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The Political Economy of Reproduction in Japan: Between The Political Economy of Reproduction in Japan This book analyzes the political economy of reproduction and its role in the process of Japanese modernization. Takeda Hiroko examines policies used by the state to intervene into women’s bodies and everyday lives to integrate them into the Japanese political economy. Using Foucault’s concept of governmentality, she develops a model to assess reproduction in three forms, economic, biological and socio-political, from 1968 until the present day. Takeda Hiroko is a Lecturer at the School of East Asian Studies, the University of Sheffield. Sheffield Centre for Japanese Studies / RoutledgeCurzon Series Series Editor: Glenn D. Hook Professor of Japanese Studies, University of Sheffield This series, published by RoutledgeCurzon in association with the Centre for Japanese Studies at the University of Sheffield, both makes available original research on a wide range of subjects dealing with Japan and provides introductory overviews of key topics in Japanese Studies. The Internationalization of Japan The Political Economy of Japanese Edited by Glenn D. Hook and Michael Weiner Globalisation Glenn D. Hook and Hasegawa Harukiyo Race and Migration in Imperial Japan Michael Weiner Japan and Okinawa Structure and Subjectivity Japan and the Pacific Free Trade Area Edited by Glenn D. Hook and Richard Siddle Pekka Korhonen Japan and Britain in the Contemporary World Greater China and Japan Responses to Common Issues Prospects for an Economic Partnership? Edited by Hugo Dobson and Glenn D. Hook Robert Taylor Japan and United Nations Peacekeeping The Steel Industry in Japan New Pressures, New Responses A Comparison with the UK Hugo Dobson Hasegawa Harukiyo Japanese Capitalism and Modernity in a Race, Resistance and the Ainu of Japan Global Era Richard Siddle Re-Fabricating Lifetime Employment Japan’s Minorities Relations The Illusion of Homogeneity Peter C. D. Matanle Edited by Michael Weiner Nikkeiren and Japanese Capitalism Japanese Business Management John Crump Restructuring for Low Growth and Production Networks in Asia and Europe Globalization Skill Formation and Technology Transfer Edited by Hasegawa Harukiyo and in the Automobile Industry Glenn D. Hook Edited by Rogier Busser and Yuri Sadoi Japan and Asia Pacific Integration Japan and the G7/8 Pacific Romances 1968–1996 1975–2002 Pekka Korhonen Hugo Dobson Japan’s Economic Power and Security The Political Economy of Reproduction Japan and North Korea in Japan Christopher W. Hughes Between Nation-State and Everyday Life Japan’s Contested Constitution Takeda Hiroko Documents and Analysis Grassroots Pacifism in Post-War Japan Glenn D. Hook and Gavan McCormack The Rebirth of a Nation Japan’s International Relations Mari Yamamoto Politics, Economics and Security Japanese Interfirm Networks Glenn D. Hook, Julie Gilson, Christopher Adapting to Survive in the Global Electronics Hughes and Hugo Dobson Industry Japanese Education Reform Ralph Paprzycki Nakasone’s Legacy Globalisation and Women in the Japanese Christopher P. Hood Workforce Beverley Bishop The Political Economy of Reproduction in Japan Between nation-state and everyday life Takeda Hiroko First published 2005 by RoutledgeCurzon 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by RoutledgeCurzon 270 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” RoutledgeCurzon is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group © 2005 Takeda Hiroko All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-29961-2 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-33882-0 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0–415–32190–5 (Print edition) Contents Acknowledgements vii A note on the text ix List of abbreviations x Introduction 1 1 Reproduction and governmentality 7 2 The creation of a modern reproductive system in prewar Japan 34 3 Reproduction in the total war regime and the Occupation 70 4 A reproductive system for postwar economic growth 98 5 A case study: the New Life Movement 127 6 Reproduction in the period of economic stagnation 153 Conclusion 188 Appendix A: biographic information 201 Appendix B: statistics regarding abortion, eugenic operations and total fertility rate 205 Appendix C: the New Life Movement 209 Notes 211 Bibliography 247 Index 270 Acknowledgements This book is based on a PhD dissertation submitted to the University of Sheffield in 2001. It was in 1997 when the basic ideas sprung up in my mind. Since then, I have moved from place to place, from Japan via Scotland and England to the capital city of Wales. Throughout this long length of time, I received generous support from numerous people, whom I cannot possibly name here. Inevitably, the list below of people to whom I own thanks is not exclusive. Firstly, I would like to thank many scholars in both Japan and Britain who provided me with invaluable academic inspiration and support, in particular, Takabatake Michitoshi, Shind™ Muneyuki, Igarashi Akio, Yoshioka Tomoya, Tachi Kaoru, Hara Hiroko, ïgai Tokuko, Roger Goodman, Georgina Waylan, Yoko Sellek, Harukiyo Hasegawa, Hugo Dobson, Richard Siddle, Hokama Komako and Christopher W. Hughes. I was also greatly helped by the comments of three anonymous reviewers. Secondly, the staff and students of the Japanese Studies Centre, Cardiff University, provided me with stimulating opportunities in which research and teaching became a genuinely rewarding experience. In particular, I would like to thank Christopher P. Hood for help and encouragement. David Williams has also been a wonderful colleague and mentor (despite our frequent disagreements in relation to politics and ideology!); his matu- rity and profound experience in the field have offered me excellent ‘postdoctoral’ training. A generous grant from the Japan Foundation Endowment Committee enabled me to fly to Japan, and to collect materials on the New Life Movement. Gill Goddard, Tim Kelly, Gerard Sharpling and Natalie Snodgrass went through early drafts, and provided me with invaluable linguistic assistance. Finally, I would like to thank my two supervisors, one in Japan and one in Britain. If I had never met Kurihara Akira (presently Meiji University), I would never have dreamt of pursuing a doctoral degree, and, perhaps even more importantly, I would have never read the works of Michel Foucault. And if I had never met Glenn Hook (the School of East Asian Studies, the University of Sheffield and the series editor), I would have never completed viii Acknowledgements my PhD dissertation, and consequently this book. He has been and still is a constant inspiration, and without his help, I would have never come this far. Stephanie Rogers, Barbara Duke and Ann O’Quigley of RoutledgeCurzon have been very patient with my inexperience and lack of organization. I am grateful to them for the professional help. I regret that my husband Tim and my son Christy have more often than not been the victims of my ‘degree of obstinacy’, to appropriate Foucault’s phrase. I thank them for their wholehearted love and support during the past years, and dedicate this book to them, hoping that they might read it sometime in the future. Takeda Hiroko A note on the text Following the convention, the family name precedes the given name in Japanese unless the British convention is preferred by the Japanese author. Long vowels are represented by macrons, except in cases where the words are conventionally used without them. Such cases include Japanese names and words in English publications and commonly anglicized words such as ‘Tokyo’ and ‘Osaka’. Abbreviations APP Association of Population Problems CIE Civil Information and Education Section DPJ Democratic Party of Japan EES Eugenics Education Society GEPP Guidelines for Establishing the Population Policy GHQ General Headquarters GNP Gross National Product ILO International Labour Organization IPP Institute of Population Problems IPPFInternational Planned Parenthood Federation ISPP National Institute of Population and Social Security Research IWW International Workers of the World JPPFJapan Planned Parenthood Federation JSP Japan Socialist Party LDP Liberal Democratic Party NGOs Non-governmental organizations NKK Nippon K™Kan NPOs Non-profit organizations NSMs New Social Movements NFRWO National Federation of Regional Women’s Organizations NUWSS National Union of Women’s Suffrage Society PHW Public Health and Welfare Section SCAP Supreme Command for the Allied Powers SDPJ Social Democratic Party of Japan SMEs Small and Medium Enterprises UN United Nations US United States Introduction ‘Reproduction’ is both an old and new problem in the mainstream literature of political economy. On the one hand, reproduction, namely, childbirth, education and socialization, along with the everyday revitalization of the labour force, has been acknowledged as an indispensable and essential part of the production process in capitalist
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