The Politics of Viagra

Body & Society, Vol. 12, No. 2, 109-129 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1357034X06064328
© 2006 SAGE Publications

The Politics of Viagra: Gender, Dysfunction and Reproduction in Japan

Genaro Castro-Vázquez

Keio University

The introduction of Viagra in Japan is largely associated with the construction of ‘abject masculinities’. The approval of the drug comes amidst worries about hormones polluting the environment and Japanese men's unwillingness to perform their ‘appropriate gender role’ in a country coping with problems in the economy, a growing number of unmarried people, an ageing population and declining birth rates. In this article, I analyse how impotence, gender and reproduction are entangled in the ways in which Japanese physicians report erectile dysfunction (ED) and prescribe Viagra. The accounts of physicians, taken from the media and scientific reports, show that medical doctors tend to uphold ‘the Viagrization of ED’, which will lead to the Viagrization of Japan. Despite discourses on medicalized sexuality, reproductive behaviour and promotion of childbirth, the politics of Viagra largely promote male recreational sex with substantial benefits for the pharmaceutical and sex industries. Also, the politics of Viagra seem to underpin the commodification of a sexualized male body that ignores the reproductive health concerns of Japanese men. 

Key Words: Japan • medicalization • reproduction • sexual dysfunction • Viagra