Menstruation as a National ‘Problem’: Japan’s Femtech Promotion and the Construction of the Self-Disciplined Worker

Abstract

Femtech, or the technologies that help manage women’s well-being, have developed rapidly since the 2020s. Despite feminist concerns about these technologies, the Japanese government has been positioning femtech as a temporary solution for gender inequality in the workplace since 2021. However, as outlined in the Basic Policy on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, this has been done without challenging existing patriarchal systems. This article will employ Carol Bacchi’s ‘What is the problem represented to be’ (WPR) approach to analyze the Japanese government’s femtech promotion strategies and projects demonstrated by companies to explore how the ‘problem’ is constructed and produces ‘truth’ about menstruation. The following analysis will demonstrate how the femtech promotion strategies marginalize menstruators through hegemonic discourses about menstruation. The hegemonic discourses focused on presently have several effects, such as: a reinforcement of the ideal worker whereby menstruators’ bodies are subjected to numerical measurements for the sake of productivity, and a reinforcement of the ideal citizen who engages in self-care to maintain a healthy reproductive body within a heteropatriarchal framework. By analyzing the case study of Japan’s femtech discourses and promotion strategies, this article aims to shed light on issues related to gynocolonialism and neoliberal government policies more broadly.