“Have Babies, Please”

“Give birth to babies, please!”

The Japanese government is doing everything in its power to increase the birth rate among young married women, as they tend to avoid having babies.

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in Japan encourages working prospective fathers to use paternity leave, while planing to build more nurseries, which can be shared by companies. In addition, it is making local governments establish an infertility treatment fund for the financial aid to helping infertile couples have babies. It also extended the pension premium exemption period for couples bringing up babies. Its efforts to raise fertility rate do not stop here. The ministry is considering a plan to set up a child pension system in order to provide a monthly ¥10,000 for a child to families with two children under age 16, and give an additional ¥20,000 for an extra kid to families with more children.

Nowadays young couples do not have babies because it costs them a lot of time, money and efforts. They say that is too much sacrifice. Even though Japan has encouraged parents with a baby under age 1 to get maternity or paternity leave of 1 year through a plan, only 56.4 percent of mothers, and 0.4 percent of fathers are taking it.

According to a study released by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, last year, fertility rate for Japanese women (the number of babies born by Japanese women in their lifetime) was at 1.33, a record low, down 0.02 from the previous year’s 1.35 children. The authorities predicted earlier this year that last year’s fertility rate for Japan would be at 1.34 percent, showing a drop faster than expected in Japanese women’s fertility rate.

According to the study, children under age 15 account for 14.3 percent (based on the May 2002 data) of the population, down 0.2 percent from the rate of the previous year. This rate is far lower than that of the U.S. (21.4%), France (19.0%) and Britain (18.9%). If the current situation continues, by the year 2010, the figure will drop to 13.4%.

Meanwhile, the proportion of people over age 65 to the whole population is expected to rise to 35.7% in 2050, from 17.4% in 2000. The worry is that a decrease in population and increasing rate of senior citizens to the population resulting from dropping fertility rate might hamper economic activities.

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