01107nas a2200157   4500000000100000008004100001260003300042653002600075653001200101653001000113100001100123245011900134300001400253490000700267520067500274       2012                            d  bSociety for Japanese Studies10aPrevention of leprosy10aleprosy10aJapan1 aBurns 00aRethinking" Leprosy Prevention": Entrepreneurial Doctors, Popular Journalism, and the Civic Origins of Biopolitics  a297–3230 v383 aSince the 1990s, Japan’s leprosy prevention policy has been the object of investigation by historians, journalists, and activists. The 1931 law that required the lifetime segregation of all those diagnosed with the disease was not repealed until 1996. This essay seeks to explore the origins of modern leprosy policy by examining the early Meiji discourse on leprosy that predated the involvement of the Japanese government. It argues that entrepreneurs who marketed leprosy “cures” and Meiji journalists who celebrated their efforts played an important role in defining attitudes toward this disease and thus contributed to the formation of a new biopolitics.