Powering the Nation: Demography and Power in the (Trans)national History of Modern Japan 

In recent years, newspapers both in Japan and abroad have written extensively on Japan’s on-going struggle with depopulation. Emphasising the nation’s ageing population, low birth rates, as well as both current and future socio-economic impacts of such demographic trends, media outlets and policymakers have fostered a general sense of urgency. However, the discourse on Japan’s “population problem” has a much longer historical legacy—coinciding with the inception of the modern Japanese state in the nineteenth century. 

This talk examines Japanese leadership’s concern with demographic changes across different points in the country’s modern history. In particular, it will focus on the idea of national power in Japanese political discourse in relation to demographic shifts. At the same time, the talk will contextualise such discourse within a broader transnational exchange of thought, ideas, and experiences in which nineteenth and twentieth century Japanese intellectuals and bureaucrats participated. In so doing, the talk will suggest transnational approaches to further examining “national” discussions and phenomena in modern Japan.

Dr Mina Markovic is the Japan and the World Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of East Asian Studies and a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Trinity Hall, University of Cambridge, having previously obtained her PhD at the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge. Her research interests include modern Japanese history, in particular the political, intellectual, and population history of the nineteenth and twentieth century Japan. Dr Markovic presented her work at conferences, workshops, and symposiums in Europe, Asia, and the United States, and has also served as a discussant for leading works in the field of Japanese population history.