Abortion and the Pill in Japan
Mariko Kato in a special to the Japan Times writes in a FYI that "Abortion still key birth control."
[Japan Times] "People may be surprised to know abortion has been legal in Japansince 1949, more than a decade earlier than in other industrialized countries.In subsequent years, abortion became socially accepted to the point that Japan drew international criticism for attracting foreigners seeking to terminate their pregnancies. Since the turn of the 21st century, around 300,000 abortions have been conducted in Japan each year.By the time Japan introduced the pill in 1999, it had been the only U.N. member not to approve the contraceptive.The government finally legalized the pill in 1999 because of its quick acceptance of the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra earlier that year based on foreign clinical data, observers say.Observers say the number of abortions among young people could be reduced if information on the pill became more widespread." Click here for the rest of the story!You can see Japan's historical abortion statistics here. Click here or information on condom usage and STI's.About the book, "Abortion before Birth Control: The Politics of Reproduction in Postwar Japan" by Tiana Norgren:
Why has postwar Japanese abortion policy been relatively progressive, while contraception policy has been relatively conservative? The Japanese government legalized abortion in 1948 but did not approve the pill until 1999. In this carefully researched study, Tiana Norgren argues that these contradictory policies flowed from very different historical circumstances and interest group configurations. Doctors and family planners used a small window of opportunity during the Occupation to legalize abortion, and afterwards, doctors and women battled religious groups to uphold the law. The pill, on the other hand, first appeared at an inauspicious moment in history. Until circumstances began to change in the mid-1980s, the pharmaceutical industry was the pill's lone champion: doctors, midwives, family planners, and women all opposed the pill as a potential threat to their livelihoods, abortion rights, and women's health. Clearly written and interwoven with often surprising facts about Japanese history and politics, Norgren's book fills vital gaps in the cross-national literature on the politics of reproduction, a subject that has received more attention in the European and American contexts. Abortion Before Birth Control will be a valuable resource for those interested in abortion and contraception policies, gender studies, modern Japanese history, political science, and public policy. This is a major contribution to the literature on reproductive rights and the role of civil society in a country usually discussed in the context of its industrial might.
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