Propaganda-oriented Population Policy of 2010s Japan

TANAKA Sigeto; TANAKA Sigeto

- Politically misused scientific knowledge

TANAKA Sigeto <http://tsigeto.info/office.html>
(Tohoku University)

(2019-03-06)

URI: http://tsigeto.info/misconduct/
Brochure: http://d.hatena.ne.jp/remcat/20180920

Entries beginning with ==> are not authored by Tanaka
* means “in Japanese”
The lists below are incomplete. See Japanese version for complete lists.

News

2019-03-24: * Japanese view about below-replacement-level fertility: its emergence and change since 1974. Presentation at a seminar in Tokyo.
2019-01-15: * Human rights violation against research participants in an MHLW-funded project in 2012
2018-12-08: Oral presentation at the 17th meeting of the Japanese Society for Science and Technology Studies: * Changes in discourses around the low fertility (Tokyo)
2018-08-30: Project “Unscientific Knowledge and the Egg Aging Panic” Research Report I/II
2018-07-17: Oral presentation at World Congress of Sociology: Fake information for the 'egg aging' propaganda: the role of experts and journalists in its emergence, authorization, and radicalization (July 2018, Toronto)
2018-07-16: Distributed paper at World Congress of Sociology: Hijacking the policy-making process: political effects of the International Fertility Decision-Making Study for 2010s' Japan (July 2018, Toronto)
2018-07-16: Session at World Congress of Sociology: Reproductive Rights under Commercialized and Politicized Medical Discourses (July 2018, Toronto)
2018-07-03: Tanaka's paper, Another Science War: fictitious evidence on women's fertility and the "egg aging" panic in 2010s Japan (Advances in Gender Research 24: 67-92 (2017)), was awarded as an Outstanding Author Contribution by the publisher, Emerald Publishing. Full-text (HTML, PDF, EPUB) free access for 1 year.
2018-04-01: * What local governments say in their "life planning" books. Presentation at a seminar in Tokyo.
2018-03-31: * “Life planning” books published by prefectures
2018-03-15: * Books on “egg aging” (ransi no rouka)
2017-10-30: Another science war: fictitious evidence on women's fertility and the “egg aging” panic in 2010s Japan. Advances in gender research. 24: 67-92.
2017-09-23: * A MHLW movie using the falsified graph (the old 2014-03-05 version)
New research project: KAKENHI #17K02069 (2017-2019) * Unscientific knowledge and the “egg aging” panic

Abstract

The Government of Japan and some academic associations in the fields of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive medicine used a falsified chart exaggerating the decline in women's fecundity during their late-20s. It was used in a campaign to promote “scientific” knowledge about the suitable age range for pregnancy, targeting female students in high-schools. It is not only a scandal about use of falsified data violating academic ethics, but also a case of abusive use of scientific knowledge in a certain political context.

Overview of the Problems
IFDMS: Misinformation with a Low-Quality Survey
Daily Fecundability Estimates with Unknown Method (Dunson et al. 2002)
A Trimmed Age-Fertility Chart (JSRM 2013)
Widely Used Age-Fecundity Chart of Dubious Origin
Falsified Age-Fecundability Chart in High-school Educational Material
The Concept of “Egg Aging” and the Changes in Its Meaning
Exaggerated decreasing of the number of eggs in women's ovaries
Accountability and Academic Integrity
Related Issues
List of Documents Written by Tanaka
Information Sources

Overview of the Problems

Unscientific Visual Representations Used for the “Egg Aging” Campaign in 2010s Japan (2018-08-27). Project “Unscientific Knowledge and the Egg Aging Panic” Research Report I.
Another science war: fictitious evidence on women's fertility and the “egg aging” panic in 2010s Japan (2017-10-30). Advances in gender research. 24: 67-92.
Professional responsibility for spreading unscientific knowledge: the case of the “ease of conception” graph in a supplementary high school textbook (2017-09-03). Translation from Trends in the sciences 22(8):18-23.
* Making of the egg aging discourse (2017-06-03) Symposium in Tokyo.
Scientific literacy in schools: Lessons from a scandal about the 2015 health education material in Japan (2016-07-11) Manuscript for Manabi no Mori 77, Tohoku University's pamphlet.
* Unscientific charts used in obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive medicine (2016-09-11) The 26th meeting of Japan Society of Family Sociology (Waseda University, Tokyo)
* What was visualised with a falsified fecundability chart in a high-school side-reader (2016-06-18) Symposium on population policy, medicine, and gender: a society with the social problem of “egg aging” (Science Council of Japan, Tokyo).
* Changes in discourses around the low fertility (2018-12-08) The 17th meeting of the Japanese Society for Science and Technology Studies (Seijo University, Tokyo)
* Japanese view about below-replacement-level fertility: its emergence and change since 1974 (2019-03-24) Presentation at a seminar in Tokyo.
==> Fassbender I. (2016) Enhancing autonomy in reproductive decisions?. Contemporary Japan. 28(2):123-144. {http://doi.org/10.1515/cj-2016-0007}

IFDMS: Misinformation with a Low-Quality Survey

Misused results from a multilingual cross-national survey on fertility awareness (2018-09-06) (Unscientific Visual Representations for the “Egg Aging” Campaign, p. 3)
* Making of the egg aging discourse (2017-06-03) Symposium in Tokyo.
Misinformation with a low-quality international multilingual survey (2016-09-08) Letter to the ediror of Human Reproduction (not accepted)
Hijacking the policy-making process: political effects of the International Fertility Decision-Making Study for 2010s' Japan (2018-07-17) XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology (distributed paper) (Toronto)
* A book chapter on IFDMS. Published by Ronsosha (2017)
* The myth of Japanese's low literacy about pregnancy: a new phase in the problem of misused social survey (2016-06-01) Synodos. 2016.06.01
* Abusive use of cross-national survey and its effect on public opinion: International Fertility Decision-making Survey and the population policy in 2010s Japan (2016-03-17) The 61st meeting of Japan Association for Mathematical Sociology (Sophia University, Tokyo)
* International Fertility Decision-making Study (IFDMS) (Basic information)
* On the “Starting Families” Survey (2015-11-30) Speech in a symposium on academic ethics (Tokyo)
Professional responsibility for spreading unscientific knowledge: the case of the “ease of conception” graph in a supplementary high school textbook (2017-09-03). Translation from Trends in the sciences 22(8):18-23.

[Clipping on IFDMS]

==> Merck Serono. Fertility: the real story (Report of IFDMS) <http://www.icsicommunity.org/__files/f/1452/Fertility%20-%20The%20Real%20Story.pdf>
==> J. Boivin et al. (2011) His & Her biological clock: Reproductive decision-making and reproductive success in the 21st century (ESRC Impact Report RES-355-25-0038) <http://www.researchcatalogue.esrc.ac.uk/grants/RES-355-25-0038/outputs/read/dc347116-34c4-4fad-8d99-2e76a595cc09>
==> Kalebic NL (2011) Delaying parenthood: choice or circumstance? (Ph.D. dissertation, Cardiff University). <http://orca.cf.ac.uk/id/eprint/26636>
→ B Fulford + L Bunting + I Tsibulsky + J Boivin (2013) The role of knowledge and perceived susceptibility in intentions to optimize fertility: findings from the International Fertility Decision-Making Study (IFDMS). Human reproduction. 28(12):3253–3262. {doi:10.1093/humrep/det373}
==> TAKAHASHI Sakino (2015) 「妊娠しやすさ」グラフはいかにして高校保健・副教材になったのか. SYNODOS. 2015.09.14 (Page 2) <http://synodos.jp/education/15125/2>

Daily Fecundability Estimates with Unknown Method (Dunson et al. 2002)

Undocumented Bayesian estimates of daily fecundability (2018-09-06) (Unscientific Visual Representations for the “Egg Aging” Campaign, p. 9)
Another science war: fictitious evidence on women's fertility and the “egg aging” panic in 2010s Japan (2017-10-30). Advances in gender research. 24: 67-92.
* Unscientific charts used in obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive medicine (2016-09-11) The 26th meeting of Japan Society of Family Sociology (Waseda University, Tokyo)
* What was visualised with a falsified fecundability chart in a high-school side-reader (2016-06-18) Symposium on population policy, medicine, and gender: a society with the social problem of “egg aging” (Science Council of Japan, Tokyo).

[Clipping on Dunson et al. (2002)]

A Trimmed Age-Fertility Chart (JSRM 2013)

Cherry-picked natural fertility curves (2018-09-06) (Unscientific Visual Representations for the “Egg Aging” Campaign, p. 8)
Another science war: fictitious evidence on women's fertility and the “egg aging” panic in 2010s Japan (2017-10-30). Advances in gender research. 24: 67-92.
* A trimmed age-fertility chart on the website of Japan Society for Reproductive Medicine (2016-04-30)
Sources: Some Data on Natural Fertility (Louis Henry 1961) (2016-04-30)

[Clipping on JSRM (2013)]

Widely Used Age-Fecundity Chart of Dubious Origin

Fabricated curve for a woman's likelihood of getting pregnant (2018-09-06) (Unscientific Visual Representations for the “Egg Aging” Campaign, p. 7)
The origin of a chart indicating the likelihood of conception linearly declining with age: a literature survey (2017-06-12)
Wanted: Information on a fabricated graph exaggerating women's fertility decline with age (2017-06-25)
* Making of the egg aging discourse (2017-06-03) Symposium in Tokyo.
* Unscientific charts used in obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive medicine (2016-09-11) The 26th meeting of Japan Society of Family Sociology (Waseda University, Tokyo)
* What was visualised with a falsified fecundability chart in a high-school side-reader (2016-06-18) Symposium on population policy, medicine, and gender: a society with the social problem of “egg aging” (Science Council of Japan, Tokyo).
* Questions to Yoshimura Yasunori and the nine academic societies used the falsified chart (2015-11-30) Speech in a symposium on academic ethics (Tokyo)
* Human rights violation against research participants in an MHLW-funded project in 2012 (2019-01-15)

[Clipping on this chart]

Falsified Age-Fecundability Chart in High-school Educational Material

Process of falsification

* A MHLW movie using the falsified graph (the old 2014-03-05 version)
* Partial transcript from a Youtube movie about pregnancy and infertility, by the Ministry of Health, Education, Labour and Welfare, Japan (2016-05-28)
* The falsified chart was made by Yoshimura Yasunori: the Cabinet Office confirmed (2016-05-28)
Pushing a falsified chart into high-school education material (2015-09-04)
* Politically misused knowledge on pregnancy and childbirth: science for propaganda? (2016-03) Seikatu Keizai Seisaku. 230: 13–18
* Process of data-laundering around the likelihood of conception (2015-08-23 / 2015-08-28)
* Misuse of a falsified chart about the likelihood of conception by nine academic societies in Japan [PDF] (2015-09-05 / 2015-09-16)
Misuse of a falsified chart about the likelihood of conception in high-school education material in Japan (2015-09) http://www.isa-sociology.org/rc32.htm ISA RC32 (Women in Society) Newsletter No. 2, pp. 9-10
* Press Release by Tohoku University (2016-03-30) on the paper “Politically misused knowledge on pregnancy and childbirth: science for propaganda?” in Seikatu Keizai Seisaku 230: 13–18
* Examining the validity of a chart about the likelihood of conception in high-school education material in Japan: review of demographic literature (2016-03-31)
* Falsified charts of “the likelihood of pregnancy” used by Yoshimura Yasunori (2016-03-31)
==> * Press conference by Minister Arimura, 2015-09-04 <http://www.cao.go.jp/minister/1412_h_arimura/kaiken/2015/0904kaiken.html>
==> * Press conference by Minister Arimura, 2015-10-02 <http://www.cao.go.jp/minister/1412_h_arimura/kaiken/2015/1002kaiken.html>
==> Japan Times (2011-10-10) Sex education or propaganda? <http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2015/10/10/editorials/sex-education-propaganda>

Editorial process of the educational material

* Politically misused knowledge on pregnancy and childbirth: science for propaganda? (2016-03) Seikatu Keizai Seisaku. 230: 13–18
* Errata of an article on JFPA organ (2016-01-24)

The online edition of the textbook is available from http://www.mext.go.jp/a_menu/kenko/hoken/08111805.htm. Upon each successive revision, the preceding edition is deleted. However, past editions can be found on archive sites such as http://archive.org.