Family Traditions, Banning of Pill Help Make Abortion Accepted Practice in Japan

Abortion is an accepted birth control practice in Japan. The pill is banned because of what officials call uncertainties about its side effects.

“Abortions are protected,” said Dr. Kunio Kitamura, director of the Japan Family Planning Assn.

Male dominance in Japanese society also comes into play.

“Women tend to leave birth control to the husbands, but with the pill, what happens to the role of men?” Kitamura said.

“The Japanese are very conservative people,” said Dr. Eikichi Matsuyama, a physician at Tokyo’s Kosei Nenkin Hospital. “They won’t use the pill because they think it is dangerous.”

A legislative effort in 1982 to tighten the law on who may receive abortions was hurriedly withdrawn after strong protests by women and doctors.

The proposal would have eliminated a provision allowing abortion on grounds of economic hardship, cited in at least 90% of abortion cases, Kitamura said.

Under the 1948 Eugenic Protection Law, abortion also is permitted to “prevent the increase of inferior descendants from the eugenic point of view,” and to protect the life and health of the mother.

The real reason for most abortions, Kitamura said, “is the lack of absolutely safe contraceptive methods.”

He said lack of sex information among teen-agers, who rely on friends and youth magazines for such knowledge, also leads to abortions.

In addition, a strong family sense of who belongs and who doesn’t works against having an unwanted baby and then putting it up for adoption.

Doctors say birth control is usually achieved through a combination of the condom and rhythm method and, as a last resort, abortion.

The Health and Welfare Ministry says Japan had 17.8 registered abortions for every 1,000 women 15 to 49 years old in 1985. Many more go unreported, doctors say, adding that Japan’s abortion rate might well exceed that in the United States, which had 24 terminated pregnancies for every 1,000 females of child-bearing age that same year. Nations with higher abortion rates are mostly Communist countries.

“Japan needs a more reliable contraceptive method. Otherwise, the problem of induced abortions cannot be solved,” Kitamura said.

The Health and Welfare Ministry is expected to legalize contraceptive pills in the near future, but they might not become popular, some doctors suggest.

Opponents of the pill, including some women’s groups, have raised fears of possible side effects such as heart attacks and strokes.

“The memory of the thalidomide disaster is still very much in the minds of the Japanese people,” said Kitamura, referring to the widespread birth defects in the late 1950s traced to the tranquilizer. It is estimated that nearly 940 babies were born deformed in Japan after their mothers took the drug while pregnant.

“The memory will never be erased,” Kitamura said. “Where contraception is concerned, Japan is still a developing country.”

As for adoption, “no one wants a child from outside,” said Dr. Matsuyama. “They want their own.”

“It’s difficult for the adoption concept to catch on here because of the Japanese thinking about family and house,” Kitamura said.

Unlike Western nations, where religion often plays a major role against abortion, “religion is very weak in Japan,” said Matsuyama.

Buddhism and Shintoism, the two main religions, do not take a stand on abortion, and “they have no power,” he added.

Japan’s major anti-abortion group, Seichonoie, combines ideas from Buddhism, Shintoism and Christianity in its arguments, however. It was Seichonoie that pressed for changes in the abortion law in 1982.

Historically, abortion has never carried any social stigma in Japan. Mabiki (weeding out), a euphemism for killing unwanted babies, was liberally used in ancient times to control population size.