For this issue, we are pleased to curate a series of articles centered on Japan, though the geography is hardly the only intersection between these pieces. They resonate with each other in multiple ways on topics such as facilitation of health information to the public and the presence of the “West” in constructing the Japanese national identity. The articles are also situated in various moments in history, from the mid-Meiji period, the interwar period, and the Japanese Empire, through to contemporary Japan, helping us paint a picture of a layered history of STS in Japan.
In chronological order, we begin with “Reinventing ‘Hygiene’: The Sanitary Society of Japan and Public Health Reform during the Mid-Meiji Period” by Kerry Shannon. The Sanitary Society of Japan was founded by leading figures in medicine and the medical social sciences in 1883, at a time when Japan was under constant pressure to be on a par with Western societal standards. In this piece, Shannon uses speeches and articles published by the Society to examine how public health policy as well as the concept of hygiene itself developed in Japan during these transformative years.
