Infanticide and Abortion

"Infanticide and abortion were societally-approved methods up until the end of the feudal period. But during the days of modernization and industrialization after the 1868 Meiji Resotraion, both were banned. The country needed more workers for its factories. Yet despite the illegality, more women began to have abortions during the depression following World War I" (Condon).

 

"Shizue Kato spearheaded Japan's first birth control movement. Momentum grew untill prewar government breifly arrested Kato and her followers. The military, needing able-bodied young men, drove through neighborhoods with sound trucks, exhorting women to 'bear children, swell the population!' (umeyo fuyaseyo). But after the war, public opinion changed once again. Japan was devestated and could barely feed and house those who remained and those who were reatriated" (Condon).

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