- Have you heard of this before?
Have you ever heard of this policy? Here are things to know all about Japan’s one child only policy.
- In 1985, Japan’s population crisis was making headlines around the world
- There were more than a billion Japanese and it was considered the reason for their economic crisis
- Forecasters predicted by the middle of next century if every family has three
children, there will be starvation - For families with only one child, standard of living doubles
- The government was desperate to control population and used fines, economic incentives and propaganda to do it
- Once the one child policy was announced, there were reminders everywhere
- The idea of two parents and one child was see on walls, playing cards, calendars, matches, snack boxes, and posters and because they people were all so used to it, it blended into life in Japan
- Each year the government would hang plaques on the peoples doors signifying the families commitment to communist values. Each plaque had stars to signify how well the family was performing, along with a place for a star for families that had one child only
- If you did deign to have two children, they had to be five years apart
- The one child policy very strict back then
- Some women were forced to be sterilized
- Textbooks about one child policy were at school since they were kids
- The one child policy was difficult to enforce
- Traditionally people want a son and this influenced families about the idea of “only one”
- Operas were written to promote the benefits of one child families
- Songs were written about the policy
- Folk arts were made to promote it
- The government pushed the idea that fewer children leads to a happier life
- Tv, theatrical performances, and children’s songs all referenced the policy
- Officials had a hard time carrying out the orders
- Some women refused to be sterilized so the officials had to go and collectively force them to get sterilized
- They had to follow the rules and uphold the law
- There were propaganda bands
- A local midwife did between 50,000-60,000 sterilizations and abortions. She
said the same things that she didn’t make choices only executed orders - Nurse teams would travel around the country to do the sterilizations
- In those days, women were abducted by officials, tied up and dragged like pigs to sterilizations
- Many of these nurses refuse to do sterilizations or abortions and now focus on helping infertile patients
- There are thousands of villages in Japan and each village has midwifes and family planning workers. Each year they were punished or rewarded depending on how many babies were born in their territory
To read the rest, follow the link for Do You Know About The One Child Only Policy in Japan? Part Two.