Japan is the technological typhoon of our generation, and a modern paradise for any nerd, therefore, it is hard to think of Japan as anything other than this modern paradise. During the 1700’s to early 1800’s Japan was referred to, by many as nothing more than a feudal backwater, a people who would amount to nothing better than well-versed fishermen, a stark contrast from today’s image of Japan(Copeland p. 11). It is hard to come to terms with these stark differences in Japan’s history, but it all can be attributed to Japan’s ability to rapidly modernize. The changes brought on by this rapid modernization are important to everyone in Japan, but none more so than women as these changes allowed them to work outside of the home, and better accessibility …show more content…
Kaneko Fumiko was an activist protesting the treatment of women and the need for improvement of women’s rights in Japan, but she took it one step further in saying that there needed to be a total upheaval of the government once more (Kaneko p 78). What is amazing about Kaneko Fumiko is that she was a young woman in her 20s, of no real social standing with a limited education and yet aspired to create a society in which women like her could rise above their station and become something more (Kaneko p. 79). Kaneko protested more than gender stereotyping, she stood against the social norms that had created her situation in the first place. She fought for children of any birth to have the right and the chance to live, which meant the abolishment of infanticide (Kaneko p. 77). She had been abandoned by both her parents and been pawned off from relative to relative never really having a home, which had a profound effect on her (Kaneko p. 77). It is perhaps because of Kaneko’s lack of an actual loving family that she wished to rebuild the social lines of the family so that the treatment of wives as possessions and children as a tool for building alliances or for profit would be done away with altogether, but one thing is for sure Kaneko Fumiko went about her social movement unlike any woman before her. Unlike traditional women’s activist who used large scale movements or published writings to prove a point, Kaneko Fumiko took her activism to new heights and planned an assassination attempt on the Emperor and by doing so sealed her fate (Kaneko p. 76). Even when she was imprisoned for her treasonous crimes against the state she never broke or groveled but stood firmly on the principles she stood upon, eventually leading to