WHAT JAPAN’S WPS LEADERSHIP HAS YET TO CONFRONT
Drawing on my participation in the civil society process surrounding Japan’s first NAP, I examine how WPS has been translated into State policy. Japan has not ignored WPS; rather, it has embraced it as a language of international cooperation, disaster risk reduction, peacebuilding, and diplomacy.
In 2024, Okinawan women brought a long-standing question before the CEDAW Committee: why does Japan’s Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda remain so visible abroad, yet so silent about militarized insecurity at home? ‘Be the Change Okinawa’ argued that sexual violence perpetrated by U.S. military personnel in Okinawa should be understood not as an exceptional local problem, but as a central concern of WPS and Japan’s National Action Plan (NAP) (Be the Change Okinawa, 2024). This demand was not new. During the drafting of Japan’s first NAP on UN Security Council Resolution
1325, Okinawan feminists, including Suzuyo Takazato and other activists working against military violence, had already insisted that U.S. military bases, the Japan–U.S. Status of Forces Agreement, military sexual violence, and the unequal security burden imposed on Okinawa should be recognized as core WPS issues.
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