The relationship of women to the Japanese state has been the object of much discussion in Japanese studies in recent years. To be sure, there are as many ways to approach this topic as there are conceptions of ‘the state’ and of ’women.’ Both of these terms are embedded in complicated and historically contingent discourse fields, making it impossible to posit just one or two types of relationships linking the two categories, as they are not fixed. Some scholars look at women as the target of government policies;1 some examine women as agents of some part of the state;2 some are interested in women in organized or institutionalized politics or movements;3 some study women in groups that articulate with state power;4 and others look at the discourses about women and the state.
