The movement’s politics around reproduction and the male-centred family system was also symbolised in the ‘K-san’ case. This concerned a mother fighting a legal battle to regain custody over her child, and epitomised discrimination against unwed mothers, who were not deemed legitimate mothers. The judge presiding over this case granted the biological father and his new wife custody of the child in February 1973, and deemed K-san (a public school teacher) unfit to raise a child on her own. This ruling was seen as representative of how the state enforces the patriarchal and male-centred family system. The campaign around K-san led ribu women to create new terms such as non-married mother (hikon no haha/^ЩЮЩ) signifying the rejection of terms such as unwed mothers (mikon no haha, literally ‘not yet married mothers’). They problematised the implication of the term ‘mikon no haha’, which was based on the assumption that a woman would eventually marry, rejecting this gendered norm that dictated the trajectory of women’s lives.
Chupiren was another feminist group often associated with ribu, but which identified itself as neo-ribu (neo-lib) in their bulletin (Mizoguchi et al. 1992-95, Vol. II: 244, 248). Their primary focus was the legalisation of the contraceptive pill. Their full name was the Women’s Liberation Federation for Opposing the Abortion Prohibition Law and Lifting the Ban on the Pill (Chu-zetsu Kinshi Ho ni Hantai Shi Piru Kaikin o Yokyu Suru Josei Kaiho Rengo). Chupiren gained much attention from the media. They donned pink helmets and often engaged in tactics which attracted media coverage. Many ribu women did not consider Chupiren part of their movement due to their own views of the pill and marriage. For example, Chupiren would protest against men divorcing their wives or married men who were having affairs. Many ribu women saw such protests as reinforcing the centrality of the marriage system to which they were fundamentally opposed. Regarding the legalisation of the pill, unlike feminists in the US, many ribu groups did not endorse the use of the pill (Akiyama 1993: 121—32). They regarded its side effects as undesirable and they were largely against relying on a birth control method that the government could easily regulate, thereby increasing state control over women’s reproductive freedom. Instead of embracing Western medicine, many ribu women became healers and practitioners of eastern medicine as their primary vocation. Tanaka Mitsu, whose work will be discussed below, was one highly influential activist who became an acupuncturist and became increasingly interested in methods of healing the body.