[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-detail-157679-en":3,"doc-seo-157679-105":31,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":91},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",{"doc_id":7,"user_id":8,"nickname":9,"user_avatar":10,"doc_module":4,"category_id":11,"category_name":12,"doc_title":13,"doc_description":14,"doc_content":15,"file_id":16,"file_url":17,"file_type":18,"file_size":19,"view_count":20,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":21,"is_downloadable":21,"audit_status":21,"page_count":22,"language":23,"language_code":24,"site_id":25,"html_lang":24,"table_of_contents":26,"faqs":27,"seo_title":28,"seo_description":14,"update_tm":29,"read_time":30},157679,962084925502,"Emma Mercer","https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8",2,"Literature","Financing Fertility: Pregnancy and Precarity in Contemporary Japanese Literature","Analyzes how money shapes pregnancy experiences in contemporary Japanese literature, focusing on terms such as “jibara” and how financial practices in obstetric care become euphemized while women’s bodies are spoken about candidly. Examines Japan’s National Health Insurance logic that excludes routine prenatal costs, tying out-of-pocket burdens to women’s financial and emotional constraints. Uses Kawakami Mieko and other authors’ memoirs, novels, stories, and manga to show bodily autonomy and parenthood as contingent on access to resources and chance.","Japanese Language and Literature Journal of the American Association of Teachers of Japanese  \n[jll.pitt.edu | Vol. 58 | Number 2 | October 2024 | DOI:](jll.pitt.edu | Vol. 58 | Number 2 | October 2024 | DOI:) 10.5195/jll.2024.320  \nISSN 1536-7827 (print) 2326-4586 (online)  \nFinancing Fertility: Pregnancy and Precarity in Contemporary Japanese Literature  \nAmanda C. Seaman  \nKōnosu Yukiko (鴻巣友季子 b. 1963), perhaps best known for her translation of Wuthering Heights into Japanese, became pregnant and gave birth to a child at age 39. In her essay collection Haramu kotoba (孕む言葉 Pregnant words, 2008), she ruminates about how terms used during pregnancy, birth, and child raising have taken on meanings remarkably different from those used in daily life. In the essay “Hinkai” (頻回 Frequent), she ponders how the title word—used to talk about everything from uterine contractions during labor to the number of times a woman breastfeeds a child—and others like it get used euphemistically for pregnant and new mothers. One such term is jibara (自腹), a doubleentendre literally meaning “self-pay,” but also (and for pregnant women, perhaps more distressing),“belly fat.” Talking about money is considered gauche in Japan and discussing it in the context of pregnancy is considered even more unseemly. Consequently, as she observes, obstetricians have developed euphemisms for the financial side of their practice, even while they seem to have no compunction about talking frankly about women’s bodies:  \nI had the size of the baby measured, but my doctor told me that I hadjibara. I was told that since pregnancy checkups are not covered by the Japanese National health insurance for prenatal exams, you have to pay for them yourself. [The doctor] told me “I measured the length of the fetus, but you have belly fat.” That belly was my own flesh—an expecting mother’s body is just fat. Pregnant women are easily offended, so if a doctor carelessly says,“You’ve gained weight,” or “You’ve got abelly,” it’s a big problem…The term “self-financing” may also be a phrase invented to avoid shocking the public. 1  \nKōnosu’s exploration of jibara addresses the experience of pregnancy in the Japanese medical system where women are subtly shamed into  \nNew articles in this journal are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 United States License.  \nThis journal is published by the University Library System, University of Pittsburgh as part of its D-Scribe Digital Publishing Program and is cosponsored by the University of Pittsburgh Press.  \n172 | Japanese Language and Literature  \ncontrolling their appetites while reminding them that they are paying for this privilege. Thus, jibara’s true meaning is more insidious in that it presupposes a lack of female autonomous choice and agency.  \nKōnosu’s essay raises an important but often overlooked issue—namely, the cost associated with being (or trying to be) pregnant and giving birth in Japan. Normally, the fees for standard labor and delivery are reimbursed by the city or town where a woman lives, with “standard”defined as “natural” (non-medication-assisted) childbirth in a hospital. Under the Japanese National Health Insurance scheme, however, since pregnancy is not classified as a disease or disability, the costs of routine prenatal visits and tests—including ultrasounds, and blood and urine tests—are not covered and must be paid out of pocket, although some local governments offer subsidies for them.2 While these not-insignificant costs, and the prospective financial burden that they represent, tend to be ignored or minimized in policy discussions about why Japanese families are hesitant to have children, they often make an appearance in contemporary literary accounts of pregnancy and childbirth in Japan. Were women to want something outside of the scope of the “standard” trajectory of care, then they have to pay out of pocket. Thus, the neoliberal policies of Japan’s health insurance scheme significantly contribute","cbCaiuIcviFp32sK","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaiuIcviFp32sK","pdf",471839,3,1,25,"English","en",105,"# Financing Fertility: Pregnancy and Precarity in Contemporary Japanese Literature\n## Euphemisms and the meaning of “jibara”\n## Costs of pregnancy under Japan’s insurance scheme\n## Money, autonomy, and narrative case studies","[{\"question\":\"What does the term “jibara” reveal about pregnancy and medical practice in Japan?\",\"answer\":\"It functions as a euphemism that frames pregnancy-related payments in ways that can be emotionally distressing, while also reinforcing assumptions about limited female agency.\"},{\"question\":\"Why are many routine pregnancy costs not covered under Japan’s National Health Insurance?\",\"answer\":\"Pregnancy is not classified as a disease or disability, so routine prenatal visits and tests—including ultrasounds and lab work—must generally be paid out of pocket, though some local subsidies may exist.\"},{\"question\":\"How do contemporary Japanese literary works connect reproductive goals to financial burden?\",\"answer\":\"The examined memoirs, novels, stories, and manga openly discuss the costs of achieving pregnancy or fertility outcomes, portraying bodily autonomy and parenthood as access-dependent and shaped by “chance” as well as money.\"}]","Financing Fertility: Pregnancy and Precarity in Contemporary Japanese Literature | 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does the term “jibara” reveal about pregnancy and medical practice in Japan?","Question",{"text":75,"@type":76},"It functions as a euphemism that frames pregnancy-related payments in ways that can be emotionally distressing, while also reinforcing assumptions about limited female agency.","Answer",{"name":78,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":79},"Why are many routine pregnancy costs not covered under Japan’s National Health Insurance?",{"text":80,"@type":76},"Pregnancy is not classified as a disease or disability, so routine prenatal visits and tests—including ultrasounds and lab work—must generally be paid out of pocket, though some local subsidies may exist.",{"name":82,"@type":73,"acceptedAnswer":83},"How do contemporary Japanese literary works connect reproductive goals to financial burden?",{"text":84,"@type":76},"The examined memoirs, novels, stories, and manga openly discuss the costs of achieving pregnancy or fertility outcomes, portraying bodily autonomy and parenthood as 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