The Vanishing Stork:

The Low Birthrate Crisis in Japan

Sarah Millard
POSC 130
Professor Busacca
February 12, 2015

In a talk given on August 12, 1983, at the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, Master
Kuang Chin referred to children as the supporting pillars of the nation. In Japan, the
support is crumbling as the declining birth rate has reached crisis levels. Adult diapers
now outsell infant diapers (Hudson). In 2014, the estimated number of Japanese
newborns fell to 1.001 million, the lowest number ever on record (Bajakal). While the
birth rate has declined the average lifespan in Japan has increased. Adults age sixty-five
and older now make up twenty-five percent of the countrys population; that number is
expected to increase to forty percent by 2060 (Bajakal). This dramatic imbalance in
Japans population has put the future of the nation in jeopardy.
Master Kuang Chins statement is echoed throughout many countries around the
world. It is the todays youth that will one day become the caretakers to their respective
homelands, ensuring that nation or regions survival. Many nations have adopted policies
and cultural norms that give issues surrounding the wellbeing of children high priority
and distribute its resources accordingly. Increasing accessibility and the quality of
education, making healthcare for infants and children affordable and available, and
creating laws that protect children from abuse and neglect are all ways that nations invest
in their youth and that facilitates a social norm that places a high value on children. Japan
also invests in its children in similar ways, but its focus on creating and maintained Wa
has succeeded in undermining these efforts.
Wa is the Japanese philosophy of social harmony that is achieved and maintained
by putting the welfare of the community over that of the individual. Communal ideology
has been taught and practiced in many societies throughout the world for thousands of
years, but Wa goes deeper than merely an ideology. It is specific social norms that are

instilled early and enforced by social pressure in the forms of coercion, exclusion,
suppression, and division. It is the core of Japanese life as it is the source of determining
what should and should not be done both individually and communally. The goal of Wa is
to maintain a strong nation state, a thriving economy, and a stable society and
government. Wa promotes the value of honor, the practice of servicing others, rigid
orderliness, extreme national loyalty, and the resistance to outsiders. The practice of Wa
once helped Japan become one of the worlds most powerful nations, but the practice is
now causing the nation to slowly collapse, thus creating a paradox of harmony..
The foundation to Wa is national loyalty, but the methods used by the Japanese to
maintain the loyalty of its citizens have become the foundation of its demise. The Sakoku
policies enacted between the1630s and the 1850s created a self-imposed isolation from
other countries. An extreme commitment to Nationalism as well as perpetuating a fear of
all things and people foreign to Japan has kept the country from evolving with the world
as it transitioned into a globalized society. The Japanese economy has greatly declined as
a result. This current economic state combined with outdated cultural norms and social
policies has incited a chain reaction of interrelated and unexpected consequences that
becomes more severe with each new link added to the chain. One of those severe
consequences is steep decline in the rate of births in Japan.
Multiple overlapping factors have contributed to the birthrate decline. The current
economic stagnation in Japan has resulted in fewer jobs, high rates of unemployment,
more part-time and less full-time work available, and an increase in layoffs. This
condition has combined with social norms that were already in place to create an
environment toxic to procreation. Long work schedules, an inability to afford to get

married or obtain childcare, and widespread depression, high levels stress, sexual
dysfunction, and issues with infertility have left many Japanese adults to remain single.
The financial crisis in Japan has acted like a match to the archaic social norms
already in place. Failing to globalize with the rest of the world has hit Japans job market
hard. Jobs are scarce, especially full-time, well paying positions. The unemployment rate
rises as the birthrate declines. This situation has caused several conditions that have
greatly contributed to the declining birthrate. Financial hardship is the most obvious. If
you cannot secure a home and afford to meet your most basic needs how can you afford
to provide for a child? In severe cases, one might not be able to afford to marry or even
date, but the unemployment/underemployment problem in Japan has affected the birthrate
problem in a deeper, more complicated way
In most modern societies, ones career is a large part of how they define who they
are. Without that important piece of his or her identity, emotional problems and mental
health issues will most likely surface. Many men have become so immersed in hobbies
such as anime that they have become shut-ins, usually while still living in their parents
home. Men like this have been given the name otaku meaning geek. This self-isolation
has greatly diminished the number of men available for dating and sub sequentially
marriage. A wide spread decline in sexual desire has been reported by both men and
women (The Japanese Observer). These behaviors and conditions are consistent with
cases of depression and anxiety caused by high levels of stress. An unstable job market
damages ones sense of self, causes him or her to withdraw from society, and causes
sexual dysfunction. Even if financial hardship was not an issue, these conditions make
increasing the birthrate impossible.

Facilitating healthy relationships between men and women is a logical place to

start. Chronic depression and acute stress have contributed to national decline in sexual
desire and an increase in self-isolation. Acknowledging and addressing these mental
health issues will increase the number of men and women who are physically and
emotional available for committed, sexual relationships. The dynamics and structure
within a marriage needs to create equality between both people. Men need to be available
to their partners that excessive work hours prohibit. Eliminating long work schedules
would cut down on stress and strengthen family bonds.
General attitudes and social norms regarding infants and children and family
structures held by society need to be changed. A campaign that emphasizes the
importance of children and their ability to benefit society as a whole would create a more
family friendly environment. People need to look at the child in the stroller on the
subway and be reminded that the child will be the person taking care of them later in life.
The stigma attached to children born to unmarried parents and children born to single
parents needs to be reversed. Raising the birthrate should have precedence over issues of
morality and values.
Boosting the economy will most likely boost the birthrate. Japan must globalize.
It has no other choice if it wishes to stabilize and grow economically. Couples need to be
able to afford to have children earlier than later in order to take advantage of a womans
most fertile years. Providing financial assistance and incentives to couples with children
such as childcare provided by the government, tax credits, and reduced housing costs to
family with minors in the home could motivate couples to have children before a
womans fertility begins to decline.

What is the rock bottom in this crisis? Could the Japanese people cease to exist? It
sounds ludicrous, but without a new generation to support the current generation what
other outcome could there be? The world around them changed without them realizing it.
Japans only choice is to revisit and revise their counterproductive methods and open
themselves up to new ideas and new ways of doing things. Solving the crisis should the
focus, not the method of solving it. They need to increase the birthrate. What conditions
need to be met for a couple to have a baby? First, they need to want to engage in
reproductive activities. Second, they need to have someone to have a baby with. Third,
they need to be able to afford to care for a baby. Fourth, they need to physically be able to
have a baby. Focusing on these core objectives will provide many small solutions that
when combined together will solve the larger problem.

Works Cited
Bajakal, Naina. "Japanese Births at New Record Low." Time. Time, 15 Jan. 2015. Web.
13 Feb. 2015. <http://time.com/3651799/japan-birth-rate-population-shrinking/>.
Hayworth, Abigail. "Why Have Young People in Japan Stopped Having Sex?" The
Japanese Observer. The Guardian, 13 Oct. 2013. Web. 13 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/20/young-people-japan-stoppedhaving-sex>.
Hirata, Keiko, and Mark Warschauer. Japan: The Paradox of Harmony. Print.
Huson, Alex. "Adult Nappies Now Outsell Baby Nappies in Some Countries and Here's
Why." Mirror. Mirror, 27 Nov. 2014. Web. 13 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/adult-nappies-outsell-baby-nappies4706474>.