Survey Reveals Women’s Opinions on Measures to Tackle Japan’s Birth Decline

As the number of births in Japan continues to drop, the administration of Prime Minister Kishida Fumio has promised unprecedented measures to halt the decline. What do Japanese women think about the issue and possible solutions? The Nippon Foundation conducted a survey of 10,000 women between the age of 18 and 69 to ask their opinion.

Prime Minister Kishida has stated that he aims to double the child-related budget by the early 2030s. However, only 20.9% of respondents said that it should be increased as a top priority, whereas 15.2% said an increase was unrealistic due to the worsening financial situation and 36.3% thought that concrete measures were more important than the amount spent.

Concerning how to pay for the child-related budget, many respondents were opposed to raising taxes and increasing the burden related to social security, including 74.6% who are opposed (at least somewhat) to raising the consumption tax for that purpose. Meanwhile few were opposed to the government redistributing its budget by reviewing expenditures on public works and defense spending.

Only 6.0% of those surveyed said that government measures to counter the decline in births would have some effect, while 33.6% said that they would have a slight effect and 21.0% that they would have no effect at all.

The most commonly cited expectations for the Children and Families Agency, established in April, were in the areas of childhood poverty, the decline in births, and child abuse. However, 23.3% of those surveyed either had no expectation in the agency or said that they did not know.

The online survey was conducted in late March 2023. Responses were combined from 10,000 women aged from 18 to 69, corresponding to the demographic breakdown of Japan by age group.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)