Women's Initiative for Sustainable Empowerment

Dear supporters:

We are so grateful for your continued support. After a long period of COVID-19 struggle, we are finally resuming our flagship program of WISE2023 in Nagano, Japan!

We strongly feel that even if it is a small scale, our WISE program will make an impact on participants and eventually create a ripple effect in the society. The total number of WISE fellows reached more than 240, and we are very proud of what we've done. This year, we visited Saku and Karuizawa areas in Nagano, discussed with local leaders and school teachers, and secured talented mentors. 

In Japan's rural areas like Nagano, younger generations and women continue to suffer from unconscious bias or traditional female roles pressed upon them. The biggest hurdle for them is to break from a conservative community of tight knitted values. JSIE continues to provide opportunities for those younger generations and females to unlock their full potential. 

Thanks again for your support. We will keep you updated for the 2023 WISE program in Saku-Karuizawa.

Dear supporters:

We are so grateful for your continued support. As the gender gap report 2022 says, Japan continued to rank the lowest #116th among developed nations. Traditional values continue to put constraints on women to play a major role in society. 

Because of the unforeseeable COVID situation, we postponed our flagship program, Women's initiative for sustainable empowerment (WISE) to the following year. We strongly feel that even if it is small, our WISE program will make an impact on participants and eventually create a ripple effect in the society. We have so many challenges ahead:  we've got a question from a 7th grade female student "why female descrimination in Japan continues to exist despite there are laws in place and social activities to eliminate such discriminations?" One positive news is -- as a result of internal rule change after the scandal, this year in Japan, for the first time, the number of female students accepted to medical schools exceeded the number of male students. 

This summer, JSIE staff are exploring Nagano area as a potential venue to conduct the WISE program 2023. In rural areas of Japan, it is still pervasive to find that younger generations especially girls continue to suffer from unconscious bias or traditional female roles pressed upon them. The biggest hurdle for them is to convince parents or relatives to break from such a community of tight knitted values. JSIE continues to provide opportunities for those younger generations and females to unlock their full potential. 

Thanks again for your support. We are hoping to hold an in-person event soon. We will keep you updated.