Call for Participants
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The 4th Virtual Workshop
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“Women and Medicine in the Japanese Empire”

April 30th, 2022 (Japan Standard Time)

Organizers: Hiro Fujimoto (Kyoto University/JSPS)/Ellen Nakamura (The University of Auckland) 
   
Proposal submission deadline: March 25th, 2022

Following the success of our first, second, and third workshops in August and November 2021, and February 2022, we now invite scholars to send proposals for the fourth virtual workshop on the theme of “Women and Medicine in the Japanese Empire.” 
  

• About the workshop 

The last few decades has witnessed a growing body of scholarship on women in Japanese history. From the early twentieth century, women worked in a greater variety of roles and more and more women sought working opportunities outside the home. The jobs of shokugyō fujin (working women) ranged from teachers, typists, office workers, switchboard operators to physicians, nurses, and pharmacists. Women’s presence in the healthcare field was not small, though scholars have scarcely begun to examine how these medical women contributed to people's health. As has been highlighted by the recent COVID-19 crisis and the news of sexist policies regarding admission to medical school, there is still much to be learned about the situations and struggles of women working on the frontlines of the health system, let alone in its quieter corners and peripheries.  
 
Women doctors in Japan have received much less attention than their counterparts in other countries, or even in comparison to Japanese nurses. However, the medical profession attracted women across the expanse of the colonial empire. Several Japanese women crossed the Pacific Ocean to receive medical training before 1900. After the establishment of Tokyo Women's Medical School in the same year, numbers of Asian women came to Japan from the colonies where medical education for women was still limited. Thus, the history of these women doctors gives us a glimpse into the complicated relationship between gender, health, and colonialism in Japan.  

• Date of the fourth workshop

April 30th, 2022. Japan Standard Time.
Since we expect participants from different time zones, the timetable for the workshop will be determined in accordance with the location of the participants.  

• Submission  

Proposals should be relevant to women and medicine in the Japanese Empire. Topics might include the women’s history of medical doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, medical social workers, medical technologists, and other health-related fields.  

Please submit your abstract (max. 400 words) along with your short biographical information (CV, publication/presentation lists, or website) by March 25th, 2022.

Submission Form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdpb2QzF_FJ_aOSY6SHifMLL2e822mIYa5KYtE4m0vG2cXyiA/viewform​

For active and intensive discussion, presenters are expected to submit their working papers (approx. 3000 words) to the organizers one week prior to the workshop.

• Contact

Hiro Fujimoto, Ph.D.
 Postdoctoral Fellow at Kyoto University/Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
 hiro.fujimoto.n[at]gmail.com