of viewpoints in discussions aimed at realizing a world without nuclear weapons. March 8 is International Women’s Day, as designated by the United Nations. With that, we take a look at the activities and ideas of young people in the A-bombed nation of Japan as they work to challenge the current global system of male-dominated politics.

The GeNuine group is made up of seven members, including university students and people of working age in their 20s who mostly live in Japan’s Kanto region. Some of the members, such as Yuka Matsunaga, 22, a resident of Tokyo and a fourth-year student at Meisei University, decided to join in the group’s activities because they had long been interested in the viewpoint of gender. The group holds lectures and produces animated films to elaborate on such issues as the relationship between reliance on nuclear weapons and politics with its links to notions of masculinity.

The group’s founding, in April 2023, was driven by Ms. Tokuda’s participation in the First Meeting of States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), which was held in Vienna, Austria, in June 2022. Witnessing firsthand the meeting participants engage in active discussions on security issues from the perspective of gender, she called on her peers to act together in the hopes of sparking the same debate in Japan. The group’s name GeNuine, drawn on the English meaning of true or authentic, derives from the first letters of the two English words “gender” and “nuclear.”

The word gender is defined as being “social and cultural constructs based on sex and its derivatives of femininity and masculinity.” When a perspective that questions the stereotyped values involving gender is incorporated into the nuclear issue, Ms. Tokuda said, “The multilayered nature of the damage caused by the atomic bombings and its structure come to the fore.”

The group conveys how it came to be aware of that nature when they set about producing animated films. Invariably accompanying any explanation about historical facts related to the use of nuclear weapons is a story that “emphasizes the relationship of men as policymakers and women as guardians of the home front.” With respect to the testimonies of A-bomb survivors about their experiences in the atomic bombings, Ms. Tokuda said, “Women are typically associated with the ideas of ‘mother’ and ‘marriage discrimination,’ and that tends to obscure the damage and suffering that spill over from such a stereotyped image of women.”

According to the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, the ratio of women in national delegations in attendance at the First States Parties Meeting of the TPNW, held in 2022, was only 30 percent, despite the description of gender perspective highlighted in the treaty. That reality puts into relief how gender inequality continues to exist when it comes to the selection of people to assume leading roles and have decision-making authority in discussions surrounding the issue of nuclear abolition.

“We hope to work to convey and share the reality of the situation surrounding nuclear weapons that is missing from the traditional male-centered viewpoint,” explained Ms. Tokuda. The group also aims to develop policy recommendations that originate with young people. The members believe their actions can be a force to resist a society reliant on nuclear weapons.

(Originally published on March 4, 2024)