Sexuality, Maternity, and (Re)productive Futures: Women’s Speculative Fiction in Contemporary Japan by Kazue Harada

Abstract

Reviewed by: Sexuality, Maternity, and (Re)productive Futures: Women’s Speculative Fiction in Contemporary Japan by Kazue Harada Kumiko Saito Defying the Demands of (Re)production. Kazue Harada. Sexuality, Maternity, and (Re)productive Futures: Women’s Speculative Fiction in Contemporary Japan. Brill, brill’s japanese studies library, 2022. 214 pp. $108 hc. Kazue Harada’s study explores the much-dismissed world of speculative fiction written by Japanese women, particularly focusing on themes of reproduction. In the field of science fiction from Japan, which Kazue refers to as Japanese “speculative fiction” for a reason (as I will return to below). Scholarly approaches have largely excluded women writers and neglected questions of gender and feminist issues. The book adds a truly refreshing perspective to scholarship not only by challenging existing male-centered views that have framed the genre but also by critiquing the Japanese government’s long-lasting conservatism regarding women’s reproductive roles. Harada’s book fills an academic void created by the general absence of studies about Japanese sf, and she proposes a wide array of theoretical directions toward the inclusiveness of queer and feminist issues. [End Page 124] The key idea framing Harada’s study is the double meaning of the term (re)production, which aligns human reproduction with the nation’s mission for productivity. Her analysis begins with a statement made by Mio Sugita, a politician and member of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party that is known for conservative policy making. In a 2018 article published in Shinchō45, Sugita claimed that tax money should not be spent on LGBT rights initiatives because same-sex couples do not reproduce and have “no productivity.” Harada plays on the word’s duality as the nation’s productivity and women’s bodily reproduction, critically questioning the deep-rooted belief in the importance of reproduction for the nation’s growth. Harada cites Lee Edelman’s critique in No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive (2004) of reproductive futurism, the common belief that having children will ensure the future because reproduction (re)produces labor and increases economic activity. In addition to reproductive futurism, Harada argues, heteronormativity and eugenic selectivism are embedded in the political discourse that promotes reproductivity. She also cites José Esteban Muñoz’s concept of queer futurity to conceptualize the framework for her overall argument that queerness advocates for society’s relationship to futurity and the not-yet-conscious (17). Speculative fiction texts by contemporary Japanese women authors challenge these dominant discourses of reproduction by eroding the borders between humans and nonhumans and presenting alternative visions in the form of hypothetical futures. Employing the term “science fiction” may often entail lengthy debates and genre controversies, so Harada chooses to use the term “speculative fiction” and rightly maintains the focus on a selection of textual examples from five women authors from Japan. These three fiction writers (Murata Sayaka, Ôhara Mariko, Ueda Sayuri) and two manga artists (Hagio Moto and Shirai Yumiko) “imagine alternative possible futures in order to question historical inequalities of sex and gender differences and social categories based on present social realities in the (re)productive, heteronormative family system of Japan” (26). Based on close reading and textual interpretation, the author provides insightful perspectives on why women writers need speculative features to write about futures against the present state of society hegemonically manipulated by government policies and medical guidelines that incorporate eugenics, allegiance to the biological family, and child-bearing as the consequence of a heterosexual act. The textual selections serve as both the book’s strength and its vulnerability. In both textual production and criticism, sf has often been reserved for allegedly masculine stories of technology and reason, told from a macrocosmic viewpoint. Harada’s study makes a significant contribution to scholarship by challenging the gendered assumptions surrounding the genre. As much as this is a strength of the book, however, it leaves unanswered many questions for readers who wish to learn more about sf or about Japan. The text selections are all literally contemporary, most appearing since 2010. The clear exceptions are Moto Hagio’s classic manga, such as Jūichinin iru! [There Are Eleven, 1975] and Mājinaru [Marginal, 1980], which were [End Page...