Ripples Of Change

"Men are married to their companies; women are married to their kids," says filmmaker Nanako Kurihara of her native Japanese society; an aspect that drove her to emigrate to America. In the Big Apple, Kurihara met and became close friends with a woman named Fumiko who was involved in the "Woman Lib Movement" in Japan during the early 1970s (she says there was no word for "women" at the time). After Fumiko's untimely death from cancer at the age of 39, Kurihara returned home to find out more about Japanese feminism. Ripples of Change tells the story of the early "Woman Lib" movement, and interviews women who were at the center about how it changed their lives. One woman who worked as a bank-teller now does custodial work: the system does not favor a 40-year-old single woman; another has two children by her male companion: the children are bullied at school because of their parents' unmarried status; and, Mitsu Tanaka, the movement's ringleader who penned the angry pamphlet "A Toilet No More," is now an acupuncturist. Still, Kurihara has hopes for the future: even in the short-lived "Woman Lib" movement of the early 70s, consciousness was raised, as they say, women continued to talk, and the message of inherent human dignity passed like ripples in a body of water from one woman to another. An insightful look at contemporary feminist thought in Japan, Ripples of Change is highly recommended for larger collections with strong holdings in women's studies. (R. Pitman)