Abortion in Japan
Encyclopedia
Abortion
is de facto
legal in Japan, with some limitations.
Approved doctors can practice abortion to anyone who requests it, under the name of Socioeconomic Abortion stated in Maternal Health Protection Law. Abortion can only be carried out by the doctors approved by the prefectural
government and any other persons, including the mother herself, trying to abort the fetus
will be punished by the law. Anyone trying to practice abortion without the consent of the woman will also be punished, including the doctors. Oral contraceptives have limited availability, but the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan announced that oral contraceptives will be approved by the end of year 2010.
for the peasant class, who had difficulties with the recurrent famine
s and high taxation of the time.
In 1842, the Shogunate in Japan
banned induced abortion in Edo, but the law did not affect the rest of the country until 1869, when abortion was banned nation-wide.
In 1948 Japan legalised abortion under special circumstances. The country became one of the first to legalize induced abortion through the Eugenic Protection Law of 1948. This law was revised as the Maternal Body Protection Law in 1996.
Currently, abortion is widely accepted in Japan. According to a survey conducted in 1998, 79 percent of unmarried and 85 percent of married women approved of abortion. According to researchers at Osaka University
341,588 legal abortions were carried out in Japan in 2001, showing a 2.5 per cent increase from 1998 to 2001. However, in 2007 the figure had decreased to around 256,000. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20091020i1.html
, a midwife who killed over a hundred newborn infants to parents who were unable to support a new child in secret and later attempted to extort the parents, is believed to have spurred public opinion towards the legalization of abortion and the Eugenic Protection Law of 1948 was passed. This law provided for family planning services and permitted induced abortion and sterilisation for health reasons. Prior to 1948, illegal induced abortions were rampant, which seriously endangered the lives of many Japanese women. In 1949 the law was amended to allow abortions to be performed for economic reasons. The law was further liberalised in 1952 when bureaucratic procedures were eliminated. Physicians were required to report the number of abortions they performed to the Designated Physicians' Association. In 1955 the number of abortions peaked at 1.17 million; since then it has gradually declined. The eugenics law came under fire in 1973 by religious groups and political leaders. The Family Planning Federation of Japan opposed any revision of the present law. Increased fees for abortion operations, back street abortions, increased population and its concomitant social and economic disadvantages, and loss of face in the international world, are seen as problems which would be caused by a revised eugenics law.
, hereditary physical defects, hereditary malformation, hereditary learning difficulties, and leprosy. The risk to the mother's life and heath, and pregnancy resulting from rape
were also included in the justification conditions, but they were inserted at the end of the law as if they were a late addition.
In 2006, Article 14 of the Maternal Health Protection Law was revised. Under the revised law, approved doctors can virtually practice abortion to anyone, if consent was given by the mother. If a mother is married to a spouse, consent is also required from the spouse, but there are exemptions, such as, if spouse is missing or unable to give consent. Despite the fact this law requires a valid reasons to carry out abortion, virtually any mother is applicable for socioeconomic abortion, as it can be carried out unconditionally. Another valid reasons for abortion includes rape and health problem. Doctors must send anonymous reports to the prefectural
government after conducting abortion for health or socioeconomic reasons.
Overall, in 1995 the total number of abortions reported was 343,024, representing a 49 percent decrease from the number reported for 1975. The overall abortion rate changed from 22 to 11 abortions per 1,000 women in 1975 and 1995, respectively; and the overall abortion ratio changed from 353 to 289 abortions per 1,000 live births in the same 20-year period. In more than 99 percent of cases, the reason report
ed for performing an abortion was to protect the woman’s health; this percentage remained constant during 1975-95.
The official Japanese government statistics on abortion however can not be considered as very accurate since physicians tend to underreport the number of abortions they perform as a way of avoiding income tax
payments (Coleman 1991) and because of social pressures to protect women’s confidentiality, especially that of young women who are junior high or high school
students.
rate in Japan, where oral contraceptive
s (OC) have not been legalised for family planning purposes and couples rely mainly on condom
s, might change if more women were to use OC. Because current rates of unintended pregnancy and abortion in Japan are not known, data provided by the 1994 Japanese National Survey on Family Planning were used to construct scenarios for national contraceptive use. Annual failure rates of contraceptive methods and nonuse were applied to the contraceptive use scenarios, to obtain estimates of the annual number of contraceptive failure-related pregnancies. Subsequently, contraceptive practice situations assuming higher OC use rates were defined, and the associated change in the number of contraceptive failure-related pregnancies was estimated for each situation. It emerged that OC use rates of 15% decreased the expected number of unintended pregnancies by 13%–17%, whereas use rates of 25% resulted in decreases of 22%–29% and use rates of 50% in decreases of 45%–58%. The findings were reasonably robust to variation in the assumptions that were made. In conclusion, each theoretical percentage increase in the OC use rate in Japan was found to lead to a roughly equivalent percentage decrease in the number of unintended pregnancies.
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
is de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
legal in Japan, with some limitations.
Approved doctors can practice abortion to anyone who requests it, under the name of Socioeconomic Abortion stated in Maternal Health Protection Law. Abortion can only be carried out by the doctors approved by the prefectural
Prefecture
A prefecture is an administrative jurisdiction or subdivision in any of various countries and within some international church structures, and in antiquity a Roman district governed by an appointed prefect.-Antiquity:...
government and any other persons, including the mother herself, trying to abort the fetus
Fetus
A fetus is a developing mammal or other viviparous vertebrate after the embryonic stage and before birth.In humans, the fetal stage of prenatal development starts at the beginning of the 11th week in gestational age, which is the 9th week after fertilization.-Etymology and spelling variations:The...
will be punished by the law. Anyone trying to practice abortion without the consent of the woman will also be punished, including the doctors. Oral contraceptives have limited availability, but the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan announced that oral contraceptives will be approved by the end of year 2010.
History
Japanese documents show records of induced abortion from as early as the 12th century. It was legal during the Edo periodEdo period
The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....
for the peasant class, who had difficulties with the recurrent famine
Famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop failure, overpopulation, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every continent in the world has...
s and high taxation of the time.
In 1842, the Shogunate in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
banned induced abortion in Edo, but the law did not affect the rest of the country until 1869, when abortion was banned nation-wide.
In 1948 Japan legalised abortion under special circumstances. The country became one of the first to legalize induced abortion through the Eugenic Protection Law of 1948. This law was revised as the Maternal Body Protection Law in 1996.
Currently, abortion is widely accepted in Japan. According to a survey conducted in 1998, 79 percent of unmarried and 85 percent of married women approved of abortion. According to researchers at Osaka University
Osaka University
, or , is a major national university located in Osaka, Japan. It is the sixth oldest university in Japan as the Osaka Prefectural Medical College, and formerly one of the Imperial Universities of Japan...
341,588 legal abortions were carried out in Japan in 2001, showing a 2.5 per cent increase from 1998 to 2001. However, in 2007 the figure had decreased to around 256,000. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20091020i1.html
Eugenic Protection Law of 1948
From 1945–48 Japan experienced a severe population boom, exacerbated by 6.6 million repatriates and demobilised soldiers. The acts of Miyuki IshikawaMiyuki Ishikawa
was a Japanese midwife and serial killer who is believed to have murdered many infants with the aid of several accomplices throughout the 1940s. It is estimated that her victims numbered between 85 to 169, however the general estimate is 103...
, a midwife who killed over a hundred newborn infants to parents who were unable to support a new child in secret and later attempted to extort the parents, is believed to have spurred public opinion towards the legalization of abortion and the Eugenic Protection Law of 1948 was passed. This law provided for family planning services and permitted induced abortion and sterilisation for health reasons. Prior to 1948, illegal induced abortions were rampant, which seriously endangered the lives of many Japanese women. In 1949 the law was amended to allow abortions to be performed for economic reasons. The law was further liberalised in 1952 when bureaucratic procedures were eliminated. Physicians were required to report the number of abortions they performed to the Designated Physicians' Association. In 1955 the number of abortions peaked at 1.17 million; since then it has gradually declined. The eugenics law came under fire in 1973 by religious groups and political leaders. The Family Planning Federation of Japan opposed any revision of the present law. Increased fees for abortion operations, back street abortions, increased population and its concomitant social and economic disadvantages, and loss of face in the international world, are seen as problems which would be caused by a revised eugenics law.
New 1996 framework
In 1996 the Eugenic Protection Law was amended in Japan. The change in the law was called an amendment, but in fact it almost amounted to abolition, because the name of the law was changed to the Maternal Health Protection Law, and eugenic concepts and terms were totally removed. Such a law has to remain on the statute books because even now in Japan, abortion is prohibited under the Criminal Code although it is routinely carried out. The only legal way for women to terminate their pregnancy is by using the abortion provision in a law that was originally established to prevent the transmission of bad genes. Under the Eugenic Protection Law, sterilization surgery and abortion had been justified by reference to hereditary mental illnessMental illness
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...
, hereditary physical defects, hereditary malformation, hereditary learning difficulties, and leprosy. The risk to the mother's life and heath, and pregnancy resulting from rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...
were also included in the justification conditions, but they were inserted at the end of the law as if they were a late addition.
Maternal Health Protection Law
In 1997, the Maternal Health Protection Law was greatly revised and many restrictions from previous Eugenic Protection Law were removed.In 2006, Article 14 of the Maternal Health Protection Law was revised. Under the revised law, approved doctors can virtually practice abortion to anyone, if consent was given by the mother. If a mother is married to a spouse, consent is also required from the spouse, but there are exemptions, such as, if spouse is missing or unable to give consent. Despite the fact this law requires a valid reasons to carry out abortion, virtually any mother is applicable for socioeconomic abortion, as it can be carried out unconditionally. Another valid reasons for abortion includes rape and health problem. Doctors must send anonymous reports to the prefectural
Prefecture
A prefecture is an administrative jurisdiction or subdivision in any of various countries and within some international church structures, and in antiquity a Roman district governed by an appointed prefect.-Antiquity:...
government after conducting abortion for health or socioeconomic reasons.
Statistics
Abortion statistics showed that the abortion rate (the number of cases of induced abortions per 1,000 women per year) increased for women younger than 20 from 1975 to 1995. The abortion ratio (number of cases per 1,000 live births) remained the highest amongst women aged 40–44. An increase in the abortion ratio was seen in the two youngest groups (younger than 20 and 20-24), especially among those who were born after 1955. The proportion of abortions that were experienced by women younger than 25 increased from 18 percent between 1976 and 1980 to 30 percent between 1991 and 1995, and a slight increase was also observed among women aged 40–44.Overall, in 1995 the total number of abortions reported was 343,024, representing a 49 percent decrease from the number reported for 1975. The overall abortion rate changed from 22 to 11 abortions per 1,000 women in 1975 and 1995, respectively; and the overall abortion ratio changed from 353 to 289 abortions per 1,000 live births in the same 20-year period. In more than 99 percent of cases, the reason report
Report
A report is a textual work made with the specific intention of relaying information or recounting certain events in a widely presentable form....
ed for performing an abortion was to protect the woman’s health; this percentage remained constant during 1975-95.
The official Japanese government statistics on abortion however can not be considered as very accurate since physicians tend to underreport the number of abortions they perform as a way of avoiding income tax
Income tax
An income tax is a tax levied on the income of individuals or businesses . Various income tax systems exist, with varying degrees of tax incidence. Income taxation can be progressive, proportional, or regressive. When the tax is levied on the income of companies, it is often called a corporate...
payments (Coleman 1991) and because of social pressures to protect women’s confidentiality, especially that of young women who are junior high or high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
students.
Contraceptive Use
A scenario study was conducted to assess the extent to which the unintended pregnancyUnintended pregnancy
Unintended pregnancies are those in which conception was not intended by the female sexual partner. Worldwide, 38% of pregnancies were unintended in 1999 . Unintended pregnancies are the primary cause of induced abortion, resulting in about 42 million induced abortions per year...
rate in Japan, where oral contraceptive
Oral contraceptive
The combined oral contraceptive pill , often referred to as the birth-control pill or colloquially as "the Pill", is a birth control method that includes a combination of an estrogen and a progestin . When taken by mouth every day, these pills inhibit female fertility...
s (OC) have not been legalised for family planning purposes and couples rely mainly on condom
Condom
A condom is a barrier device most commonly used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy and spreading sexually transmitted diseases . It is put on a man's erect penis and physically blocks ejaculated semen from entering the body of a sexual partner...
s, might change if more women were to use OC. Because current rates of unintended pregnancy and abortion in Japan are not known, data provided by the 1994 Japanese National Survey on Family Planning were used to construct scenarios for national contraceptive use. Annual failure rates of contraceptive methods and nonuse were applied to the contraceptive use scenarios, to obtain estimates of the annual number of contraceptive failure-related pregnancies. Subsequently, contraceptive practice situations assuming higher OC use rates were defined, and the associated change in the number of contraceptive failure-related pregnancies was estimated for each situation. It emerged that OC use rates of 15% decreased the expected number of unintended pregnancies by 13%–17%, whereas use rates of 25% resulted in decreases of 22%–29% and use rates of 50% in decreases of 45%–58%. The findings were reasonably robust to variation in the assumptions that were made. In conclusion, each theoretical percentage increase in the OC use rate in Japan was found to lead to a roughly equivalent percentage decrease in the number of unintended pregnancies.