NHK’s serial asadora programs have been a mainstay in Japan’s morning television scene since 1961. The 15-minute episodic dramas usually center on a young heroine and the ups and downs of her life. Some are based on novels and short stories, but others take inspiration from real historical figures.
The latest entry into asadora canon is Tora ni Tsubasa, localized as The Tiger and Her Wings, follows Inotsume Tomoko, played by Ito Sairi, and her life as one of the first female lawyers in Japan. Tora strikes a nice balance between brevity and drama while tackling complex social issues like gender inequality head-on.
Ito’s character and life is loosely modeled after Mibuchi Yoshiko, one of three women to first pass the bar exam only a few years after women were allowed to study law. Naturally, the asadora is drawing renewed interest in Mibuchi’s life and legacy and the efforts of women like her to pave the way for future generations.
Early life and aspirations
Mibuchi Yoshiko was born Mutou Yoshiko in November 1914 in Singapore. Her father Sadao worked for the Bank of Taiwan and traveled extensively for work. Her mother, Nobu, stayed home to raise Mibuchi and her four younger siblings. They lived for a time in Sadao’s hometown Marugame in Kagawa Prefecture before the family moved to Shibuya in 1920.
The 1910s and 20s of Mibuchi’s youth witnessed women from all walks of life publicly challenging social norms. During the short but far from uneventful Taisho era, “new women” like Tamura Toshiko and political activist Ichikawa Fusae published stories and essays on once taboo subjects like abortion and challenged conventional ways of life.
Meanwhile, the modern girl, or moga, flaunted the latest Western aesthetics as they commuted to their jobs as secretaries, teachers, and cafe waitresses. The idealized “good wife, wise mother”(่ฏๅฆป่ณขๆฏ; ryosai kenbo) was becoming a less attractive option for the newer generation.
Far from being disdainful of these changes, Sadao actively encouraged his oldest daughter to become well-versed in economics, politics, and law. Her mother, however, felt differently, fearing a career in those fields would disincline any man from wanting to marry her. Regardless, it didn’t take long for Mibuchi to set her heart on becoming a lawyer.
The path to becoming a lawyer
Activists made much headway in bringing women into the wider world of politics and law. The New Woman’s Society was still riding the high of their 1922 victory over repealing a law forbidding women from participating in political activities. Now, many turned their attention to revising another piece of legislation: the 1893 Lawyer Act.
While Mibuchi was in high school, government lobbyists led by law professor Hozumi Shigeto formed a committee pushing for revisions to the Lawyer Act to allow women to practice. According to Article 2 of the act, one must be an adult male and Japanese national to become a lawyer. Women’s suffrage activists joined the committee in convincing the government to take their concerns seriously.
Their efforts were not in vain. The revision made in 1933 stated an aspiring lawyer must be an imperial subject of legal adult age. Its ambiguous wording was enough to feint gender equality and open the door for women.
Of course, there was a catch. To take the bar exams, a potential candidate must be a graduate of a vocational school or university specially approved by the Ministry of Education. No women’s vocational schools were on that list. A handful of universities did accept women at the time — just not into their legal departments.
Only one university offered a legal education to women. In 1929, a group of academics, including Hozumi and Supreme Court Justice Yokota Hideo, founded the Women’s College of Meiji University, a Ministry-approved institution. The college introduced a 3-year law program exclusively for women. Dozens of eager, bright-eyed women packed the hall for the opening ceremony, challenging naysayers who believed women wouldn’t be interested in pursuing law.
Making history
Despite her mother’s vehement opposition to her career path, Mibuchi enrolled in the college’s law program in 1932. The first 19 women to take the bar exam in 1936 failed to pass. But in 1938, Mibuchi and two other women, Kume Ai and Nakata Masako, made history as the first women to pass the bar exam.
Following an 18-month internship at the Daini Tokyo Bar Association, all three women registered as lawyers in 1940. Newspapers and law journals lauded their accomplishments, while women’s groups honored the women with numerous receptions. Groundbreaking accomplishments aside, Mibuchi was honest about her uncertainty over her future:
“I haven’t yet decided what my future plan of action is. Even if I were to become a lawyer… I’d like to be even a little bit helpful as an advisor to those less fortunate. Yet I feel I’m too ignorant and incompetent to do that…. My only wish is that no matter which path I choose to take, I’ll devote myself to society and to people, in keeping with that path.”
Again, strict legislation narrowed her career options. Women were not allowed to become public servants like judges or prosecutors; working as a lawyer was the most they could hope for. But that would all change after the war.
Surviving the war
Mibuchi’s mother’s fears about marriage proved unfounded. In 1941 Mibuchi married Wada Yoshio, a former Meiji University student who’d lived with her parents. He’d performed housework and other chores in exchange for meals and boarding. After graduation, he workedat a textile company.
Mibuchi gave birth to their son two years later. Neither marriage nor motherhood hampered her career.
Japan’s entry into World War II, of course, changed everything. With survival taking precedence over taking people to court, the number of civil cases Mibuchi dealt with dwindled. In order to get by, Mibuchi took on an assistant professor position at her alma mater in 1944.
Her husband narrowly avoided the draft due to suffering from pleurisy but was sent overseas in 1945. An air raid destroyed her home soon after. She evacuated with her son, brother’s wife, and niece to take refuge in Fukushima. For the next six months, they lived in a decrepit farmhouse infested with lice and fleas, doing hard labor and barely securing enough food to survive.
Life postwar began with further tragedy for Mibuchi. In 1946, while returning home from Shanghai, her husband fell ill in Nagasaki and died. Her mother died of a cerebral hemorrhage in January 1947. Her father died later that year.
On her own with a child to look after, Mibuchi set her sights on becoming a judge. It was a dream the Occupation authorities were quickly making a reality.
Making strides during the Occupation years
The emancipation of women was just one of the many sweeping reforms the Occupation GHQ made to elevate Japan to an acceptably democratic nation. The legal systems were no exception. Mary Easterling, an American lawyer attached to the GHQ legal office, was instrumental in founding the Japan Women’s Bar Association. Mibuchi’s fellow schoolmate Kume Ai became its first president.
In 1949, Mibuchi secured a posting as an assistant judge-in-training in the civil affairs department of the Tokyo District Court. Transitioning from poverty and hard labor to the fast-paced legal world was a shock, but one Mibuchi quickly got over. Looking back on that time, Mibuchi wrote, “I never felt uncomfortable because I was a woman. If anything, everyone cherished me and did their utmost to train me.”
In 1950, Mibuchi was selected to join a team to travel to America to study the judicial courts. The team also included Watanabe Michiko, one of the first women to become a judge postwar following the reforms.
The team traveled to Chicago, New York, and Washington D.C. touring various legal institutions. They then spent around three months in San Francisco observing legal proceedings in the city’s family court system. The role that the experienced, educated staff played in supporting the judges left a deep impression on Mibuchi, helping her envision what Japan’s rebuilt court systems could be.
A second love
The Occupation of Japan ended in 1952. That same year, Mibuchi became the first female judge of the Nagoya District Court. There, she would meet her future second husband, Mibuchi Kentaro.
A widowed father of four and a judge for the Supreme Court, Kentaro had the calm bearing of an English gentleman, a contrast to Mibuchi’s lively outgoing personality. The two wed in 1956.
The life of a married judge was far from stable; at any moment, either one of them could be transferred to a court halfway across the country. So it was the two fell into a “commuter marriage” (ๅฅๅฑ ๅฉ; bekkyokan) as they served in their respective courts.
These separations only made the time they spent together more precious. Dozens of photo albums recovered at one of their former estates depict a vibrant marriage: relaxing at home, playing mahjong, dressed up for a stroll through Ginza. Reflecting on her marriage two years later, Mibuchi wrote, “My anxious heart that felt poised on the edge of a cliff is now calm to a point I find most peculiar.”
The A-bomb trial
Most of Mibuchi’s cases weren’t necessarily ones to grab headlines. That would change in 1955 with the landmark A-bomb trial (ๅ็่ฃๅค; genbaku saiban). A group of atomic bomb survivors (่ขซ็่ ; hibakusha) led by Shimoda Ryuichi filed a case against the Japanese government claiming the bombings were illegal under international law.
Since Japan waived all claims to damages caused by the bombs in signing the San Francisco Peace Treaty, the plaintiffs argued the government also waived the individual’s right to seek damages from the US. Therefore, Japan by proxy should pay damages instead.
Mibuchi was one of three chief judges who oversaw the case, which dragged on for eight and a half years. Mibuchi was notably the only judge present for all the oral arguments. In 1963, the court ruled that the bombings were indeed unlawful and fell under the definition of indiscriminate bombardment. However, the plaintiffs couldn’t seek damages under international law.
Takakuwa Akira, one of the main judges, remembers Mibuchi as a gentle and kind person. The case was, understandably, far from simple. “It was a unique case completely different from the regular civil suits brought against the government over the atomic bombings,” he said.
In the anthology Women Lawyers (ๅฅณๆงๆณๅพๅฎถ; Josei Houritsuka), Mibuchi wrote, “We could have dismissed the claim for compensation regardless of whether or not [the bombs] violated international law, but we presented our reasoning and inspected international law without shirking our duties. We just couldn’t justify the dropping of the atomic bombs.”
Dealing with people, not cases
From 1972, Mibuchi held presidential postings in various family courts, starting with the Niigata Family Court. She believed that the family court “deals with people, not cases,” and her work environment reflected that.
During her presidency at the Yokohama Family Court, Mibuchi cultivated a calming environment that diluted the strictness of court proceedings. She redecorated the gloomy mediation room to brighten up the atmosphere. She would play soft, soothing music in the corridors during lunch time. All this helped mitigate the stress for staff and families embroiled in juvenile cases.
Even after her retirement in 1979, Mibuchi continued to serve the legal community, even serving as president of the Japan Women Lawyers Association. She stayed busy until her death in 1984 at 69 years of age. Close to 2,000 people attended her funeral service, a testament to the impact she made during her long, illustrious career.
Mibuchi’s legacy
Thanks to Mibuchi and her fellow trailblazers, the number of women working in law firms has slowly but steadily increased over the years. As of 2022, women accounted for 24.4% of prosecutors, 22.2% of judges, and 18.9% of lawyers. In February, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations elected Fuchigami Reiko as its first female president in its 75-year existence.
Meanwhile, Tora ni Tsubasa continues to draw a high viewership since its first episode aired in April. It’s rare nowadays for an asadora to clinch a viewership rating over 20%, but its 55th episode drew a combined household viewership of 18%.
If anything, Mibuchi’s life and the drama reinforces how women, then and now, fiction or reality, continue to defy the odds in a world constantly attempting to sideline them.
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41ๆญณใงๅๅฉใใฆ๏ฝขๅดใฃใทใกใฎๅฟใซไฝ่ฃๅบใ๏ฝฃโฆๆใใฉใฎใขใใซไธๆทตๅๅญใจ่ฃๅคๅฎใฎๅคซใฏๆๅพใพใงใฉใใฉใใ ใฃใ. President JP
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