Fertility in Japan and France
Kojima, H.; Rallu, J.L.uis
Population 52(5): 1143-1172
1997
ISSN/ISBN: 0032-4663 DOI: 10.2307/2998707Document Number: 278710
Fertility in Japan and France was very similar between 1975 and 1985, but the subsequent decline has been greater in Japan, where levels have stood at below 1.5 births per woman since 1993. A study of fertility using civil registration and survey data, and from indices based on the parity-specific birth probabilities, reveals that the decline in fertility in Japan was due to the fall in nuptiality until the mid-1980s but that since then there has also been a fall in fertility within marriage. Unlike in France, extra-marital fertility has not increased in Japan, and the compensation due to postponed births remained at a low level until the start of the 1990s. There are various cultural and economic obstacles in Japan to an increase in fertility outside marriage and among older women. It is through these new forms of fertility behaviour that France has been able to maintain a relatively high fertility based on an overall rate of childlessness that is still quite low.