New Women's Association
[2] The organization strove to enhance women's rights in the areas of education, employment, and suffrage.
[2] The organization is widely credited for raising the issue of women's rights in Japan and influencing the Diet's decision to expand them.
[6][7] The group's aims included raising the "social and political position of women in Japan.
[3] The leaders, Hiratsuka Raichō, Ichikawa Fusae, and Oku Mumeo, also focused on repealing or modifying Article 5 of the Public Police Law.
[6] The group both lobbied for and drafted a petition in favor of this with the goal of protecting the women whose husbands had or would later contract a sexually transmitted disease.
[4] The petition that was drafted for this purpose would have also given a woman the right to divorce her husband if he had venereal disease or contracted one during their marriage.
[3] Hiratsuka Raichō asked Ichikawa Fusae to form a women's rights organization with Oku Mumeo starting in 1919.
[12] The organization petitioned the Diet in order to bring about changes that would allow women to be politically involved, among other issues.
She was in the United States for two-and-a-half years, though her departure from the New Women's Association came largely as a result of Ichikawa and Hiratsuka's differing opinions.
She aimed to first announce the purpose and plans of the movement and launch a campaign while Hiratsuka thought about publishing a magazine and recruiting supporters.
While Hiratsuka and Oku were busy with childcare and household, Ichikawa had to do a lot of workload, and it made her grumpy.
The office of the New Women's Association was placed in her house, and she couldn't separate her daily life and work.
[6] The organization petitioned the Diet about changes of Article 5 of the Public Police Law and regulated men with venereal diseases getting married.
Although the organization tried to submit the draft amendment of the law after the discussion, they couldn't because the Imperial Diet was suddenly dissolved on February 26.
[6] On October 28, 1920, the petitions included Article 5, marriage regulation, and voting rights for women were submitted.
[6] The first women's convention which the NWA declared establishment was hosted by the Osaka Asahi Shimbun company.
[6] The NWA on the other hand distributed to newspaper companies the progress report about the first discussion in the Diet.
[6] Newspapers mainly focused on two petitions at first, but they became concentrated on the amendment of Article 5 and barely reported marriage regulation for men with venereal diseases at the end of the movement.
According to Fujin Kōron, she described the establishment of the NWA as a "recent significant phenomena among women", and she showed her favoritism toward it.
In contrast, the second commentary questioned focusing on the amendment of Article 5 nevertheless the general election movement became active.
He understood Hiratsuka's purpose of radically changing the status of women, and he gave some advice for their activities.
Yamakawa Kikue and Itō Noe, were members of the Red Wave Society, criticized the NWA severely.
She described the NWA as " Hiratuska's the outdated aristocratic, self-righteous hedonism" and expressed their activities as "Bourgeois Games".
