sunethra bandara naike there remembering her mother, what a remarkable story. japan, where women had to wait until 1999 to get the right to control the number of children they had using the oral contraceptive pill. now, in contrast, a male impotence drug viagra was approved for use injapan injust six months, and legalised before the pill for women. witness history has been speaking to yoriko madoka, who has made it her life's work to fight for the right of japanese women to access contraception. translation: the reason i started pushing for the legalisation of the pill was because before i became an mp i ran what i called a happy divorce class for women. i was not a professional counsellor or anything, i was a journalist. but i volunteered to help people going through a divorce. many women wanted to talk a lot about their abortions. divorce and abortion are actually closely related. if you have good communication with your husband you can say, "i don't want to have sex today," or "i'd like to use "contraception." but many women told me they were not having any