Commentary on Shirai

Abstract

"In September, 1996, the Japanese Eugenic Protection Law of 1948 was finally revised into a new law, the Mother Body Protection Law [see Shinagawa, EJAIB 6 (1996), 158-60]. Words and phrases referring to eugenics were completely deleted from a new law, but some critics point out that eugenic thought is still hidden under the spirit of this new law. For example, this law protects the benefits of the mother's body. Feminists say that the phrase "mother's body" implies that the body to be protected is "mother's," not "woman's," that is to say, a woman who does not plan to give birth should not be the main beneficiary of the law. Some feminists point out a kind of a male chauvinism that women should be a birth machine that gives birth to an adequate number of "healthy children" who are going to support Japan's prosperity in the future."