Feeding Mothers, Making Citizens: Japanese Maternity Clinic Meals as Treatment, Care, and Identity

Abstract

Abstract:Postpartum Japanese mothers and neonates typically spend 5-6 days in a hospital or clinic. Therefore, institution-prepared meals are an important part of the immediate postpartum experience. Drawing from ethnographic research conducted at a 17-bed maternity clinic in central Japan, I discuss how 1) nutrients are calculated to ensure adherence to national nutrition guidelines, and meals are individualized to fit specific patients, 2) staff incorporate local ingredients and specialties that support local identity, and 3) non-Japanese foods are used both as entertainment and vehicles through which Japanese mothers consume regional, national, and non-Japanese cultures. With attention to the emic terms tanoshimi, shigoto, and ikigai, I demonstrate that meals here go beyond prescription and care: they are sites of the production and consumption of regional, national, and global citizenship ideals and constitute what Takeda calls “biopolitical governing” (2008).