Population Policy in Japan

By Nick Greenwood and James Whaley

Population Policy in Japan

• While retaining its time-honored culture, Japan rapidly absorbed Western technology during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

• After its devastating defeat in World War II, Japan recovered to become the second most powerful economy in the world and a staunch ally of the US. While the emperor retains his throne as a symbol of national unity, actual power rests in networks of powerful politicians, bureaucrats, and business executives. The economy experienced a major slowdown in the 1990s following three decades of unprecedented growth.

Population Policy in Japan

• Japan's population is expected to start declining in the near future.

• A gradual fall might not be a serious problem if the population pyramid maintained a normal shape.

• Due to improved longevity, the number of elderly people has been growing fast and projected to continue rising for decades to come.

• plunging birthrate is causing the number of young people to contract rapidly

Reasons for Policy being Introduced

• 2001-- average age of people getting married first time was 29.0 years for men and 27.2 for women.

• Shows a clear change from 10 years earlier, when the ages were 28.4 and 26.0, respectively.

• Up until previous census, in 1995, those making the official projections assumed, even if couples married later they would end up having same number of children, keeping the birth rate stable.

• Average time from a couple's marriage to birth of first child, 1.55 years in 1975, had increased to 1.88 years by 1999, probably because today's couples are increasingly occupied with work or

other activities.

Details for the Policy itself

• The government has been actively advancing policies to improve child-care services

• A lack of facilities can no longer be labeled as a prime factor driving women to bear fewer children.

• The main issue now underlying the low birthrate is Japan's failure to achieve a social setup based on equal participation by men and women, one that allows people to strike a balance between their work and their family and personal lives.

Population Policy

• A survey last year found the top reason women are hesitant to give birth is difficulty in pursuing both parenthood and career.

• How can this balance be achieved?

• Factor cited most often by respondents to the survey was the active cooperation of their husbands in the child-rearing process.

• Men in their thirties, a prime age for raising children, trapped in offices for the longest hours of their working careers.

• Rectifying this situation should be the first priority.