Over Half of Single Young Japanese Not Looking to Have Children

A 2023 fact-finding survey on pregnancy conducted by Rohto Pharmaceutical, aimed at 400 single men and women aged 18–29, showed that, at 55.2%, the percentage of people who “don’t want children in the future” had risen to more than half for the first time.

At approximately 60%, more men than women were of the opinion that they did not want children.

However, of the women who thought this, 25.5% stated they “want to keep the possibility of having children open,” and one in five expressed interests in freezing eggs.

On the other hand, 68.8% of the 500 women (aged 18–44 at the time of childbirth) who had gone through the process of trying to conceive and gone on to give birth said that “getting pregnant was more difficult than expected before starting trying to conceive” and 58.4% responded that “it would have been better to start trying to conceive sooner.” For both cases, there was a general tendency for more women to agree with the statements the older they were.

(Translated from Japanese. Banner photo © Pixta.)