Active Pursuit of Pregnancy

Isabel Fassbender received her Ph.D. from Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (2020) and is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of International Studies at Doshisha Women’s College in Kyoto. Her research field is Japanese studies, focusing on gender, family sociology, and governmentality.

Active Pursuit of Pregnancy is a deeply intelligent, easily accessible and empirically precise and detailed book that adds an innovative perspective to an old, much-discussed topic. The book improves our theoretical understanding of (neoliberal) politics of reproduction – underlying and interwoven dynamics of power, control and interests – and provides detailed insights into several aspects of contemporary Japanese society, in particular the persistence of the highly gendered postwar family ideology.Nora Kottmann in: Contemporary Japan, vol. 34, issue 2 (2022)Active Pursuit of Pregnancy illustrates the complex making of social discourse through the dialectical interactions of the state, society, and the market. The book is an excellent addition to the scholarship pioneered by scholars such as Sheldon Garon and Tiana Norgren, analyzing the reciprocal relationship between the state and societal groups, together forming a system of social management in a democratic society.Aiko Takeuchi-Demirci in: The Journal of Japanese Studies, vol. 49, issue 2, (Summer 2023), pp. 437-441.

• AcknowledgementsList of Figures1 Introduction: The Politics of Reproduction in Contemporary Japan1 Literature Review2 Research Design3 Corpus of Analysis4 Structure of the Bookpart 1Theoretical Framework and Historical Background2 The “Reproductive Entrepreneur” Theorizing Neoliberal Politics of Reproduction1 The Entrepreneurial Self2 Biomedicalization, Experts and Scientific Knowledge3 The “Entrepreneurial Self” within the “Culture of Uncertainty” in Contemporary Japan4 The “Reproductive Entrepreneur” in the Network of Technologies of the Self, Biomedicalization and Postfeminist Healthism3 Women’s Bodies as Battlefields From “Beget and Multiply” to the “Active Pursuit of Pregnancy”1 Women’s Bodies and State Politics: From “Beget and Multiply” to “Family Planning”2 Women Claiming Back Their Bodies: The Women’s Health Movement3 Politics of Reproduction and the Low Birth Rate Crisis in Japan4 Gender Backlash and Sex Education5 Assisted Reproductive Technology and Adoption in Contemporary Japan6 Japan as a “Reproductive Gap Society”?part 2“Active Pursuit of Pregnancy” in Contemporary Japan4 Mass Media and Postfeminist Politics of Reproduction “Reproductive Entrepreneurship” and Ninkatsu1 The “Active Pursuit of Pregnancy” Appears on Stage2 Marketing the “Active Pursuit of Pregnancy”3 The “Active Pursuit of Pregnancy” in Newspapers4 The Fantasy of the “Reproductive Entrepreneur”: From Family Planning to Ninkatsu?5 The Politics of Science in the Discourse of “Ageing Reproductive Cells” The Gaze of Technology, Happiness and the “Fear of Regret”1 Close-Up Present’s “Unfulfilled Desire to Have Children” – The Shock of Ageing Egg Cells2 Governing the Soul: “Ovarian Ageing” in the Matrix of “Happiness” and “Regret”3 A Remedy for the “Fear of Regret”? A Woman’s “Life Game” and Social Freezing in Japan4 The Contemporary “Sperm Crisis”, the “Fear of Emasculation” and the “Molecular Gaze”5 Gender, Technology and the “Politics of Science” in Discourses on Ageing Reproductive Cells6 Neoliberal State Politics of Reproduction “Correct Knowledge” and Life Planning as Pronatalist Strategy1 “Correct Knowledge” and Life Planning as Government Strategy in the Context of the Low Birth Rate: An Overview2 Educating the “Reproductive Entrepreneur”: Choices and Life Planning3 The Stork Is Back: Infertility Treatment over Contraception in Sex Education4 “A Healthy Life” and Dwindling Egg Reservoirs5 From “Beget and Multiply” to the Strategy of Knowledge Promotion and Life Planning7 Conclusion: Politics of Reproduction in Contemporary Japan1 Governing the Population: From “Beget and Multiply” to Life Planning2 Using Technology and Science to Protect the “Normal” Social Order3 (Self-)Governing Body and Soul: Postfeminist Healthism, “Happiness” and “Regret”4 Concluding RemarksAppendixBibliographyIndex