Gender and Family for the Eugenic Sterilisation in Japan after World War II

We will examine the role of gender and family in involuntary sterilisation in Japan after World War II under the Eugenic Protection Law.

Speaker: Dr Aya Homei (University of Manchester)

Organised by the Department of History, Univeristy of York. This seminar examines the role of gender and family in involuntary sterilisation in Japan after World War II under the Eugenic Protection Law (1948–1996). It explores how the Japanese government institutionalised involuntary sterilisation as a health policy within the specific social and political context of postwar Japan. The seminar then analyses the medical diagnoses used to justify eugenic sterilisation, showing how gender shaped medical discourse by framing victims’ sexuality as a threat to social order. Finally, it examines the role of the family in both the production and implementation of medical knowledge, highlighting the agency of victims’ families in the enforcement of the law. Through this presentation, I aim to contextualise the Japanese Supreme Court’s decision in July 2024, which ruled that eugenic sterilisation was unconstitutional.