Film Screening & Discussion: Shusenjo - The Main Battleground of the Comfort Women Issue

How has the issue of women's rights become the battleground of political quandary in Japan and South Korea? 

This film Shusenjo delves deep into the highly controversial 'comfort women' issue and presents the viewpoints of those who are involved in the debate. It attempts to find answers to some of the biggest questions for Japanese and Koreans: Were 'comfort women' prostitutes or sex slaves? Were they coercively recruited? And, does Japan have a legal responsibility to apologize to the former comfort women?

Miki Dezaki is a graduate of the Graduate Program in Global Studies at Sophia University in Tokyo. Shusenjo, which is produced as his graduation project, is his directorial debut.

The screening will take place from 17.00-19.00, followed by a discussion with director Miki Dezaki and Johanna Mannergren Selimovic, researcher at UI.

Moderator: Linus Hagström, Professor of Political Science, the Swedish Defence University and Senior Research Fellow at UI.

Welcome!

The Japan seminar series is jointly organized by the European Institute of Japanese Studies at Stockholm School of Economics, the Asia Programme at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs, the Department of Asian, Middle Eastern and Turkish Studies at Stockholm University and the Swedish Defence University. It features monthly seminars on Japanese economy, politics and society. 

The film screening is co-organized by the Forum for Asian Studies, Stockholm University.