Japan’s largest exhibition of women photographers rights a wrong in cultural history

For decades, women working in photography have had to fight for a place in the spotlight. “I’m So Happy You Are Here: Japanese Women Photographers from the 1950s to Now,” a 2024 anthology and an ongoing international exhibition, seeks to give them the recognition they deserve.Tokyo’s T3 Photography Festival previewed part of the exhibition last year, but the larger show, which has toured Europe and North America and attracted some 140,000 visitors, opened July 4 at Hikarie Hall in Shibuya. Organized by Bunkamura, the exhibition expands the roster to 30 women, adding Hisae Imai, Ai Iwane, Aya Fujioka and Tomoko Yoneda and bringing the total number of works on view to 200.Twenty of the featured photographers attended the show’s preopening at Hikarie Hall. Each was called on stage in an emotional gathering of photographic talent rare in its scope and intergenerational representation.