The Influence of Margaret Sanger to the Japanese Birth Control Movement

Margaret Sanger was the pioneer for birth control and contraceptive pills in the United States. She began to concern herself with birth control to ensure women’s rights after witnessing lower-class pregnant women working in undesirable conditions, often until the time of childbirth.¹¹ Sanger’s advocacies for women’s reproductive rights has influenced many around the world, including Kato Shizue—the pioneer for the birth control movement in Japan—who invited Sanger to Japan on multiple occasions to educate the Japanese public about birth control and its importance for women’s rights.

In 1922, when Sanger first visited Japan, birth control and her attempt to educate about the topic was considered to be a threat to the Japanese society’s system. It was because, during this time, a large number of people were accustomed to and were advocates of the thriving and traditional family system. For this reason, Sanger was restricted and could only talk about birth control in a private setting. However, Sanger left an impact on the limited number of people she met, as justified by the organization of the Japanese Women’s Association for Birth Control soon after she left the country.¹²

(Original Caption) Mrs. Margaret Sanger of New York, (R), is shown, photographed on her arrival to Japan. Japan being opposed to birth control, she was forbidden to make any public talks on the subject. In this photo with her are the Baroness and Baron Ishimoto, leaders for control of birth in Tokyo. Mrs. Sanger was their guest. Photo from Bettman via Getty Images.

This took a 360-degree turn when Sanger visited the country for the third time in 1952, in an attempt to further popularize her cause. Although there were still sectors in society who opposed her visit—causing the delay of her trip—that time around, she was greeted like a hero and large crowds gathered to listen to her speak. She returned 3 years later and was received with the same amount of warmth from the Japanese population.¹³

Sanger escorted by unidentified Japanese men and; Sanger with Kato, talking to a Japanese mother and her child, 1955. Photos from Margaret Sanger Papers Project's Website.

It was said that post-war Japan treated Sanger as the ‘mascot’ for family limitation: her name was used for discussions on contraceptives, to strengthen arguments for morality and social acceptability of contraception, and to increase the credibility of a product or idea.¹⁴ However, this was not only because she knew a lot about contraceptives, but also because she was a Westerner. Japanese people at the time considered her ‘foreignness’ and surmised that merely because she was from the West, she was immediately the most reliable person to contact for contraceptive information, even though she did not necessarily know things in the context of Japan, specifically. This is because, at the time, Japanese people thought that in order to become up to par with Western nations, they would need to listen to their people and adapt to their practices, as long as it did not clash with their own values.

Sanger addressing the crowd at the Fifth International Conference on Planned Parenthood, held October 24-29, 1955 in Tokyo, Japan. Photo from Margaret Sanger Papers Project's Website.

Unfortunately, scholars argue that Sanger’s influence preceded her tangible efforts in Japan. She was not an active contributor to the Japanese birth control movement—one may argue she did not do much in regards to affecting policy or changing contraceptive practices and was instead just an icon for the Japanese.¹⁵ This is because only those who had first-hand correspondence to her actually knew about her arguments. Thus, even though she was well-known in Japan and people knew her for her relations to birth control, only a select few were aware of the details of her advocacies, like the leaders of the Japanese birth control movement, including Kato Shizue.