Despite public interest, the Japanese government curtailed the spread of contraceptives.
Margaret Sanger’s first visit to Japan in 1922 stirred public hype in Japan. Comparing it to the “black ship”—the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry’s fleet in 1853 that opened Japan to foreign trade—the Japanese showed a mix of fear, excitement, and confusion over the American mission to introduce Japan to Western practices and ideas of reproductive control. How and to what extent did Sanger impact the reproductive landscape in Japan? What kind of methods were introduced and did they really reach Japanese women? A transnational history of birth control reveals the politics surrounding contraceptive technology and regulations—how the spread of birth control ideas and the reduction of fertility did not necessarily guarantee reproductive rights and choice.
After World War I, turmoil gripped Japan as riots and protests among laborers and farmers erupted across the country. Some Japanese liberals and socialists attributed these social issues to rapid industrialization and Westernization in Japan. A number of Japanese activists traveled or immigrated abroad to study first-hand socialist ideas; some of them became involved in the socialist community in New York City, where they met Sanger. It was this transnational socialist network that eventually brought Sanger to Japan.
The Japanese authorities, who classified Sanger’s birth control ideas as “dangerous thoughts,” attempted to block her entry to the country.
The Japanese authorities, who classified Sanger’s birth control ideas as “dangerous thoughts,” attempted to block her entry to the country. She was in the end allowed to enter Japan, only after signing an agreement not to speak publicly about birth control. Her scheduled public lectures were adjusted to the topic, “War and Population,” and did not refer to the specific methods of birth control—a big disappointment to the audience of hundreds of men and women.
Sanger was, however, able to share some specific information about birth control in private meetings with Japanese birth control activists and medical professionals. Yamamoto Senji, a labor activist and biology professor, served as a translator for Sanger’s lectures, and he was also able to arrange a private meeting with her. He was disappointed that Sanger was unwilling—or perhaps unable—to discuss in detail some medical theories about birth control and sexology, but he was excited to obtain one tangible piece of information from her: a small booklet called Family Limitation.
Sanger first published Family Limitation in 1914, when she was still active in the socialist community, as a medical self-help guide specifically for working women. Yamamoto translated the booklet, added his own commentary and critique, and distributed it to, first, college professors and physicians—as a medical text to avoid censorship—and eventually to labor activists throughout Japan. The activists tested out all of the methods introduced in the pamphlet, including pessaries, vaginal suppositories (usually made from cocoa butter or gelatin), and vaginal douching (using a water solution of salt, vinegar, or Lysol). Many of the methods introduced in the booklet, however, were not suitable in Japanese settings—for example, the lack of privacy in a typical mutigenerational household common in Japan made it difficult for women to prepare these contraceptives in advance or to clean their bodies immediately after intercourse, as recommended in the book. But there was one contraceptive device of which activists took particular note: the “wishbone” pessary or, as it was called in Japan, the “contraceptive pin” (hinin pin). According to Sanger, it could be “worn constantly” and “no douching [was] necessary.” The activists replicated the device and distributed it to working-class people throughout Japan, until it was banned under the Ordinance Regulating Harmful Contraceptive Devices in 1930.
Another leading birth control activist in Japan, Ishimoto Shizue (called the “Margaret Sanger of Japan”), also made efforts to spread new and effective birth control methods in Japan. In particular, Ishimoto promoted the “Dutch pessary,” a method that Sanger also strongly supported. This method survived the 1930 Ordinance that banned most contraceptives, but it was not a realistic option for most women as it required a doctor’s supervision. It was also considered a “bourgeois” method among many labor activists, who criticized the profit-oriented nature of the pessary manufacturers and the activists who supported them.
Sanger maintained a strong relationship with birth control advocates in Japan throughout her lifetime, and she remained a popular figure there in the postwar years.
Sanger maintained a strong relationship with birth control advocates in Japan throughout her lifetime, and she remained a popular figure there in the postwar years. During the 1950s, she used her Japanese connections to promote her new project: the development of oral contraceptives. After World War II, the Japanese government reversed its wartime pronatalist position and promoted birth control to deal with postwar economic and public health issues. In this context, Japanese officials responded to Sanger’s request to put together a group of Japanese scientists to embark on research and experimentation on the birth control pill.
The Japanese government soon lost interest in new birth control projects, however, as birth rates started to fall rapidly by the 1950s and existing contraceptive practices spread widely among the Japanese public. Despite the prevalence of birth control use, the actual methods used in Japan have since then remained relatively traditional. From the postwar period to the present, Japanese couples have relied predominantly on condoms—a male-centered method in which Sanger showed little interest. Abortion—a “birth control” method that Sanger strongly opposed—was legalized in 1948 as part of the postwar population policy and has often been used as a backup solution to contraceptive failure. The pill was not officially approved in Japan until 1999. Even after legalization, pill use in Japan has remained extremely low—somewhere between 1 to 4 percent among married or sexually active women—due to various social and medical restrictions. Reproductive choice thus remains limited in a country that, many leaders fear, is now plagued by “extremely low birth rates” (cho-shoshika).
The Japanese people showed strong interest in Sanger’s theories and methods. With the cooperation of Japanese activists, Sanger helped spread the idea in Japan that women could decide whether or not to have children whenever they had sex. Legal and social restrictions often prevented the methods that Sanger actually advocated from reaching women in the wider public. The government took over the regulation and availability of certain contraceptive methods and technologies, but they could not prevent the spread of ideas and women’s own determination to control their fertility.
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