일본의 도시위생사 연구동향과 전망: 근대사 연구성과를 중심으로

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to examine the kinds of research conducted on the subject of urban sanitation in modern Japanese history. Studies on sanitation began to attract attention as hygiene (sanitation) was recognized as a major issue explaining structural changes in the city. Studies on urban sanitation emerged as a topic for analyzing discrimination against the poor in cities--its impact on marginalizing and perpetuating class distinctions from the pre-modern to the modern period--in the process of analyzing various characteristics of urban spaces. The emergence of these studies was the result of a shift in methodology for urban space research in the 1990s; researchers had a strong tendency to consider sanitation (hygiene) as an independent subject in understanding cities. Recent studies have focused on changes in the administration of public health and the perception of night soil, preventive measures for infectious diseases, and water supply and sewage systems, and environmental sanitation. Such research is closely linked to advances in the study of the social history of medicine. These studies focus on the imperfections of modern systems relating to hygiene or their association with the transformation of pre-modern systems. The studies confirm that modernization was not a decisive factor driving the improvement of sanitation or in determining the sanitary environment in the city. Additionally, some studies criticized the existing theory of the cycle of poverty-poor sanitary conditions-infectious diseases-poverty. Thus, further studies analyzing urban sanitation from a different angle should be undertaken.