Japan's Baby-Making Propaganda | Isabel Fassbender

How has Japan’s slightly declining population given rise to a toxic mix of patriarchy, biomedical capitalism, and nationalism? Isabel Fassbender, a Japan-based feminist scholar and author of Active Pursuit of Pregnancy: Neoliberalism, Postfeminism and the Politics of Reproduction in Contemporary Japan, joins us. Highlights include: How Japan’s panicked response to a slight population decline reflects a troubling blend of patriarchy, nationalism, and biomedical capitalism; Why a country with an ecological overshoot and chronic overwork crisis should welcome population decline but instead promotes pronatalist alarm; What exploitative tactics Japanese policymakers and media use to pressure women into reproduction, in collaboration with the fertility industry; How poor sex education, limited abortion provision, and limited reproductive rights undermine women’s autonomy in one of the world’s least gender-equal industrialized nations. See episode website for show notes, links, and transcript: https://www.populationbalance.org/podcast/isabel-fassbender ABOUT US OVERSHOOT | Shrink Toward Abundance [Formerly The Overpopulation Podcast] OVERSHOOT tackles today’s interlocked social and ecological crises driven by humanity’s excessive population and consumption. The podcast explores needed narrative, behavioral, and system shifts for recreating human life in balance with all life on Earth. With expert guests from wide-ranging disciplines, we examine the forces underlying overshoot: from patriarchal pronatalism that is fueling overpopulation, to growth-biased economic systems that lead to consumerism and social injustice, to the dominant worldview of human supremacy that subjugates animals and nature. Our vision of shrinking toward abundance inspires us to seek pathways of transformation that go beyond technological fixes toward a new humanity that honors our interconnectedness with all beings.  Hosted by Nandita Bajaj and Alan Ware. Brought to you by Population Balance.  Learn more at populationbalance.org Copyright 2025 Population Balance