Differing Conceptions of "Voluntary Motherhood": Yamakawa Kikue's Birth Strike and Ishimoto Shizue's Eugenic Feminism

The Multiple Definitions of “Voluntary Motherhood” in Interwar Japan In March and April 1922, American birth control activist Margaret Sanger (1879-1966) visited Japan to promote the concept and techniques of birth control. In her first lecture, held at the Tokyo Y.M.C.A. on March 14, Sanger addressed an audience of over five hundred people on the subject of “War and Population” (Japan Times 1922). Sanger attributed colonization and militarism to an overflowing population, as typified in Germany before the outbreak of World War I, and urged Japanese audiences to address similar issues facing Japan. Sanger’s accounts of overpopulation were anchored in Neo-Malthusianism—the advocacy of birth control to ensure the balance between population size and resource supply; she believed that Japan’s rising population would lead to domestic problems as well as international conflicts.1 Thus the debate on birth control heralded by Sanger’s visit to Japan went far beyond medical debates over the use of contraceptives: the introduction of birth control into interwar discussions about population growth provided a chance for Japanese intellectuals, activists, and bureaucrats to tackle a variety of pressing social issues, including poverty, employment, migration, and maternal and child health. As I will argue, despite their differing views on the primary purpose of birth control, Japanese birth control advocates reconfigured sexual reproduction and motherhood as central politico-economic problems.