Who's in control? Varying and changing translations of 'birth control' in Japan

Abstract

This article examines how the Japanese conceptualized ‘birth control’ in the twentieth century by analyzing the various terms its supporters used to describe contraception. The Japanese translations reveal the core ideas that defined the Japanese birth control movement, specifically eugenics and Neo-Malthusianism, during the tumultuous decades surrounding World War II as Japan competed for hegemony in the Pacific. The use of different terms over the decades reveals the struggles among Japanese leaders and intellectuals to ‘control’ the reproductive fate of the Japanese race.