Photo/Illutration Ayumi Taniguchi is campaigning for a reduced consumption tax rate for women's sanitary goods on the Change.org website. (Captured from the website)

When Ayumi Taniguchi was a child, her grandmother told her she once had to choose between buying breakfast bread and feminine hygiene products every month because she was poor.

Taniguchi is now campaigning for a reduced consumption tax rate for pads, tampons and other sanitary items, saying they are indispensable for women, all born with a womb, to lead a daily life without anxiety.

“The story of my grandmother was very shocking, but I thought it was a thing of the past,” said Taniguchi, 22, who wrote her graduation thesis on menstruation of university students. “But a survey for my paper made me realize that menstruation may be posing a serious financial problem even today.”

Taniguchi started a petition on the Change.org website in December when she was a senior at Tokyo’s International Christian University. More than 30,000 supporters, including men, have signed up.

One said she almost cried when she was having a hard life but had to buy sanitary items. Another said she is having a hard time every month because she has several daughters.

Taniguchi plans to submit the signatures to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s Research Commission on the Tax System and the Finance Ministry by June.

The consumption tax rate was raised from 8 percent to 10 percent in October, but the tax rate for food items, excluding alcoholic beverages, and newspapers has been kept at 8 percent. Taniguchi says an 8-percent tax rate should also apply to feminine hygiene products.

When she asked 10 or so students about their menstruation for her graduation thesis, Taniguchi found that many were unhappy about monthly spending on sanitary items.

One interviewee said it is sad that “hard-earned money from my part-time jobs is gone.”

“Women shoulder a financial burden just because they menstruate,” said Taniguchi. “I want to see the reduced tax rate system cover sanitary items to lower that burden.”

According to the Japan Hygiene Products Industry Association, which comprises related manufacturers, a woman is estimated to use nearly 10,000 sanitary pads in her lifetime. One pad typically carries a price tag of 10 to 20 yen (9 to 19 cents).

Taniguchi also said women often need period shorts and painkillers.

“I want to convey the voices of people facing difficulties as well as children who will be born from now on to policymakers responsible for tax systems,” said Taniguchi.