Why does Japan have the highest fertility rate in East Asia?
It’s well known that globally, Japan has a low fertility rate. However I’ve been having a closer look at East Asian fertility rates and all of them seem to be lower than japan. Im only focusing on developed East Asia, so this is limited to China, South Korea, Taiwan and japan. I also am including Singapore because although not in East Asia, it’s still highly developed and strong cultural and social connection with east Asia.
Japan: 1.26 ([source](https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/economy/2023/6/2/japans-birth-rate-drops-to-new-record-low))
China: 1.09 ([source](https://time.com/6306151/china-low-fertility-trap-birth-rate-policies/))
Taiwan: 0.975 ([source](https://www.eastasiaforum.org/2023/03/04/taiwan-heading-into-its-super-aged-era/))
South Korea: 0.78 ([source](https://theconversation.com/south-korea-has-the-lowest-fertility-rate-in-the-world-and-that-doesnt-bode-well-for-its-economy-207107))
Singapore: 1.05 ([source](https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/singapore-total-fertility-rate-population-births-ageing-parents-children-3301846))
Hong Kong: 0.772 ([source](https://www.censtatd.gov.hk/en/EIndexbySubject.html?pcode=FA100090&scode=160))
Granted, these differences are marginal and not huge, but it still begs the question, how is japan still the highest? And online there is always talk about japan’s abysmal birth rate but why is not there much mention about rest of developed East Asia?
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/15vjsot/why_does_japan_have_the_highest_fertility_rate_in/
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People scream about Japanese birth rates not out of worry for the country, but because they want to see increased immigration in Japan. They don’t have that goal for other countries, so their birth rates don’t matter as much.
Because sexless Japan is a meme and people are actually having sex.
West Japan have very high births especially Kyushu and Okinawa while Tokyo has similar birth rates just slightly higher then these countries. Japan also has overall lower working hours then those countries so it could also be that. People only talk about Japan because they have already a very old population while the others still younger for now and it will take decades to catch up.
There was a scandal earlier this year where they were counting babies born to a foreign mother and a Japanese man as part of the total number of Japanese babies born, while not counting the mother because they were not Japanese.
This means the fertility rate is actually inflated but the government declined to change their methodology or release fixed numbers.
I just moved to Japan from China this year. My wife gave birth to our first child in China. Now she is going to give birth to our second child in Japan.
Compared to China, Japan feels like heaven:
– Our 3-year-old boy can attend kindergarten almost for free. He also receives free medical care and monthly financial support from the government.
– We receive financial support for my wife’s pregnancy. This support significantly reduces our economic concerns.
China has virtually no welfare support for childbirth. This truly makes a substantial difference, at least for me.
Given China’s serious economic challenges, I believe that China’s fertility rate will decrease in the future.
Edit: use ChatGPT to fix my grammar error
I think that Japan might actually have some stronger pro-natalist policies in place than some of her neighbors.
Women are given [~$1303 USD in Taiwan](https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2023/01/04/2003791965) and [~$1510 in South Korea](https://asiasociety.org/korea/kotex-issue-no6-paying-birth-it-worth-it) in financial assistance after childbirth but Japan provides more than twice as much at [around $3439.](https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/adm/inbound/en/life-daily-child.html#:~:text=Parents%20that%20are%20enrolled%20in,500%2C000%20(from%20April%202023)
Interestingly, while the discussion is limited to economically developed nations, North Korea might have the highest fertility rate in East Asia at [1.9.](https://www.straitstimes.com/asia/east-asia/falling-birth-rates-a-concern-across-both-koreas-but-reasons-differ-for-the-north)
The housing market. Japan is the only country out of those in which majority of people don’t view real-estate as an investment due to trauma of late 80’s real-estate bubble crash.
regular earthquakes also help lower expectations of long term profits in real estate.
hence price is much more accommodating to newly weds.
In China & Korea, there seems to be an expectation that you must own a house before you get married, whereas in Japan, renting is seen as perfectly viable.
>Granted, these differences are marginal and not huge,
Well, there’s your answer. Marginal differences mean the cause is probably multiple, subtle influences that are challenging to quantify.