workingclasshistory:

On this day, 21 October 1970 the first women’s liberation demonstration took place in Japan in Tokyo, kickstarting a new wave of the feminist movement in the country. The women were demanding legalisation of the contraceptive pill and opposing any prohibition of abortion. After the failure of the mass movement against the Japan-US security treaty, women student activists finally felt able to express their demands as women, which they had kept quiet so as not to be seen to “undermine” the struggle against the treaty. Sexual liberation and free love also exploded following the failure of the student movement, and without contraceptives, millions of women were having to have abortions. The pill was only eventually legalised in 1999. More info here: https://libcom.org/history/japans-1968-collective-reaction-rapid-economic-growth-age-turmoil https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1835614106623731/?type=3