- Kimura Komako, shown on a visit to New York in 1917-18. A leading Japanese actress/dancer, Mme. Kimura came to the U.S. mainly to study the methods of American woman suffragists. She organized the first (1913) Japanese suffrage meeting, magazine and society—both called Shin Shin Fujin (New True Woman). It was a courageous, even shocking step, criticized but not given much real public notice. Yet it paved the way for the more famous Akiko Hiratsuka and her colleagues, who stunned the nation in 1920 by petitioning to end an ancient law against women’s participation in political gatherings. They won that round and, in 1946, the franchise. On April 10, 13 million Japanese women voted for the first time in more than 25 centuries as a nation.
|