Fertility Change in Contemporary Japan

Fertility Change in Contemporary Japan
Author: Robert W. Hodge
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 384
Release: 1991
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 9780226346502

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The authors examine the striking decline in Japan's birthrate in light of the rapid urbanization, industrialization, and socioeconomic development experienced by the nation since World War II.

Intimacy and Reproduction in Contemporary Japan

Intimacy and Reproduction in Contemporary Japan
Author: Genaro Castro-Vazquez
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2016-07-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317265351

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This book presents an ethnographic investigation of intimate and reproductive behaviour in current Japanese society, grounded in the viewpoints of a group of Japanese mothers. It adopts a new approach in studying the decreasing fertility rates which are contributing to the ageing population in modern Japan. Based on the accounts of 57 married Japanese women, it employs symbolic interactionism as a framework to examine the various factors affecting decision-making on childbirth. The influence of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs), abortion and contraception in the daily interactions and experiences of the mothers are analysed to offer a new perspective on the Japanese demographic conundrum. With strong contextual information as the foundation, the book contributes fresh insight into how Japanese women perceive the idea of childbirth in a modernized society, and also assists our understanding of the factors causing Japan’s ageing population. Further, it places the mothers’ experiences within current global debates to highlight the salience of the Japanese case. As the first book to provide an in-depth examination of the social process underpinning the decision to become a mother in Japan, it will appeal to students and scholars of Japanese culture and society, Gender Studies, and Sociology.

Low Fertility in Japan, South Korea, and Singapore

Low Fertility in Japan, South Korea, and Singapore
Author: Shigeki Matsuda
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 91
Release: 2020-02-18
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9811528306

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This book describes the low fertility status in three developed Asian countries—Japan, South Korea, and Singapore—and outlines countermeasures for their declining birthrates. Based on the characteristics of each society, the authors discuss why their fertility rates have not yet recovered. Low fertility is a demographic phenomenon that first occurred in Europe and subsequently spread across other countries. Currently, the fertility rates in Europe are relatively stable, while those in developed Asian economies are the lowest worldwide. This may cause labor shortages and weaken their social security systems, undermining Asia’s social and economic sustainability despite its remarkable economic development. In response to low fertility, some Asian countries have implemented countermeasures: Japan has introduced measures based on childcare facilities and work–life balance. Similarly, since the mid-2000s South Korea has established countermeasures to promote a balance between work and child rearing, as well as expanded childcare services. Singapore began introducing countermeasures before the other two countries, including various advanced measures. Yet none of these countries has seen a full recovery in fertility rates. Based on a statistical analysis of survey results from the three countries, this book makes several important points. The first is that the policy has been ineffective in Japan due to a discrepancy between the needs of parents raising children and those who are the targets of the countermeasures. Second, the work–life balance and child-rearing support measures that have been promoted in Japan and South Korea have not affected the number of children that women want to have. Third, Singaporean values tend to place individual emphasis on competition with oneself (education and career status) rather than on married life. This intense competition has lowered fertility rates. To restore these rates, each country must promote policies that better address its specific issues.

Wombs of Empire

Wombs of Empire
Author: Sujin Lee
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2023-10-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781503637009

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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.

Educational Assortative Mating in Japan

Educational Assortative Mating in Japan
Author: Fumiya Uchikoshi
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 134
Release: 2021-09-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 981163713X

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This book represents a first attempt to comprehensively discuss and investigate causes and potential implications of changing patterns of spouse pairing in Japan and to consider similarities and differences with patterns observed in the USA and other low-fertility Western societies. In this book, research on educational assortative mating in Japan is summarized and updated. This book contributes to research on the demography of contemporary Japan by overviewing theoretical and empirical linkages between marriage behavior and processes of social and economic stratification. It also extends the large body of research on assortative mating and stratification by incorporating insights from the understudied context of Japan. The authors draw upon multiple data sources – both survey and administrative data – to update and extend previous research on “who marries whom” in Japan. The wide range of consequences considered includes income inequality, the intergenerational transmission of advantage and disadvantage, marriage and fertility timing, lifelong singlehood, childlessness, and the family roles of husbands and wives. Throughout the manuscript, Japan is considered in comparative perspective by employing the large USA and international literatures on assortative mating.

The Political Economy of Japan's Low Fertility

The Political Economy of Japan's Low Fertility
Author: Frances McCall Rosenbluth
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2006-12-08
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780804768207

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This book takes an interdisciplinary approach to one of Japan's thorniest public policy issues: why are women increasingly forgoing motherhood? At the heart of the matter lies a paradox: although the overall trend among rich countries is for fertility to decrease as female labor participation increases, gender-friendly countries resist the trend. Conversely, gender-unfriendly countries have lower fertility rates than they would have if they changed their labor markets to encourage the hiring of women—and therein lies Japan's problem. The authors argue that the combination of an inhospitable labor market for women and insufficient support for childcare pushes women toward working harder to promote their careers, to the detriment of childbearing. Controversial and enlightening, this book provides policy recommendations for solving not just Japan's fertility issue but those of other modern democracies facing a similar crisis.