Yayori Matsui (1934-2002) was a Japanese journalist, women’s rights activist and organiser of women’s tribunals, including the Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal in 2000. Despite the important contribution which Yayori Matsui made to peoples’ tribunals, her personal work and activism remains relatively unacknowledged within the international legal canon. Born in Kyoto and raised in Tokyo, Matsui became a controversial figure in Japan due to her activism and advocacy on the establishment of pan-asian feminist solidarity. Much of this activism sought to draw attention to Japan’s ongoing colonial legacy in the Asia Pacific including on the issue of so-called ‘comfort women’ and the export of pollution. The portrait was sketched following a visit to the Women’s Active Museum on War and Peace in Tokyo where Matsui’s books, desk and archive is kept.
Dr Keina Yoshida is a human rights barrister, associate member of Doughty Street Chambers and visiting fellow at the Centre for Women, Peace and Security, LSE. Currently, she is a legal adviser at the Center for Reproductive Rights.