Fertility Regulation in Japan: Is a Non-cohabiting Relationship an Alternative?

This paper considers the applicability of the concept of the second demographic transition in Japan. In the concept of the second demographic transition in Europe, the change of the attitude toward intimate relationship and the introduction of effective means of contraception in the 1960s are considered to play important roles. Accordingly, I presented some indicators on sexual behaviour, relationships and fertility regulation in Japan, and proposed a hypothesis that could explain the very low fertility rate in Japan. The Japanese National Fertility Survey data (1987,1992, and 1997) found that the number of those who are sexually active but never have given birth is increasing during this decade. Nevertheless, the use of contraception among unmarried women and married couples is not so high (below 60%) compared to other developed countries, and one-fifth of women having sex may belong to the group of unmet need for contraception. The popular methods are also not so reliable, such as using condoms or the withdrawal method. On the other hand, induced abortion rates are decreasing and are at the low end of rates in developed countries. According to the number of unintended pregnancies and unintended births estimated by a model on reproductive process, Japanese people tend to choose unintended birth rather than termination of a pregnancy by induced abortion. The incidence of premarital conception by never married women has not decreased. These observations do not fully explain why the birth rate in Japan has become so low. As one possible explanation, I pointed out the increase in the number of non-cohabiting couples and suggested this would play an equivalent role to that of fertility regulation. In some European countries, low fertility was explained by the elimination of unintended pregnancy due to reliable contraceptives. However, in Japan, the drop in fertility rates may be caused mainly by the avoidance of living together that lessens the frequency of intercourse, with the risk of unintended pregnancy remaining unchanged. This, perhaps, also eliminates opportunities for the adjustment of lifestyle of men and women regarding preparation for rearing children, thereby leading to the further postponement of having children, and resulting in the extremely low fertility rate in Japan. Introduction The current low level of fertility in Japan has been reached through two distinct fertility transitions. The first decline in the 1950s was due to the decline of marital fertility, that is, married couples avoided bearing more than two or three children, whereas the decline since the late 1970s has been brought about by postponement of marriage (Ogawa and Retherford,1993). Figure1 presents the age-specific fertility rates for each year from 1970 to 1999, and shows that the fertility rates of women in their mid to late 20s have been dropping dramatically since the 1970s. On the other hand, in Western Europe, similar trends regarding family formation have been observed throughout various countries since the late 1960s. To understand these changes, the concept of the second demographic transition was introduced by Lesthaeghe and Van de Kaa (Van de Kaa,1987). Motherhood was increasingly being postponed and the number of children that women have by the end of the reproductive period has declined. This paper considers the applicability of this concept of the second demographic transition in Japan. In this concept, observed below replacement fertility and its changing pattern in Europe were considered to be mainly the result of increased availability of modern contraceptives, enabling better planning of both the