ABE FELLOWSHIP COLLOQUIUM

>From Green to Grey: Family Policies and Population Politics
in High- versus Low-Fertility Post-WWII Japan

Speaker Ken Haig
Assistant Professor of Political Studies, Bard College Visiting Scholar, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Public Policy/Abe Fellow (2012)

Discussant Keiko Funabashi
Professor, Faculty of Humanity and Social Sciences, Shizuoka University/ Abe Fellow (2007)

Moderator Linda Grove
Senior Advisor, Social Science Research Council/Professor Emerita, Sophia University

When? Wednesday, March19th 2014, from 6PM to 8PM An informal reception follows

Where? Sakura Hall, 2nd Floor, Japan Foundation, 4-4-1 Yotsuya, Shinjuku, Tokyo
http://www.jpf.go.jp/e/about/outline/contact/map.html

Note： Simultaneous interpretation will be available. Admission is free.

RSVP by sending this form by email or fax. Your colleagues and friends are also welcome.

Email: ssrcABE@gol.com Fax: 03-5369-6142 Phone: 03-5369-6085
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This event is jointly sponsored by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) Tokyo Office and Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership (CGP).
 
2014/3/19
ABE FELLOWSHIP COLLOQUIUM
>From Green to Grey: Family Policies and Population Politics
in High- versus Low-Fertility Post-WWII Japan

While most industrialized societies experienced post-industrial revolution demographic transitions spanning a century or more, Japan transformed from a high-fertility to a low-fertility society in just one generation. Part of what explains this is effective family planning. In a remarkable reversal of pre-World War II pro-natalist “umeyofuyaseyo” policies, post-WWII Japan became a worldwide model for family planning with pioneering policies including reproductive health education, the legalization of abortion, and promotion of contraceptive use. While working towards different ideological goals, the policy community advocating family planning (including neo-Malthusians, feminists, and public health officials) was broad enough so as to make lowering fertility a society-wide concern. Fast-forward to today’s Japan, where the reverse problem—an aging society and sub-replacement fertility—has prompted much handwringing and some policy adjustments (e.g. expansion of childcare services and an increased focus on problems in women’s employment), but little public or private consensus on the scale or even the desirability of the social, cultural, or political changes needed to reverse declining fertility trends. Through a comparison of the different actors, ideas, institutions, and contexts in each era, Dr. Haig will discuss what Japan’s past experience in promoting smaller families tells us about current efforts to promote larger ones.

Biographical Information

Ken Haig is an assistant professor of political studies at Bard College in New York. He received his BA in history from Harvard and his MA and PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley. Currently affiliated with Hokkaido University's Graduate School of Public Policy as an Abe Fellow, during previous fieldwork in Japan he has been affiliated with Keio University as a Fulbright-Hays and JSPS Fellow, and Otaru University of Commerce as a Fulbright Fellow. Haig's current research concerns Japanese policy responses to demographic change, comparing contemporary responses to an aging society and declining fertility with past approaches to controlling population growth, local versus national responses to population decline, and Japanese versus Korean policies on caregiving and women's employment.　The title of his Abe research project is:　“Family, State, and Society: Japanese and Korean Family Welfare Policies in Comparative Perspective”.

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〒160-0004
東京都新宿区四谷4-4-1
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米国社会科学研究評議会（SSRC）
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安倍フェローシップ・プログラム

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