Abstract
This paper focuses on Japanese Neo-Malthusianists who actively addressed the population problem
(jinkō mondai) during the interwar years, specifically between the late 1910s and the late 1930s.
Against the backdrop of worsening economic conditions and unchecked population growth in Mainland
Japan since the late 1910s, there had been growing discussion of the population problem among
Japanese social reformers and intellectuals who regarded the population as a politico-economic issue.
This paper dissects the discursive structure of “the population problem” through the close reading
of the arguments of Neo-Malthusian activists including the first birth control advocacy group in Japan,
Nihon Sanji Chōsetsu Kenkyūkai, and Ishimoto Shizue (1897-2001) and Abe Isoo (1865-1949),
two leading figures in the birth control movements in Japan. My analysis will proceed along two key
strands of inquiry: eugenics and imperialism. Japanese Neo-Malthusian advocates embraced eugenic
ideas by which they reconfigured the population in terms of both quantity and quality. Meanwhile,
imperialism was another key component underlying Neo-Malthusianism. Focusing on eugenics and
imperialism, this paper attempts to shed new light on the birth control movement within the broader
political and intellectual history.
