Fertility and Family in Okinawa:

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Other Title
  • 出生力と家族にみる沖縄
  • 周辺化された人口・生殖をめぐる政治
  • The Politics of Reproduction and a Marginalized Population

Abstract

<p>Okinawa maintains the highest birth rate in Japan since its reversion to Japanese administration. It is hailed as a “beacon of hope” for reproducing the family and, in turn, the nation in Japan, where the Japanese current birth rate reflects the fact that fertility is at its lowest level ever. However, Okinawa's postwar history regarding fertility and family deviated from the path of Japan as a nation state. The demographic transition, and particularly fertility transition in Okinawa, started under not the Japanese but the U.S. military administration. When under U.S. military control, neither was the Eugenic Protection Law promulgated nor any family planning campaign promoted as a state initiative in Okinawa. Indeed, during this period, the use of legalized abortion and contraceptive methods was restricted. Under these circumstances, Okinawan women were expected to give birth to baby boys in line with sex roles based on the strict norms of patriarchal family formation. This article situates Okinawa's fertility in its own historical context of U. S. military control as well as the social contexts of the patriarchal family formation norms, while rethinking the reasons for having the highest birth rates in Japan occurring in Okinawa. By transcending methodological nationalism, it explores the reproductive politics of a marginalized population on postwar Okinawa.</p>

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