ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book codifies the intention to develop an index of intimacy and reproduction in contemporary Japan from the perspective of a group of Japanese mothers. It explores from the own analytical stances of intimacy and reproduction-related matters of Japanese mothers from different social contexts. The effectiveness of assisted reproduction depends on treatment adherence, which chiefly means the capacity to endure the financial, physical and psychological trials associated with assisted reproductive technologies (ARTs) regimen. The understandings of reproduction and intimacy in contemporary Japan are certainly the result of a number of social processes that imply both continuity and transformation. Women looking for assisted reproduction tended to form support groups in their quest to become pregnant, but at the same time this form of mutual encouragement could paradoxically pressure women to keep trying ARTs.
