Commitment and Dedication to Safeguarding Human Rights during a Crisis, and Beyond

A Conversation with Megumi Ishimoto of Women’s Eye

Author: Raymond Andaya

The 11th of March 2025 marked the 14th year since the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami that devastated the Tōhoku region. It was a somber day for commemoration of lives lost and ways of life changed by one of the most catastrophic natural disasters to have hit the country. It was also an opportune day to reflect on the admirable efforts towards rebuilding and reconstruction by local residents and communities, municipal and national governments, and local and international civil society. On the same day, I spoke with Megumi Ishimoto, co-founder and director at Women’s Eye (WE) - a women’s support non-profit organization (NPO) founded in May 2011, just two months after disaster struck in the coastal areas of the Tōhoku region. WE started as a small group of volunteers responding to the needs of earthquake- and tsunami-hit communities, women, and children. Now, it has grown into a women’s empowerment organization facilitating various community-based activities, collaborating with municipal and national government agencies, conducting impactful research on women’s issues, and advocating for gender equality and disaster preparedness both in Japan and abroad.

Photo: Ai Kihara-Hunt

As we approach the conclusion of the Toyota Foundation International Grant Program project on Research, Mutual Learning and Network Formation on Human Rights Best Practices by Non-State Actors in COVID Responses, I took this opportunity to learn from Megumi and reflect on potential lessons which could also be indispensable for our network of partners from various civic spaces. In the following highlights from our conversation, Megumi tells me about (1) how their presence and integration in communities helps them uphold the notion of human dignity, and gives community members a sense of purpose; (2) the challenges WE faced in terms of changing socially- and culturally-embedded gender norms; (3) the meaningful collaborations they engage in with government agencies and civil society actors; and finally, (4) her thoughts on ‘wearing two hats’ as both a researcher and women’s empowerment advocate.

Giving women a sense of purpose and helping uphold their dignity

For at least the first three years of the disaster recovery process, WE focused its humanitarian efforts by supporting women in the affected communities. It was early on in the process that they realized how deep-seated gender equality issues can complicate the vulnerability of women. Every year in the long process of reconstruction, the co-founders, including Megumi, ask themselves how long they should stay in the local community to continue their support activities. I asked her about the community-based activities they facilitate  and how these efforts distinguish them from others as a support organization with a focus on gender equality and women empowerment. As she explains, their presence in, and understanding of, the local community allows them to appropriately address women’s needs:

Megumi:

At first, we facilitated community activities like knitting and selling. The aim was to get women together and without the pressure of having to talk about their memory of the disaster. They can have a sense of purpose through the programs we facilitate. Those who were left in the temporary houses and evacuation centers, including the elderly, were drawing, knitting, and exercising. We based these programs on what we think their needs are.

Photo: Megumi Ishimoto (2011 in Miyagi)

I started as a volunteer, and I was living in the volunteer center for six months. I decided to move from Tokyo to Miyagi. Women’s Eye is a bit different from others because we are not like other organizations which visit and then leave, so that they only see what is on the surface. There are those who come to provide ‘grief care’, providing a space to talk, open up, and even cry. But, can you easily say whatever happened to you to someone you just met? Some felt that they had to say things which they were expected to say. This is especially true when it comes to issues women go through.

I pressed Megumi on the importance of her, and her organization’s presence in the community. I wanted to understand how important this was in their ability to develop a relationship with community members. What was their approach to developing support programs? She explains:

Megumi:

We don't provide special care. They are not the customers here. They think, they decide, and they act. That's how we designed and created every program. Of course, it was difficult in the beginning because we had no idea. no one really had experience facing those who were affected. There were so many people in front of us. All of us just felt that we needed, and wanted, to do something. We acted based on what we thought was needed there. In the last almost 14 years, we kind of grew as each person, as each program, and as an organization. Although we knew something about ‘empowerment’ programs, we didn’t have much experience on how you design, how you encourage participants, and how the dynamics of the programs go. After several years, we started to really understand how to design each program and how we should communicate.

I was curious to know whether they have always taken this view that women are not simply ‘recipients’ of aid.  In the first few years after the disaster, the context and aim was different: recovery and reconstruction. There were immediate needs because the community was still undergoing a period of disaster recovery. Megumi explains their dynamics with community members:

Megumi:

We have asked ourselves this question many times, especially in the beginning. We don't really have a clear answer for it. We knew that we can't really decide who is a ‘recipient’, and who is a ‘giver’. We try not to. In the beginning, there were really clear divisions, like for those who were living in temporary houses, or those who were living in evacuation centers. Those who need food, those who need water, those who need  clothing, those who need sanitary things or women's underwear. But, even for those in the evacuation centers, they don't need to be considered 100% recipients. They would discuss and then decide what they need and how to manage the evacuation centers. And then, I saw that in some of the evacuation centers, there would be one strong male leader, and that the others just had to listen. In some places, there were groups that discussed and decided. I didn't really see, nor meet, women leaders because it can be difficult for them in these communities.

Dealing with culturally-ingrained gender norms

A major challenge for WE, as a NPO focused on women empowerment and gender equality, is addressing issues within a deeply conservative and patriarchal society. Megumi explains how they deal with a challenge that has been socially and culturally ingrained:

Megumi:

Within the volunteer centers, people were asking us, ‘why do you need to support women only? What’s the difference?’ We needed to explain. As you can imagine, there were no women in decision making places. We always had to speak with women separately so they would start talking about their issues or their needs. In many cases, we faced community leaders saying, ‘women do not need anything specifically’, or ‘we always ask for children’s stuff but they always say no’. They are just not used to expressing their opinions. 

A good part of our program focused on working with local women. In Tome city, women started their own support activities; kind of like a ‘women supporting women’ kind of group. They asked us to support them because they had no idea how to organize things. Tome city staff also joined. So, volunteers from outside, local women, and city staff altogether started a ‘women supporting women’ kind of program. My knowledge also came from those local women. We visited all the evacuation centers. We drive a long way for a whole day and listen to all their stories. What was it like in the community or on the coast? Why is the patriarchal culture so strong in the farming areas, in the fishing areas? They talk about having a totally different culture. Some people really just didn't understand what women's needs are, and we really wanted to do something about that. We knew that it would take time. But then, I think this happens in any countryside. 

While they were a comparatively small organization, WE’s consistent presence and integration into the local communities allowed them to incorporate important advocacy on gender equality and women’s empowerment with capacity building work. As Megumi notes, they frame these engagement activities as ‘needs’ of women in the community. To combat deep-seated gender notions, WE has had to gain trust from the locals. The trust they gained, as well as their profound understanding of women's needs, also became crucial in the organization’s further growth, this time as a collaborative partner to other civil society organizations and government agencies.

WE’s impactful work during COVID-19 and beyond

Part of WE’s development as an organization involves  engaging in research activities that involve qualitative data gathering. The objective is to ensure that their activities and advocacy efforts are evidence based and founded on the voices of women they consider partners. As Megumi explains, the qualitative data they gathered became valuable for municipal government actors seeking to address compounding issues especially during the time of the pandemic:

Megumi:

It is not just for the program itself, but also for advocacy towards the municipalities. For example, some of the municipal governments don’t really consider gender equality as one of their main things; they don't do anything about it unless we put some pressure. Even the child rearing support system, they don't see as important. If we look at the policies and measures over the last 14 years, there's almost nothing on childcare and women’s issues. In the beginning, we just collected available data and then we analyzed. But later on, especially during and after the COVID-19 crisis, we started focusing on research on single mothers, collaborating with other researchers and the Single Mothers Forum, the biggest organization supporting single mothers in Japan. We collaborated in 13 to 14 research projects nationally.

I had conversations with the chairperson of the Single Mothers Forum about doing something to address the COVID crisis. The chairperson said that the organization can provide support kits which include food. Because of the school closures, single mothers couldn't go to work because they couldn’t use childcare, and they had to stay home. This means they can't make money. Most of them had part-time jobs, so if they don't work, there is no money. All of a sudden, the poverty rate was increasing. The Forum provided supplies, but realized that they also needed data. To help them, we decided to do the research targeting those who were receiving food support.

For the research component of our work, we started learning how to write survey/interview questions properly, how to ask them in order, and how to use the right language that is not too strong, but not too weak, so that we get answers we can analyze. We also did policy advocacy towards the national government, so we had to learn how to write reports based on the data. A few thousand people is a lot of voices. We had to read everything, and we had to learn quickly. We did research on single parents together with the local government, so it also changed our relationship with them. It took around six months to write appropriate research questions because government officials tend to have their own way of thinking and their own priorities. In a way, we built trust with officials but through person-to-person relationships. Later on, they became more helpful in other projects we initiated.

Fostering collaborative interpersonal relationships between non-State actors and government agencies is an important lesson I learned from the various subgroups in the broad Research Project. Establishing such connections is typically not without challenges. Megumi tells me about some of the roadblocks they faced in trying to communicate with local leaders:

Megumi:

Municipal officials understood that we have been there for some time, and they can expect that we will be there in the future. In a way, they can rely on us. One challenge is that, in the beginning, we were seeing issues of discrimination between representatives of different areas within a town. Simply put, people just don't seem to like those living in other areas, which is probably typical in the countryside. Those who are in the decision making places are several strong male leaders. They were not necessarily public officials, but they often had strong opinions, and would tell the organization, ‘oh, you don't need to support that other area’. This is why it was difficult for some international organizations to provide support for some areas in the beginning. Only a few people knew about this dynamic, but we kind of witnessed this, so we intentionally tried to avoid dealing with such decision makers in the beginning.

Another issue is that some of those decision makers favored certain organizations. We didn't want to be favored. We wanted to be able to say whatever we wanted to say. It was difficult because we also didn't want confrontation, which could lead to us being excluded. Sometimes, we were told, ‘you shouldn't come here’.Wwe tried not to argue, and rather just remain present and support whatever women needed or whatever we believed was needed there.

‘Wearing two hats’ at the same time

Finally, I asked Megumi about her two roles: a women’s empowerment advocate and a researcher. While working on her PhD research at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate Program on Human Security, as well as conducting research activities as part of WE, she is also an advocate for women’s rights and gender equality. Thus, I ask Megumi about balancing both roles and how each ‘hat’ complements the other. She explains: 

Megumi:

It was difficult writing my PhD research, because my priority is on the field. WE has grown over the years, such that now, we have 15 staff members, including myself. Most of the projects don't rely on me anymore, but sometimes I need to be available to communicate with government agencies or other organizations. I'm probably more of a women's empowerment advocate than a researcher, but the research part has become more important in WE’s work. My thesis is about empowerment theory and its implementation after disasters. Because I learned a lot about empowerment theory and the implementation processes, I am able to use all of that knowledge in our organization’s programs.

They are both important parts of who I am. I've been doing nonprofit work for the last 14 years, and I have seen a lot of women leaders grow in, and through, our organization. I don't know how long I will be there. Women’s empowerment and gender equality in communities, I think, is my life’s work, so I will keep doing that. But, I can now probably shift my focus on research projects that are useful not only for WE, but also for other organizations. I was in Türkiye for a week at the end of February, through JICA. There was a big earthquake in Türkiye two years ago, if you remember. They wanted to focus on support for women business owners in post-disaster contexts. I was invited, and was able to do a lot of interviews. I realized that what we were doing in Japan, and what I have been researching, is really valuable not just in the Tohoku area, but also in Türkiye and, potentially, other similar contexts.

Photo: Women’s Eye (2024 in Miyagi)

My main takeaway from this conversation with Megumi is that meaningful and impactful work in post-disaster and development contexts involves extensive understanding of the deep-rooted customs within communities and  of the subtleties of individual vulnerability. As we have learned from our Research Project, this is part of what makes civil society actors effective contributors to rights-based practice. By gaining full understanding of the vulnerability of women and their communities, Women’s Eye has established itself as a key partner for State actors in post-disaster response and human rights protection. In essence, their approach to research, mutual learning, and network formation embodies how civil society actors fill gaps to achieve both short- and long-term objectives for protecting women’s rights and for nurturing their development potential.