Prior to the China Incident, there were several nationwide women's organizations supervised by different Ministries. Under the Ministry of Education were the Greater Japan Federation of Women's Groups (Dai Nippon Rengo Fujinkai), which was founded in 1930, and the Greater Japan Federation of Girls' Youth Groups. The Women's Patriotic Association (愛國婦人會/Aikoku Fujinkai) set up earlier, in 1901 by Okumura Ioko was under the supervision of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Greater Japan Women's National Defense Association (Dai Nippon Kokubo Fujinkai) was established in 1932 under the supervision of the Ministries of the Army and the Navy. In 1941, the Greater Japan Federation of Girls' Youth Groups was unified with the other nationwide youth and child groups including its boys' counterpart, the Greater Japan Youth Group, to organize the Greater Japan Youth and Child Group, but the other three women's groups continued to compete with each other.
However, in June, 1941, the Cabinet adopted Guidelines for Making a New Women's Organization to Meet the Critical Need of National Defense and, despite strong pressure from the military concerning certain items, the three groups merged in February, 1942, to create the Greater Japan Women's Association (Dai Nippon Fujinkai). This Association committed itself to the cultivation of the concept of national polity, the indoctrination of womanly virtues, the propagation of the importance of national defense, the purification of family life, the disciplining of youths, the promotion of home education, the encouragement of soldiers, training for national defense, service to the nation through performing everyone's duties, cooperation among neighbors and the promotion of savings among other goals. The Greater Japan Women's Association reached out to all adult Japanese women through a nationwide network of neighborhood and village associations. The headquarters was affiliated with the Imperial Rule Assistance Association (Taisei Yokusankai) whose opening ceremony took place on October 12, 1940.
However, in June, 1941, the Cabinet adopted Guidelines for Making a New Women's Organization to Meet the Critical Need of National Defense and, despite strong pressure from the military concerning certain items, the three groups merged in February, 1942, to create the Greater Japan Women's Association (Dai Nippon Fujinkai). This Association committed itself to the cultivation of the concept of national polity, the indoctrination of womanly virtues, the propagation of the importance of national defense, the purification of family life, the disciplining of youths, the promotion of home education, the encouragement of soldiers, training for national defense, service to the nation through performing everyone's duties, cooperation among neighbors and the promotion of savings among other goals. The Greater Japan Women's Association reached out to all adult Japanese women through a nationwide network of neighborhood and village associations. The headquarters was affiliated with the Imperial Rule Assistance Association (Taisei Yokusankai) whose opening ceremony took place on October 12, 1940.
Originally main tasks of Patriotic Women's Association during wartime were to take care of the wounded soldiers and their bereaved families in Japan, and to raise funds for military supplies during. In times of peace. members of Patriotic Women's Association were engaged in social work, such as cooperating with the Japanese Red Cross Society to organize medical tours. In addition to the donations made by the Emperor of Japan and the Empress of Japan at the time of its founding, the association's funding sources include general membership fees, business income and donations from all walks of life. In 1937, the total number of members of the Patriotic Women's Association had reached more than 3.11 million. In addition to mainland Japan, there were also local Patriotic Women's Association organizations in Korea, Taiwan and Manchukuo.