30% of Unmarried People in Japan Say They “Do Not Want Children”... Record-Low Fertility Rate

[Financial News] In Japan, where the record-low fertility rate has become a growing concern, a survey found that three in 10 unmarried men and women do not want children.
Kyodo News reported on the 11th that the finding came from the Basic Survey on Childbearing Trends released by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.
Among 6,756 single people and 5,024 couples, 33.0% of unmarried men and 32.4% of unmarried women said they “do not want children” and answered that their desired number of children was “zero.” 
The institute conducts the same survey once every five years. The share of respondents choosing “zero” rose by 9.8 percentage points among men and 8.8 percentage points among women compared with the previous survey.
The average desired number of children was 1.56 for both unmarried men and women, a sharp decline from the previous survey.
Among couples, the average desired number of children fell below two, to 1.95. The most common reason given for hesitating to have children was that “raising and educating children costs too much.”
Japan’s low birth rate has continued to worsen. Its total fertility rate fell by 0.01 from the previous year to 1.14 last year, according to vital statistics, setting another record low. The total fertility rate refers to the average number of children a woman is expected to have during her childbearing years.
The annual number of births also fell to 671,236. The institute had previously projected that the number of annual births would reach 670,000 in 2040, but that forecast became reality 15 years earlier than expected.
Against this backdrop, a social climate of avoiding romantic relationships is spreading, and there are no signs that the fertility rate will recover.
In the survey, 42.3% of unmarried men and 36.7% of unmarried women said they “have never dated someone of the opposite sex.” Meanwhile, 24.0% of men and 21.5% of women said they “have no plans to marry ever.” 


[email protected] Lee Seok-woo, International Affairs Specialist Reporter