New Books in Japanese Studies

Aya Homei, "Science for Governing Japan's Population" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

Mar 10, 2023

53:18

Episode guests

Aya Homei

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Quick takeaways

Population science in Japan was shaped by the state and socio-political conditions, influenced by the quantification of social facts and the co-production of natural and social orders.

After World War II, Japan shifted its focus to population control and quality, implementing birth control policies and eugenic measures based on perceptions of superior and inferior traits.

Deep dives

The Evolution of Population Science in Japan

The book explores the development of population science in Japan from the 1860s to the 1960s, focusing on its role in policy and governance.

Introduction

4min

The Role of Science in Governing Japan's Population

18min

Problematizing the Concept of Population in 1920s Japan

4min

Understanding and Predicting the Past, Present, and Future

7min

Continuity and Discontinuity in Post-War Population Management

2min

Post-War Birth Control Policy and Aging Population in Japan

17min

Aya Homei’s Science for Governing Japan’s Population (Cambridge UP, 2022) examines the science and policy of population in Japan, 1860s-1960s. As in other modern nation-states and empires, population has been an index of national strength and a preoccupation of specialists and policymakers alike. Homei tackles the origins and changes of this interest in Japan, and the mutual dependence of the development of population as an object of knowledge and management for both the state and scientific community. Science for Governing shows that population science was shaped by the shifting imperatives and ideologies of the state and the sociopolitical and economic conditions in which knowledge was produced.

Nathan Hopson is an associate professor of Japanese language and history in the University of Bergen's Department of Foreign Languages.

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New Books in Japanese Studies

Aya Homei, "Science for Governing Japan's Population" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

Episode guests

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

Deep dives

The Evolution of Population Science in Japan

The Three Frameworks of Analysis

The Attraction of Population Science for the Japanese Government

Post-War Population Management and the Concept of Population Quality

Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts