Wombs of Empire: Population Discourses and Biopolitics in Modern Japan by Sujin LeeMiriam Kingsberg Kadia

Excerpt

For several decades, social scientists of Japan have warned of a shrinking and increasingly unbalanced population pyramid arising from a burgeoning cohort of elderly and very elderly persons, a sinking birth rate, and restrictive immigration legislation. However, historians have largely been absent from conversations about these trends. In 2023, two important works finally brought population to the forefront of the field’s awareness: Science for Governing Japan’s Population, by Aya Homei,1 and Sujin Lee’s Wombs of Empire: Population Discourses and Biopolitics in Modern Japan. The latter book is the subject of this review.