Abstract

CONTEMPORARY JAPAN 2020, VOL. 32, NO. 1, 141–147 BOOK REVIEWS Intimacy and reproduction in contemporary Japan, by Castro-Vázquez Genaro, London, Routledge, 2017, 214 pp., £36,99 (paperback), ISBN: 9780815361497; £120,00 (hardback), ISBN: 9781138640443 Like all post-industrial countries, Japan faces serious demographic change and the resulting economic, cultural and social consequences. In particular, the drop in the birth rate far below replacement level is a constant topic of concern in politics, media and science, and the causes of the decline have been analyzed from different perspectives since the 1990s. The monograph Intimacy and Reproduction in Contemporary Japan––drawn from three journal articles by the author––is to be read in the context of this ‘demographic crisis’ (19). To brieflysummarize,thisis a well-researched and timely contribution, which offers an authentic and important new perspec- tive on a much-examined topic. The ethnographic investigation is characterized by a focus on the topics of ‘intimacy’––here meaning ‘(pre)marital sex’––and ‘reproductive decisions’ of Japanese mothers, and it addresses in a very structured and organized way several topical issues, which to a large extent have attracted only little attention in English-language research on Japan. The main objective of the study is ‘to fill [the] apparent gap in the literature’ regarding the