Embodying intimacy: Premarital romantic relationships, sexuality, and contraceptive use among young women in contemporary Tokyo

In contemporary Japan, young women's behavior falls under intense social scrutiny because prevalent discourses cast their behavior as a threat to the future of the nation. Young women are the potential mothers of the next generation, but more of them are choosing to postpone marriage and to have fewer children over the course of their lives. Between 1950 and the present, the average age of first marriage for women rose from 23 to 28 years, while the total fertility rate fell from 3.65 to about 1.4 children per woman. These demographic shifts in marriage and fertility patterns have prompted widespread discussion and social anxiety about the declining population and the nation's ability to sustain itself.;In light of these demographic trends, this dissertation examines Japanese women's changing understandings of premarital relationships, sexuality, and contraceptive use. Based primarily on in-depth interviews with unmarried women in their twenties, this project provides a window into women's subjective experiences during a formative period of the life course, a period during which they are in the process of constructing new understandings of companionship, intimacy, and their bodies. I examine the way that primarily urban, middle- and upper-middle-class women draw from larger social discourses propagated through families, schools, their peers, and the mass media in articulating their perspectives and making sense of their experiences.;Situated at the intersection of the fields of cultural anthropology and public health, this dissertation contributes to a growing body of literature that combines in-depth, ethnographic interviews on local understandings of relationships and sexuality with nuanced analyses of contraceptive practices. I demonstrate that a close examination of the changing structure of premarital romantic relationships and the newer ideals young women have adopted within these relationships can provide novel insights into marriage postponement as well as contemporary patterns of contraceptive use in Japan. In discussing their dating relationships, young women highlighted companionate ideals such as shared values, mutual trust, and sexual and emotional intimacy that have been downplayed in the literature on romantic relationships in Japan. In particular, the concept of "reliability" emerged as a key relationship ideal and also reappeared in women's narratives about contraception. The ability to achieve levels of emotional intimacy within premarital dating relationships that match or even exceed what has been expected in marriage removes an incentive to marry. I argue that through their dating and contraceptive strategies young women embody their commitment to newer relationship ideals...