This article elaborates the cultural and political structures that inform the belief among Japanese that surrogacy is legitimate. It argues that this belief reflects a transition from previously negative attitudes toward surrogacy practices developed in the United States. The article first elaborates the history of the Japanese recognition of surrogacy by introducing early forms of East Asian surrogacy that lasted until the first half of the 20th century. Second, it explores the recent shift in Japanese discussions about surrogacy through an analysis of cultural representations on the topic, mainly referring to a dataset of magazine articles published from 1981 to the present. The author then calls upon Giorgio Agamben’s theoretical framework to discuss the juridico-political perspective of ‘bare life’ as it relates to surrogacy, and argues that considering surrogate mothers and children conceived through surrogacy as bare life makes surrogate practice seem reasonable in modern Japanese society. To conclude, the article stresses the importance of incorporating women’s reproductive functions into law to prevent women and their conceived children from becoming bare life, and being exposed to violence, in the form of a surrogacy contract.

本文阐述了文化和政治结构，这些结构使日本人相信代孕是合法的。它认为，这种信念反映了从以前的消极态度向美国发展的代孕做法的转变。文章首先介绍了直到20世纪上半叶的东亚代孕的早期形式，以此阐述日本人对代孕的认可。其次，它通过分析该主题的文化表征来探讨日本代孕讨论的最新变化，主要是参考1981年至今出版的杂志文章的数据集。然后，作者呼吁乔治·阿甘本（Giorgio Agamben）的理论框架，讨论与代孕相关的“裸身生活”的司法政治观点，并认为，代孕母亲和孩子通过代孕而生为光秃秃的生活，使代孕实践在现代日本社会看来是合理的。最后，文章强调了将妇女的生殖功能纳入法律的重要性，以代孕合同的形式防止妇女及其怀胎的孩子过着赤贫生活和遭受暴力侵害。