Orientation to Pregnancy and Childbirth based on Scientific Findings:

Transition of Descriptions of Marriage in Textbooks on Health and Physical Education for High Schools

Abstract

The development of science or technology can intervene in people’s reproduction and ask people to determine their reproduction by themselves. The purpose of this paper is to analyze descriptions of marriage in textbooks on health and physical education for high schools in Japan, in order to clarify the transition on how young people have been expected to get married, become pregnant, and give birth, based on scientific findings on reproduction after WW2. As a result of the analysis, descriptions of marriage after WW2 in textbooks on health and physical education for high schools can be divided into three periods: (1) up to the 1960s, when marriage was placed in the context of eugenics; (2) the 1970s and 1980s, when eugenics faded and family life came to be emphasized; and (3) from the 1990s onwards, when marriage was placed in the individual life course that was premised on pregnancy and childbirth. Although the textbooks have consistently used scientific findings (especially medical findings) as evidence to require marriage, pregnancy, and child birth, the scientific findings based on which marriage was based transitioned from eugenics to fertility. Previous research claimed that health discourses such as the descriptions in the health and physical education textbooks require people to exhibit good behavior for the sake of others, while owing people’s health to themselves. Even though the textbooks appear to encourage youth to make a free choice on marriage, they use medical evidence to present the “good behavior” of getting married at a marriageable age, and ask youth to live “their own life” that reflects social interests. Furthermore, presenting the marriageable age as being based on fertility may limit marriage to a women’s issue and dilute the involvement of men.