It has been ten years since I edited the last Japanese national edition of In God's Image in 1999. At that time, "Quilting Voices of Diverse Lives in Japan" was our common theme, on which many women contributed articles from different angles on issues we faced then. After ten years I wonder if we are still struggling with the same questions and issues.

I find distinctive differences in the articles included in the current issue. Each article has a clearer tone of voice talking about the issues that face us. Through dealing with various phases of family, church, community, nation, and the world and the problems encountered when viewed from feminist perspectives, I can tell we are more confident in our own feminist voices. Another big difference I observe is that there are more women doing/practicing feminist theologies in diverse ways in their daily lives. It is not easy to live out feminist theologies in our society, but these articles evince there are more women who are living against the grain with courage and willingness. So I chose "Globally Diverse Voices of Women Doing Feminist Theology in Japan" as our theme for this issue.

It was not possible to collect articles from all corners of life, but readers will find much diversity not only in terms of articles but also of contributors. Two articles deal with issues from the perspectives of sexual minorities. An article challenges us from an ethnic minority perspective. Two articles address scriptural texts using a hermeneutic of suspicion as well as through imaginative creation and comparative studies of cultures. They are both provocative in the sense that they try to open up new feminist ways of reading texts. Another adventure of cultural encounter is found in the article that lets a scriptural story be interpreted through a Japanese traditional Noh play.

It is significant and important for us to widen our perspectives beyond the border of our nation. There is a stimulating article that confronts images drawn by artists around the world that may become part of a new methodology of doing theology. Another article confronts the issue of working with indigenous minority women in Bangladesh not in the more traditional benevolent manner, but through a co-operative networking of women. A college chaplain, who discovered the founder of the college had tried to live like Japanese even though he had been greatly influenced by missionaries, seeks her own way to live as herself.

Among the contributors, there are four women from abroad: the Philippines, Germany, Scotland, and the United States of America. Three of them are in Japan as missionaries, but their lifestyles are quite unique and far beyond our traditional or stereotypical image of missionaries. Their contribution to this issue gives us multifaceted pictures of how they have related with the Japanese people and the kind of concerns they have. Their observations, analysis, and critical discourse on Japanese church and culture will help readers see our country and issues from a wider scope of feminist perspectives.

There are four articles for which graphics and photos in color play important roles. Because of budget limitations for printing and using special paper, they have been put together in the centerfold. On each page of the centerfold, you will see which graphics or photos are related to whose article.

I appreciate our two women friends who contributed beautiful illustrations for this issue. Yoko Ikenoya has two illustrations in the article written by her friend Tomoko Yamashita. All other illustrations are kindly contributed by Midori Shibata, a member of UCC Otaru Boyodai Kyokai, whose designs are published in the book Gospel, in 1998. Many thanks go to both illustrators who have sent in pleasant breezes to accompany the pages which are so full of letters.

At last and not the least, I would like to welcome Anna Marsiana as our new coordinator of AWRC and express our hearty appreciation to Yong Ting Jin for contributing so much as the previous coordinator for many years.

I hope this issue will contribute some to the advancement of doing feminist theologies in Asia.

Hisako Kinukawa
Guest Editors

One of the joys of being publications secretary of AWRC (and therefore editor of In God's Image) is the opportunity to read the whole edition of In God's Image first. Having a guest editor however for a national edition such as this one means sharing that joy with the guest editor, who actually gets to read everything first. It was wonderful doing just that with Hisako Kinukawa who is the guest editor of this edition on Japan. Once again, AWRC is very grateful to Hisako-san for graciously accepting the task of guest editor in spite of her busy schedule of teaching, writing, presenting papers in various conferences and so on. We are also very grateful to the contributors who willingly shared of themselves through their stories - these include the Japanese women as well as women from other countries who have lived and served in Japan for sometime. To all of you, Domo arigatou gosaimasu!

Hope S. Antone
Publications Secretary