Fudanren celebrates 50th anniversary of its founding

The Federation of Japan Women's Organization (Fudanren) on December 7 celebrated the 50th anniversary of its founding.

Addressing the gathering held in Tokyo, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi said, "I hope that Fudanren will work for further cooperation to be developed among various women's organizations in order to achieve peace in Japan and the world, real gender equality, a democratic society in Japan, and improvement of the status of women."

Fudanren earlier in the day held its regular general assembly to discuss and adopt the 2004 plan of action that includes opposition to the dispatch of Japan's Self-Defense Forces to Iraq, adverse revisions of the Constitution, cutbacks in the pension benefits, and the plan to increase the consumption tax rate. It also calls for real gender equality to be established based on the U.N. Convention for Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Horie Yuri was elected the new Fudanren president.

Fudanren was founded in April 1953 by Hiratsuka Raicho, a pioneer in the Japanese women's liberation movement. Currently, Fudanren is made up of 20 women's organizations with a total membership of 900,000.

Fudanren came into being on the heels of an upsurge in a nationwide movement for Japan's independence and democracy following the conclusion of the San Francisco Treaty in 1951 which put Japan under semi-occupation by the United States. In the firm belief that all women's power must be consolidated for world peace and women's liberation, Hiratsuka Raicho formed a national center of women's organizations called Fudanren in 1953. In 1954, a Japanese tuna fishing boat (Fukuryumaru) and its crewmembers were exposed to radioactive fallout from the U.S. H-bomb test at Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific. Resolving to call for the abolition of A and H bombs on behalf of Japanese women who experienced the A-bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Fudanren sent an anti-nuclear weapons message to the world. This later became an important driving force for the first World Mothers Congress in Lausanne, Switzerland. (end)