Historical Research On Modern Japanese Population Policy

Population is the foundation of cultural economic and political activities, and though population reproduction is a natural process, the growth of population is basically subjected to economic, cultural and political conditions. So the government-led direct or indirect population policy is critical to the quality and quantity of the general population. An investigation of modern Japanese population policy can be helpful in understanding Japanese population development features since the modern times and the population predicament in nowadays Japan. Furthermore it extends the knowledge of Japanese social economic conditions of a new view.This dissertation uses historical methods, while reference many theories of demography social security and other subjects, in investigating the countermeasure Japanese government used to encourage population growth and solve problems in the population development since modern times. Taking Edo period, Meiji period, Taisho and early Showa, and Showa war period as four point-in-time on the main time spindle, I tried to systematically inspect the develop of health care, the founding of population policy institution and the creation of population policies in modern Japan.This dissertation provided5chapters. The first one observed the last dynasty feudal period of Japan, the Edo period, from the "population boom" in the earlier stage to the population stagnant in the midterm, by analyzed the "high death and high birth" and big rise and fall in population growth, I found out that the reasons included not only the natural disaster or disease, but also influenced by the spontaneously population control which is a combination of economic condition and cultural background. The second chapter explained how Japanese completely changed the "high death high birth" situation, by building up modern medication system, training modem medical staff, creating health care and improving public hygiene in the Meiji period. Chapter3talked about the "overpopulation" in the Taisho and early Showa period, which aroused the folk intellectual who sparkplugged birth control. The population also gripped the academia’s attention at that time and for the first time the government established an agency for population problems. At the same time, because the improvement of medical and health care, the population feature was amended to "low birth low death". The forth chapter introduced the measures Japan used to supply high quality "manpower resources" for war needs, and their bald-faced population expansion policy during the all-out war of aggression against China and the Pacific war. The last chapter inspected the implementation of modern Japanese overseas immigration and colonial policy from a population migration policy view.This dissertation stands on the basis of absorbing and learning from previous research, concluded the feature of modern Japanese population, which included rapid growth population, continuous reducing mortality, accelerating process of urbanization, and continually improving population qualities. Clarified the forming. process of modern Japanese population policy experienced a course from unconscious to the conscious, and analyzed the inner contradiction between population expansion policy and colonial policy, then pointed out that Japan failing in foreign wars of aggression is not only a military failure, but also a failure in the population policy.