[Important Announcement] Museum Hours

WAM’s opening hours will be changed from September 2020.

Opening hours: 1pm-6pm, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday
*Open additionally on 4 specific public holidays: February 11, February 23, April, 29 and November 3 for the reasons explained below.

Closed: Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
Also closed: Japanese Public Holidays (excluding the 4 days mentioned above), New Year’s holiday season and at exhibition intervals. (please see the WAM’s calendar).

Why open specific public holidays?
The most of the public holidays in Japan are closely linked to the Emperor System. During the Asia-Pacific War, these holidays were used as an apparatus for deifying the Emperor. Although the names have been changed after the war, many of these days have been kept as holidays. WAM, as a museum keeping the spirit of the “Women’s International War Crimes Tribunal on Japan’s Military Sexual Slavery” (December 2000, Tokyo), which announced Emperor Hirohito guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity, we decided to open the following holidays so as NOT to “celebrate” them.

February 11: Formerly Kigen-setsu, established in 1873 to commemorate the ascension of Jimmu, a mythical figure and said to be the first Emperor. Banned after the war, but revived as “National Foundation Day” in 1966.

February 23: The present Emperor’s Birthday. The date for this holiday is changed as the Emperor changes.

April 29: The birthday of Emperor Showa, known as Hirohito. After his death, the day was kept as a holiday and re-named as “Green day”. In 2007, it was renamed again as “Showa Day.”

November 3: The birthday of Emperor Meiji. The conferment ceremony of decorations is held in the Imperial Palace on this day. Though now called the “Day of Culture,” nationalists are attempting to change the name to the “Day of Meiji.”

On these days, we will hold seminars etc., to discuss the Emperor system and discrimination rooted in it, such as patriarchy, colonialism and racism still prevailed in Japanese Society.