The Japanese government's efforts to help working parents raise their children, such as by providing more child care facilities to reduce the number of children on waiting lists, are failing to improve the nation's chronically low birthrate, statistics and interviews indicate.
The number of babies born in Japan in 2019 is expected to be about 864,000, dropping below 900,000 for the first time since statistics were first kept.
"I want another baby, but I hesitate when I think about different things. My husband and I talk about this," a Tokyo woman said.
The 38-year-old nursery school teacher got married five years ago and had a daughter in October this year.
"My workplace is understaffed. If I take leave to look after my sick child, it will overload my colleagues. My company has a system for time off, but I hesitate to take it," she said.
The woman has more than 15 years of experience and is in a position to train junior staff members. She said she is under a lot of pressure to balance work and child care.
Her husband works in civil engineering and has irregular shifts with an unstable income. "I can't imagine raising two or more children happily while my husband and I both work," the woman said.
In 2004, the government formulated a guideline for comprehensive measures to combat the chronically low number of births. It sets a goal of securing day care spots for about 320,000 children in three years, from fiscal 2018 to fiscal 2020.
In October of this year, the government made early-childhood education and child care free.
However, so-called family social expenditures, which includes child care services and child allowances, accounted for 1.31% of Japan's gross domestic product in fiscal 2015. Britain and Sweden, which have high birthrates, spent more than 3% of their GDP in this area in fiscal 2013.
"The country is improving its support for child-rearing, and systems and policies are being prepared," said Keisen University President Masami Ohinata, who specializes in child care support. "But these practices have not been accepted naturally in society, so people don't feel comfortable utilizing the systems."
A Section on 12/26/2019