Policies Can Boost Japan's Birthrate to 2 Children per Woman: OECD

Japan's birthrate could be boosted from the current 1.3 to a level around two children per woman by effective policies, according to an analysis by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in the final communique, entitled "Extending Opportunities: How active social policy can benefit us all," from the April 2005 meeting of OECD social affairs ministers.

As examples of policies to raise the fertility rate, the report suggests increasing the number of available daycare centers to the levels in Denmark, Sweden and the United States, the progressive among the OECD member nations, reducing child-care costs of families consisting of a couple and two children so that their household costs go down to the level of childless couples by use of such measures as tax breaks and child-support allowances. It says these policies could increase the fertility rate in Japan by about 0.7 points.

The current fertility rate in Japan is at the sixth place among the Group of Seven (G7) major industrial nations. The OECD's analysis says that among the G7 nations Japan has the biggest range of potential to increase the rate to a level after those of the United States, Britain, and France.



Posted: 2005/06/15 06:50:07 PM
Japanese version