TOKYO -- More than 60% of young women in Japan do not want to have children, according to a survey conducted by Rohto Pharmaceutical Co. in 2025, a record-high figure since the annual poll began in 2018.
The difficulties in building a career path emerged as a barrier to having children, revealing the reality that women find it difficult to balance work and child-rearing through individual efforts alone.
The survey covered 400 unmarried men and women aged between 18 and 29, asking whether they wanted to have children. Of them, 37.4% said they did, while 62.6% answered they didn't. By gender, men saying they didn't want to have children climbed by 0.8 percentage points from the previous year's survey to 60.7%, while the corresponding figure for women rose by 11.6 points to hit 64.7%. It marked the first time that the ratio for women exceeded that for men.
Regarding the reason for harboring anxieties about having and raising children, 63.2% of men and 71.7% of women cited "financial burdens," while 51.2% of men and 61.4% of women referred to "disruptions to career advancement" -- with women showing higher proportions for both factors.
Meanwhile, the survey also targeted 800 married men and women aged between 25 and 44 who want to have children. Of them, 52.0% of men and 64.1% of women cited "disruptions to career advancement" as the reason for feeling anxieties about childbirth and child-rearing. Those saying they were "considering changing jobs or transferring positions" to raise children accounted for 53.3% of men and 66.8% of women.
When married men and women were asked whom they consult with about their attempts to get pregnant, 43.8% of male and 41.4% of female respondents said they "do not consult anyone," forming the largest group each, followed by "partner," cited by 41.7% of men and 38.2% of women. Only 4% each of men and women said, "superiors and colleagues in the workplace." Companies may face the possibility of their employees suddenly submitting their resignations to balance work and child care responsibilities.
It is an urgent task to explore ways that will allow people to pursue both parenting and their careers, instead of having to choose between the two.
(Japanese original by Yuko Shimada, Business News Department)