Trouble in the Family State: The Public Debate on Family and Adoption in Meiji Japan

Abstract

Abstract: This article examines Meiji-period public debates over adoption and the role it should play in the new family state. Efforts to produce a modern civil code for Japan form the framework for a first phase of arguments about adoption and family law reform in newspapers and journals. When the new Meiji Civil Code of 1898 established the single-heir stem family as a model of the modern Japanese family, adoption became indispensable for sustaining the family system. While the Civil Code represented a seemingly clear legal resolution to the crisis of the family, late Meiji commentators, especially women writers of fiction, vividly depicted the emotional toll adoption exacted on individuals.