Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review

ONLINE FIRST

published on April 12, 2022

Mizuho Hashisako

Discourse on natural childbirth in Japanese Society
Its Transition from the 1980s to the Present

Discourse emphasizing “natural childbirth,” emerging at first in the 1980s in Britain, was welcomed to Japan, too, attracting high attention. The discourse in Japan has changed with the times and has gradually lost momentum, but is recently paid attention to again, which is shown by the fact that childbirth assisted by midwife has become more preferable than before. This kind of discussion tends to keep a distance from feminism although it gives holiness to childbirth, differently from trends overseas in which the discourse has a high affinity to feminism as well as spirituality.