Shidzue Katō Pioneers the Birth Control Movement

Shidzue Katō was a pioneering Japanese feminist, social reformer, and one of the first women elected to Japan's national legislature. Born in 1897 into a wealthy family, she used her position and education to challenge deeply entrenched gender norms in a society that was highly patriarchal. Katō is best known for her advocacy of women’s reproductive rights and family planning, a cause that was considered radical in early 20th-century Japan. Inspired by her time in the United States and interactions with feminist and socialist thinkers, she returned to Japan with a mission to improve the status of women through both activism and political engagement. Katō's work was groundbreaking in several areas. She collaborated with birth control advocate Margaret Sanger and played a critical role in promoting access to contraceptives in Japan, seeing family planning as a path to women's autonomy and national progress. In 1946, in the aftermath of World War II, she was elected to the Diet (Japan’s parliament) as one of the first female lawmakers. From this position, she continued to fight for women's rights, labor protections, and gender equality in public policy. Shidzue Katō’s long career—spanning decades of social and political change—makes her a foundational figure in Japanese feminism and a symbol of determined, transformative leadership.