Biography

As a woman raised in Japan, gender inequality in my country was something I was aware of from a very young age. It was during my undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan that I finally learned the language of social justice, power, and identities to express my protest against these inequalities. I learned about my country’s lack of progress towards women’s rights in the workplace through my research for my honors thesis on gender ideology and Womenomics, and then became a classroom teacher with the objective of reframing curricular material to be more gender inclusive. During my time as a teacher in Japan, I became involved in labor activism, and learned firsthand about the challenges of tackling gendered harassment in educational institutions as an employee. Through my MPhil in Japanese Studies at Cambridge, I hope to deepen my understanding of the cultural, historical, economic, and political factors that impact the formation of gender ideology in Japan today with a focus on the gendered messaging in moral education textbooks used in public education. I hope to eventually transform educational and workplace policies for women’s empowerment in Japan and in under-resourced international communities.

Previous Education

University of Michigan Educational Studies 2018
University of Michigan Economics, International Studi 2015