The Declining Birthrate: Whose Problem?

Setting Social Policies for Japan's Declining Birthrate and Growing Elderly Population

Falling teen pregnancy, birthrates: what's behind the declines?

About half of the almost 1 million US teenagers who become pregnant each year carry their pregnancies to term and give birth. However, after years of steady increases, teen birthrates in the US are lower and pregnancy rates have fallen to their lowest level in 20 years. Teenage sexual activity is also declining. Over the period 1991-96, the birthrate in the US among teens declined from the 2...

Women’s Increased Higher Education and the Declining Fertility Rate in Japan

It is often asserted that the declining fertility rate in Japan is closely associated with the increasing number of women who receive a higher education. This study investigates that relationship from the theoretical perspective of social stratification. Specifically, I incorporate the outlook of social stratification with demographic approaches by analyzing the decline in fertility in relation...

Multiple Robotic Wheelchair System Considering Group Communication

In recent years, there has been an increasing demand for elderly care in Japan due to the problems posed by a declining birthrate and an aging population. To deal with the problem, we aim to develop a multiple wheelchair robot system that moves with multiple companions collaboratively. In actual care, we noticed that for a group of four people, which included wheelchair users and their companio...

The Economic Factors for the Declining Birthrate

This paper examines economic factors affecting the declining fertility rate in Japan. A major cause of this continuous decline is the increasing participation of women in the labor force. This, in turn, increases the opportunity costs of having children for a family. These opportunity costs are closely related to the scarcity of full-time jobs for women due to the fixed employment practices of ...