Demography, Culture, and Policy: Understanding Japan's Low Fertility

摘要

I ANALYZE THE reasons for persistent, rapid fertility decline and population aging in Japan. This matter is of particular interest since Japan is the fastest-aging country in the world and has enacted a variety of family-friendly policies since the mid-1990s to encourage people to have more children, including three consecutive five-year plans (the Angel Plan and two "new" Angel Plans, running from 1995 through 2009), the "Plus One" and "Next Generation" laws of 2002 and 2003, the "Basic Measures toCope with a Declining Fertility Society" in 2003, and several expansions of the child allowance program and of the Child Care and Family Care Leave Act. With the aim of better understanding Japan, I draw comparisons to France, a country with some interesting similarities. Yet France's total fertility rate (TFR) has increased to 1.98, the highest in the European Union as of 2007 (INSEE 2007), while Japan's was 1.29 in 2004 (NIPSSR 2006).