Gender Issues and Women’s Agency in Involuntary Resettlement: The Tokuyama Dam in Japan

Abstract

This research evaluates the Tokuyama dam resettlement in Japan through the short-term from a gender perspective using the IRR and PAR models. Moreover, this research also evaluates the resettlement and clarifies the changes in women’s jobs in the long-term. As for short-term evaluation, the risks that women faced during the negotiation period and after resettlement are categorized into three issues: landlessness, joblessness, and loss of access to common property assets. Women have tried to solve these issues with agency, although they are usually recognized as passive victims in the context of forced displacement. In addition, the attitudes of “dam brides”—those who married men originally from Tokuyama in the period immediately prior to the dam construction and subsequent resettlement—were different from women originally from Tokuyama village. As for the long-term evaluation, changes of women’s productive activities are mainly categorized into three patterns: part-time jobs, sewing jobs as side work, and farming.