Delayed Childbearing and the Changing Age Composition of Women who Desire Children in Japan

Miho Iwasawa, National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, Japan
Fusami Mita, National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, Japan

We identified women who desired at least one (additional) child using data from the Japanese National Fertility Surveys, and described changes in the size and composition of this group as a consequence of delayed childbearing. The number of reproductive age women desiring a child increased 17% between 1982 and 2005 - from 9.78 million to 11.47 million. Over the same period, this population aged, with the proportion at least 35 years old increasing dramatically from 5% to 15%. Because female fecundity declines with age, this aging of the population of women desiring additional children will presumably result in an increase in infertility. We estimated the number of women in Japan who are receiving examinations or medical care related to fertility, and these estimates show that 179 thousand women were receiving some infertility services at the survey time in 2005 (1.2% of married women of reproductive age).