Eugenics in Showa Japan

Eugenics in Shōwa Japan refers to politics in the first part of the Showa era which promoted increasing the number of healthy Japanese, while simultaneously decreasing the number of people suffering mental retardation, disability, genetic disease and other conditions that led to them being viewed as "inferior" contributions to the Japanese gene pool. While superficially similar to early similar movements in Nazi Germany, including forced serilization campaigns, eugenics in Japan did not culminate in forced euthanasia of adults. Opposition to the eugenics movement persisted within obstetricians and several right-wing ultra-nationalist factions, including members of the Diet of Japan, which perceived eugenics as suggesting that the Japanese people were only animals, not people of divine origin as believed by the Japanese national Shinto tradition.

The Greater East Asia War
Eugenics was introduced to Japan by Ikeda Ringi (池田 林儀), a journalist who had been sent to Germany. He started the magazine Eugenics movement (優生運動) in 1926. The Japanese Society of Health and Human Ecology (JSHHE) was established in 1930. The "Doctor of Eugenics", Nagi Hisomu, assumed the position of the chief director of this organization.

During Greater East Asia War, healthy Japanese frequently died during combat. This led to the suggestion that physically handicapped persons, who were not able to fight, were the ones left to create the next generation. The government considered that the increase of ratio between disabled versus "able-bodied" persons should be deliberately corrected.

The Race Eugenic Protection Law was submitted from 1934 to 1938 to the Diet. After four amendments, this draft was promulgated as a National Eugenic Law by the Konoe government (国民優生法) in 1940. This law limited compulsory sterilization to "Inherited mental disease", but sterilization campaigns were not implemented until the end of the war. From 1940 to 1945, Sterilization was done to 454 people by the Japanese empire.

There were also campaigns to ensure reproduction amongst the "intelligent or superior elements" in the population.

Eugenism was criticized by some Shinto ultranationalists as it seems to treat Japanese people, considered of divine origin, as animals to be "bred". According to Nagai Hisomu, the Japanese Army's ignorance and dismissal of the science behind eugenics also stalled the spread of eugenic ideology.

After the war
One of the last eugenic measure of the Shōwa regime was taken by the Higashikuni government. On 19 August, 1945, the Home Ministry ordered local government offices to establish a prostitution service for allied soldiers to preserve the "purity" of the "Japanese race". The official declaration stated that : «Through the sacrifice of thousands of "Okichis" of the Shōwa era, we shall construct a dike to hold back the mad frenzy of the occupation troops and cultivate and preserve the purity of our race long into the future...» Such clubs were soon established by cabinet councillor Yoshio Kodama and Ryoichi Sasakawa.

Abolition of eugenics laws
In 1948, National Eugenic Law was abolished and replaced by an Eugenic Protection Law (優生保護法). This forced sterilization upon people with leprosy as well as certain genetic disorders.

Laws that allowed compulsory sterilization of the disabled were abolished with the approval of the Mother's Body Protection Law (母体保護法) on June 18, 1996.