The BBC released its 100 Women 2024 list on Tuesday, featuring a wide range of inspiring and influential females from around the globe, including the likes of stranded astronaut Sunita Williams, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad, actress Sharon Stone, Olympic shooter Kim Yeji and rape survivor Gisèle Pelicot. Japanese comedian, fashion designer and body-positive advocate Naomi Watanabe also made the list. As did Yumi Suzuki, who was forcibly sterilized under Japan’s now defunct eugenics law when she was just 12.
Naomi Watanabe
Born in Taiwan but raised in Ibaraki Prefecture, Naomi Watanabe rose to fame in 2008 due to her impersonations of celebrities, particularly her imitation of Beyoncé. In 2014, she launched her own fashion line called Punyus (loosely translated to “chubby” in English). Four years later, she featured in Time magazine’s list of the 25 most influential people on the internet. She is Japan’s most popular Instagram influencer, with over 10 million followers. According to the BBC, Watanabe has “broken down barriers in male-dominated Japanese comedy,” while also “helping to change body stereotypes in Japan.”
Yumi Suzuki
Born with cerebral palsy, Yumi Suzuki was forced to have her uterus surgically removed when she was only 12. Under Japan’s eugenics law, 16,500 disabled people were forcibly sterilized between the 1950s and 1990s. It was eventually repealed in 1996. In July of this year, the Supreme Court ruled the practice unconstitutional and ordered the government to pay compensation to the victims. “I [have] faced discrimination from when I was small, but his was very different,” said Suzuki. “It broke my heart. I don’t want money. I want people to know what happened to us. To make sure it never happens again. I want disabled people to be treated equally. We are not things. We are human beings.”
