Between the West and Asia: “Humanistic” Japanese Family Planning in the Cold War

Abstract

This paper studies the formation of Japanese ventures in family planning deployed in various villages in Asia from the 1960s onward in the name of development aid. By critically examining how Asia became the priority area for Japan's international cooperation in family planning and by analyzing how the adjective "humanistic" was used to underscore the originality of Japan's family planning program overseas, the paper shows that visions of Japanese actors were directly informed by Japan's delicate position in Cold War geopolitics, between the imagined West represented by the United States and "underdeveloped" Asia, at a time when Japan was striving to (re-)establish its position in world politics and economics. Additionally, by highlighting subjectivities and intra-Asian networks centered on Japanese actors, the paper also aims to destabilize the current historiography on population control which has hitherto focused either on Western actors in the transnational population control movement or on non-Western "acceptors" subjected to the population control programs.

Localization of Praziquantel Production and Clonorchiasis Control Program in Korea, 1970s~1980s

“…일본의 기생충 관리 사업 모델이 확산될 수 있었던 것은 일본의 전후 배상처리를 위한 원조의 확대라는 지정학적 특성이 자리하고 있었다. 더불어 이 사업은 일본해외기술협력단을 통한 국가 간 사업이기도 했지만, 그 시작과 정착은 사업에 참여한 활동가들의 인간적인 네트워크를 통해서 가능했던 것이기도 했다( 정준호 외, 2018 ; Homei, 2016 ). 앞서 연구들은 이러한 거시적인 지정학적 배경과 국제적 활동가들의 네트워크 속에서 기생충 박멸이라는 질병 관리 정책이 어떻게 아시아에서 특징적인 형태를 가지게 되었는지 효과적으로 보여주었다.…”

Why did the Japanese Government take so long to approve the intrauterine contraceptive device?

“…Additionally, Koya, a renowned figure in international birth control since the 1950s, swiftly revised his view as the role of the IUD in transnational population control campaigns expanded ( Homei, 2016c ). The direct trigger came from a lecture Guttmacher delivered in Japan on his return from the 1965 IPPF West Pacific Region meeting held in South Korea.…”