Fertility Rates: Japan's Decrease In Population

Fertility is the ability to conceive children. Throughout the existence of humanity, fertility is what created populations of both animals and humans. Fertility rate is “the number of live births per 1,000 female population aged 15 to 49 years”(eLearning, Fertility and Fecundity). Different countries have different fertility rates, which can be caused by different cultural beliefs, living conditions, wealth, etc. Fertility rates have an effect on many things such as the economy, politics, and culture. Within a country, fertility rates often differ the most between rural and urban areas. Japan, a country in Asia, has a fertility rate lower than the country’s death rate along with a low immigration rate, which is causing a decrease in the population.
A decrease in population means that more people are dying, or emigrating, from Japan than there are children being born. To begin, as Japans population decreases, the money collected through taxes also decreases. This affects the Japanese citizens directly because with tax money schools, roads, and other services such as pensions are available. With less people paying taxes, it makes it more difficult to not only make these services available, but also makes it difficult to pay off the country’s debts. A decrease in population also means that there are less people to carry on the Japanese culture and traditions. If there are not enough people in Japan to keep its economy stable, then the immigrant entries will have to be increased to raise the population. Japan will need to allow six hundred thousand people to live in the country every year to keep its economy stable. This will mean that the homogeneous Japanese society will now be introduced to many people that don’t practice the same Japanese traditions. Since fertility rates are so low, it may make it very difficult for the Japanese children to keep traditions
Now Japanese women want to have jobs and fight arm to arm with Japanese men. For this reason, many women choose to focus on their careers rather than worry about having kids and having to stay at home. Further, companies encourage women to have children later on, and some even offer services to extract eggs from the females so they can have children when they are older. The attempt for gender equality is what is leading women not to have children. Women who do have children are usually at a point in their life where they feel secure with their job, and it's usually in their late thirties or forties. Another influence on having kids is marriage. In Japan marriages are dramatically decreasing because citizens want to focus on their careers before settling down. Only three percent of babies born in Japan are outside of marriage, compared to the twenty to forty percent in other countries around the world. This means that a low marriage rate in Japan leads to a low fertility rate. Co-workers, friends, and family choosing not to have kids can also pressurize other women not to have kids as well. The cost of raising children is also an influence on whether or not to have children. Most of Japan’s population lives in urban areas which means that children are not needed to help feed the family (like on farms). Instead, children remain dependent on their