UNCORRECTED PROOF ARTICLE IN PRESS 1 Globalization and violence against women—inequalities in risks, 2 responsibilities and blame in the Uk and Japan 3 Lorraine Radford a , Kaname Tsutsumi b 4 a School of Business and Social Science, University of Surrey Roehampton, Southlands College, 5 80 Roehampton Lane, London SW15 5SL, UK 6 b Kyushu International University, Fukuoka, Japan 7 8 Synopsis 9 Recognizing domestic violence as a ‘‘real crime’’ has become an increasingly important part of government policy on crime 10 control in both Japan and the UK. In this paper we review trends in violence against women in the UK and in Japan and relate 11 these to broader changes associated with globalization. We consider how the growing visibility of violence against women has 12 effected risk taking and risk management. We argue globalization has created different and more opportunities for violence from 13 men to women. Men in rich areas of the world have responded to the growing riskiness of violence against women at home by 14 ‘‘exporting’’ some of the costs of these crimes on to those who are especially vulnerable to entrapment, abuse and 15 enslavement—poor, ‘‘third world’’ and migrant women and children. We look briefly at recent feminist responses to violence 16 against women and argue that risk management poses dilemmas for globalized feminist activism within the current contexts of 17 family policy and crime control. 18 D 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd. 19 20 21 Introduction 22 In this paper we review trends in violence against 23 women in the UK and in Japan and relate these to 24 broader changes associated with globalization. Vio- 25 lence is readily reported in the press and crimes, such 26 as rape, incest or domestic violence, have become 27 favored topics in talk shows and soaps. Crime statis- 28 tics on domestic violence are alarming. One in four 29 women in the UK report having experienced domestic 30 violence from a male partner at some time in their 31 adult lives (Mirlees-Black, 1999, p. 18) and research 32 by Stanko et al. (1998, p. 20) indicates that as many as 33 1 in 10 will have experienced it in the past 12 months 34 (Stanko et al., 1998, p. 20). In Japan, a recent 35 government survey found one in three women had 36 sustained some physical injuries from male partners 37 and 1 in 20 women had experienced violence they 38 described as being life threatening (Cabinet Office, 39 2002, p. 24). Contrary to commonly held beliefs about 40 the lower incidence of violence in Japanese society, 41 for years Japanese women have cited domestic vio- 42 lence as the main reason for seeking a divorce 1 (Hada, 43 1995). Recognizing domestic violence as a ‘‘real 44 crime’’ has become an increasingly important part of 45 government policy on crime control in both Japan and 46 the UK. In this paper we discuss whether violence 47 against women is increasing in wealthy industrial 48 societies or whether we are just noticing it more, 49 whether the world has become a more dangerous 0277-5395/$ - see front matter D 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd. doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2003.12.008 www.elsevier.com/locate/wsif WSIF-01004; No of Pages 12 Women’s Studies International Forum xx (2004) xxx– xxx