Fertility Change in Contemporary Japan


Book Description

The authors examine the striking decline in Japan's birthrate in light of the rapid urbanization, industrialization, and socioeconomic development experienced by the nation since World War II.




Intimacy and Reproduction in Contemporary Japan


Book Description

This book presents an ethnographic investigation of intimate and reproductive behaviour in current Japanese society, grounded in the viewpoints of a group of Japanese mothers. It adopts a new approach in studying the decreasing fertility rates which are contributing to the ageing population in modern Japan. Based on the accounts of 57 married Japanese women, it employs symbolic interactionism as a framework to examine the various factors affecting decision-making on childbirth. The influence of Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ARTs), abortion and contraception in the daily interactions and experiences of the mothers are analysed to offer a new perspective on the Japanese demographic conundrum. With strong contextual information as the foundation, the book contributes fresh insight into how Japanese women perceive the idea of childbirth in a modernized society, and also assists our understanding of the factors causing Japan’s ageing population. Further, it places the mothers’ experiences within current global debates to highlight the salience of the Japanese case. As the first book to provide an in-depth examination of the social process underpinning the decision to become a mother in Japan, it will appeal to students and scholars of Japanese culture and society, Gender Studies, and Sociology.




Low Fertility and Reproductive Health in East Asia


Book Description

This book provides a unique blend of social and biomedical sciences in the field of low fertility and reproductive health. It offers a significant contribution to understanding the determinants of low fertility mostly in East Asia, including an assessment of the effectiveness of policies that aim to raise fertility. It introduces new analytical tools and methods and shares application of innovative approaches to analyzing cross-sectional and longitudinal survey data and macro socioeconomic data to shed light on changing mechanisms of low fertility in the context of reproductive health. The volume introduces the demographic dividend into the study of fertility, analyzes possible impact of population ageing on the amount of resources allocated to child rearing, i.e. the so called "crowding effect" in social care and public spending between the elderly and children. The book also tests the Low Fertility Trap (LFT) hypothesis, a new important theory regarding fertility trends. The book focuses on East Asia which is numerically large but relatively under-researched with regard to issues covered in various chapters. The relevance of the volume, however, goes beyond countries in East Asia. The book breaks new grounds and reveals little known facts regarding the influence of endocrine disruptors on male fertility through falling sperm counts, the phenomenon of marital sexlessness and about the sexual behavior of adolescents in East Asia.




Reproductive Behavior


Book Description

Sexual compatibility between male and female partners is in dispensable to normal and successful fertilization in mammals. Thus, the genes from males and females whose sexual behavior is characterized by awkwardness, ineptness, and miscues are elimi nated from the gene pool of the species. In human societies, this compatibility is not always evident; and the behavior that precedes and accompanies copulation and fertilization is exceed ingly complex and affected by many variables. As in most other species of animals, the entire repertoire of reproductive behavior of man is not well understood by man. When viewed, discussed, or reported, the topic is too often and most unfortunately regarded as an amalgam of emotion, mysticism, and biology. In the past, such emotion-charged approaches to the biologi cal fact of reproduction did much to obfuscate the subject; and as a result, much of the array of hormonal, neural, psychological, and social variables that control and insure the successful repro duction of the human species remains even now in Victorian ignor ance. But with the recent rash of books and scientific treatises on the subject, some progress has been made in elucidating human reproduction and associated sexual behavior. However, so entrench ed are some of our social taboos that the danger still lurks of equating social acceptance of the words with an understandin- all too lacking--of the process to which they refer.




Immigration as a Social Determinant of Health


Book Description

Since 1965 the foreign-born population of the United States has swelled from 9.6 million or 5 percent of the population to 45 million or 14 percent in 2015. Today, about one-quarter of the U.S. population consists of immigrants or the children of immigrants. Given the sizable representation of immigrants in the U.S. population, their health is a major influence on the health of the population as a whole. On average, immigrants are healthier than native-born Americans. Yet, immigrants also are subject to the systematic marginalization and discrimination that often lead to the creation of health disparities. To explore the link between immigration and health disparities, the Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity held a workshop in Oakland, California, on November 28, 2017. This summary of that workshop highlights the presentations and discussions of the workshop.




Family Planning in Japanese Society


Book Description

The book description for the previously published "Family Planning in Japanese Society: Traditional Birth Control in a Modern Urban Culture" is not yet available.




Communities in Action


Book Description

In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.




The UFAW Handbook on the Care and Management of Laboratory and Other Research Animals


Book Description

The seminal reference on the care of laboratory and captiveanimals, The UFAW Handbook on the Care and Management ofLaboratory and Other Research Animals is a must-have for anyoneworking in this field. The UFAW Handbook has been thedefinitive text since 1947. Written for an international audience,it contains contributions from experts from around the world. The book focuses on best practice principles throughout, providingcomprehensive coverage, with all chapters being peer reviewed byanonymous referees. As well as addressing the husbandry oflaboratory animals, the content is also of great value to zoos andaquaria. Changes for the eighth edition: Revised and updated to reflect developments since publicationof the previous edition. New chapters on areas of growing concern, including: the 3Rs;phenotyping; statistics and experimental design; welfareassessment; legislation; training of people caring for lab animals;and euthanasia. All material combined into one volume for ease ofreference. This book is published on behalf of UFAW (The UniversitiesFederation for Animal Welfare), with whom we also publish theUFAW/Wiley-Blackwell Animal Welfare Book Series. This majorseries of books provides an authoritative source ofinformation on worldwide developments, current thinking and bestpractice in the field of animal welfare science and technology. Fordetails of all of the titles in the series see ahref="http://www.wiley.com/go/ufaw"www.wiley.com/go/ufaw/a.