2차 세계대전 후 일본의 인구과잉과 생식 통제- 인공임신중절・불임수술을 중심으로 -

Abstract

This paper examines women’s consciousness and response to Japan’s reproductive control policies - abortion and infertility surgery (endogenous surgery) - after the war and from the mid-1945s to the mid-50s. After the defeat, the Japanese government adopted a population control policy for the post-war economic revival and enacted the Eugenic Protection Act of 1948 for the quantitative and qualitative management of the population. The eugenics protection law is an attempt by the government to curb rapid population growth through the acceptance of abortion and the promotion of infertility surgery. After the war, Japan’s birth control policy focused on abortion or infertility surgery rather than conception control. Women recognized abortion as birth control. Women want to control birth, but they have no knowledge of conception control or have a lower chance of succeeding in contraception even if they do so, and when they become pregnant, they chose abortion as a follow-up measure. The abortion led to pregnancy more easily, and the vicious cycle of termination was repeated again. However, women felt at odds with abortion due to high costs, aftereffects, and fear of surgery, and they performed infertility surgery with complete birth control measures to avoid dissatisfaction or repeated abortions.