Wombs of empire population discourses and biopolitics in modern Japan / Sujin Lee

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lee, Sujin (Professor of Pacific and Asia studies), author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Fertility, Human--Political aspects--Japan--History--20th century.

Fertility, Human.

Birth control--Political aspects--Japan--History--20th century.

Birth control.

Motherhood--Political aspects--Japan--History--20th century.

Motherhood.

Biopolitics--Japan--History--20th century.

Biopolitics.

Japan--Population policy.

Japan.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (262 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Stanford, California Stanford University Press [2023]

Summary:

"Japan's contemporary struggle with low fertility rates is a well-known issue, as are the country's efforts to bolster their population in order to address attendant socio-economic challenges. However, though this anxiety about and discourse around population is thought of as relatively recent phenomenon, government and medical intervention in reproduction and fertility are hardly new in Japan. The "population problem (jinko mondai)" became a buzzword in the country over a century ago, in the 1910s, with a growing call among Japanese social scientists and social reformers to solve what were seen as existential demographic issues. In this book, Sujin Lee traces the trajectory of population discourses in Interwar and Wartime Japan, and positions them as a critical site where competing visions of modernity came into tension. Lee destabilizes the essentialized notions of motherhood and population by dissecting gender norms, modern knowledge, and government practices, each of which played a crucial role in valorizing, regulating, and mobilizing women's maternal bodies and responsibilities in the name of population governance. Bringing a feminist perspective and Foucauldian theory to bear on the history of Japan's wartime scientific fascism, Lee shows how anxieties over demographics have undergirded justifications for ethno-nationalism and racism, colonialism and imperialism, and gender segregation for much of Japan's modern history"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Intro

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

List of Figures

Acknowledgments

A Note on Romanization and Names

Introduction. Population: A Discursive Site of En-gendering Life

One. The Population Problem and Utopian Remedies

Two. Voluntary Motherhood: The Feminist Politics of Birth Control

Three. Scientific and Imperialist Solutions to Overpopulation

Four. Building a Biopolitical State: The Mobilization of Health for Total War

Five. "Fertile Womb Battalion": The Gender and Racial Politics of Motherhood

Epilogue. The Continued Politics of the "Population Problem"

Glossary

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Other Format:

Print version: Lee, Sujin Wombs of Empire

ISBN:

9781503637016

1503637018

OCLC:

1386703779