A Japanese service member helps Maj. Michelle Binder wear a yukata during a cultural exchange at the USO on Yokota Air Base, Japan, July 22, 2023. (Kelly Agee/Stars and Stripes)
YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — Female American and Japanese service members donned traditional Japanese garments and shared their military experiences during a recent cultural exchange at this airlift hub in western Tokyo.
“Women in the military, we don’t often get to see our counterparts on the Japanese side — getting to interact not just as military members but as women and talk about our likes and dislikes, things that are fun and things that are hard,” Maj. Michelle Binder, of the 374th Medical Group, said during the July 22 event at Yokota’s USO. “Being a leader and being a woman and being a wife or a mother and serving at the same time, those challenges are universal.”
During the three-hour event, Japan Ground Self-Defense Force women showed their U.S. counterparts how to wear yukata – unlined summer kimonos. Binder’s was orange and covered with yellow and blue flowers.
“I can see how the traditional clothing feeds the culture and the expectation of how women historically presented themselves, because the outfit almost forces you to stand up straight and have good posture and walk in a very specific way,” she said. “So, it really complements the feel; it really makes you feel like you're in that role.”
In 2021, women made up 17.3% of the U.S. active-duty force, a small increase from 17.2% the previous year, according to a Defense Department demographics report. As of March 2022, women comprised 8% of Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, according to Nippon.com.
During the cultural exchange, the women also teamed up to construct paper ornaments called tsumami, which means “to pinch.” They are made by pinching and forming the paper into a flower shape.
Americans and Japanese pose wearing yukata, unlined summer kimonos, during a cultural exchange at the USO on Yokota Air Base, Japan, July 22, 2023. (Kelly Agee/Stars and Stripes)
Air Force Staff Sgt. Stacia Hughes constructs a paper ornament called a tsumami during a cultural exchange at the USO on Yokota Air Base, Japan, July 22, 2023. (Kelly Agee/Stars and Stripes)
Japanese service members help their American counterparts wear yukata, an unlined summer kimono, during a cultural exchange at the USO on Yokota Air Base, Japan, July 22, 2023. (Kelly Agee/Stars and Stripes)
Sgt. Ayami Konishi, of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, helps U.S. service members construct paper ornaments called tsumami during a cultural exchange at the USO on Yokota Air Base, Japan, July 22, 2023. (Kelly Agee/Stars and Stripes)
Sgt. Ayami Konishi, a supply sergeant, helped the U.S. women with their yukata and tsumami. She said she was meeting U.S. military women at Yokota for the first time.
Konishi asked her American colleagues how long they have served, how many other women they serve with and how difficult they find their military service.
She said she enjoyed getting to practice her English skills during the event.
“People have been very kind and very nice,” Konishi said.
The Ground Self-Defense Force has been focusing on holding more women’s activities and events, said event chairman Makoto Yoshinaga.
