Why does Japan still have a declining/low birth rate, even though the Japanese goverment has enacted several nation-wide policies to tackle the problem?
In: 12200
First world and economically advanced countries all tend to have a dropping birth rates. You need 2.1 children per couple in order to maintain your country’s population. Most first world countries have a birth rate below that. However, most first world and stable countries have enough immigration to keep their populations up despite lower than needed birth rates.
Japan actually has relatively lax immigration laws. However, immigration generally requires speaking and reading Japanese (which relatively few people can) and Japan famously has an anti-non-Japanese attitude in the work place. Additionally, Japanese work culture is famous for being pretty harsh in general, even for Japanese, so all of these tend to lower immigration.
So I suppose your question is actually asking why first world countries in general have lowering birth rates. There are many reasons, some of which include: 1) Lower childhood mortality. This means many couples will only have 1 kid because the chance that one kid will survive is much higher. 2) Ready access to birth control. 3) High expense for child raising. First world countries tend to have relatively higher child rearing costs. 4) Higher likelihood that both parents will be working professionals, thus pressure to have children later in life (after career is more stable) leads to fewer children.
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