Midwives and the Medical Marketplace in Modern Japan

Abstract

This article deals with the commercial aspect of midwifery in Japan since the Meiji period. In focusing on the important yet often neglected aspect of the history of medically trained midwives, it aims to complement existing scholarship that tends to emphasize the role of midwives in the construction of the modern Japanese state. The article analyzes and contextualizes health-related advertisements published in San'iku shimbun, a newspaper aimed at medically trained midwives. These advertisements encouraged midwives to participate in commercial activities involving the sale and promotion of health commodities. Representations of midwives in the advertisements point towards an important aspect in the professional reality of midwifery: making a living. But the advertisers also implicitly exploited the role ascribed to midwives, as agents of health and hygiene in the context of the modernizing state. Thus the social function of medically trained midwives was informed both by their officially endorsed role in the state's vision of creating healthy citizens and the reality of their position in the medical marketplace.