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The story
The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research (IPSS) has released its 17th Basic Survey on Birth Trends, finding that among unmarried people aged 18 to 34, 33.0% of men and 32.4% of women said they “don’t want children” — both topping 30% for the first time. That’s up 9.8 and 8.8 percentage points, respectively, from the previous 2021 survey, while the average number of children born to couples married 15 to 19 years has also hit a record low of 1.86. On 5ch, opinions split over what to do about it: some argued the real cause isn’t financial hardship but the fact that people have started weighing marriage and childbirth in terms of costs and benefits at all, while others called for bigger government payouts.
A survey by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research has found that a growing number of unmarried young people don’t want children. According to the 17th Basic Survey on Birth Trends, the share of unmarried people aged 18-34 who said they “don’t want children” topped 30% for the first time. Broken down by gender, it was 33.0% for men and 32.4% for women — up 9.8 and 8.8 percentage points, respectively, from the previous survey (2021).
Meanwhile, among unmarried young people who do want children, only 7.7% of men said they wanted “three or more,” down 3.9 points. Among women the figure fell 0.7 points from last time to 11.9%.
The average number of children among couples married 15-19 years also hit a record low of 1.86, driven in part by a 1.9-point rise (to 9.6%) in the share of couples with “zero” children compared to the previous survey.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
The money's there, except for a bottom segment.
The real issue is that more people have it but still choose not to have kids.
From a guy's perspective, divorce rates are high and men often can't get custody in a divorce, so it feels like marriage could all be for nothing — that's another reason not to bother. They should scrap asset division too.
Is this some kind of propaganda from the Children and Families Agency or something??
They rack up replies, so they spark flame wars.
Just another variant of the classic 'kids these days…' article.
Even with money, they're just a hassle.
Yeah, they really do become a huge ball and chain.
Like, if a zombie outbreak hit, parents would be the first to go.
You'd slow down trying to save your kid and be forced into reckless moves, so no way you'd survive.
So there's no need to actively pursue it.
The moment you start overthinking it, it's over.
Seriously, this.
The instant you start weighing pros and cons, marriage becomes impossible.
That instinct itself has gone haywire lately.
The self-preservation instinct has just gotten way too strong.
In the end, I guess they just cave to peer pressure…
you'd need to do at least that much or nothing's going to change.
A million yen isn't nearly enough. Even 10 million yen (~$70,000) wouldn't really cut it.
Doesn't matter how many money-grubbing lowlifes it attracts.
Just give 10 million yen per baby.
Scrap the Children and Families Agency and there'd be more than enough to cover it.
It's the other way around.
People can't find a partner, so they can't marry — and they use 'pros and cons' as an excuse.
High-tier men and women who land their ideal romantic partner get married and have kids. Low-tier men and women who can only date someone below their ideal just bluster about not wanting to marry or have children.
There's actually a solid amount of data on what happens to people who keep putting it off, and the conclusion is pretty consistent.
They hit an age where it's too late to do anything, get hit with intense regret, fall into self-loathing, and spend the rest of their life listless, like a burned-out husk.
What matters is that whatever choice you make, you decide and act on it yourself instead of just postponing. If you decide not to have kids and act accordingly, you'll have far fewer regrets.
Exactly this.
I've felt since my teens that I probably wouldn't marry, and now I'm 45 and single — but about 70% of my friends who also said they wouldn't marry ended up losing it once they hit their mid-30s.
We're the same age.
My kids are 20 and 18 right now.
We've lived the same number of years, but our lives turned out pretty different.
Thinking 'it's still fine for now' isn't a decision, it's just procrastination.
But whether you're a man or a woman, five years from now your odds of finding a partner under the same conditions as today will have dropped massively.
The longer you put it off, the worse your position gets and the harder it becomes.
What matters is making a clear decision.
If you're not going to do it, don't. If you're not having kids, then don't.
Decide clearly and you won't suffer over it.
It eats up your time too.
In modern society, money alone doesn't fix everything.
There's never enough time — I constantly wish I had a second body of myself.
Like the Showa-era baby boom — people were way poorer back then than now.
it's pretty pathetic.
Makes you wonder what they're even living for.
Their precious dog is the kid substitute.
It's a dog, but they spoil it rotten (the phrase literally means fawning over it like a cat).
No doubt about it.
Human kids kind of seem like little demons.
Honestly, dogs and cats are cuter than human kids, hands down.
And they never grow up to take 'dark part-time jobs' (slang for crime-ring gigs like scam or robbery jobs recruited via social media).
Specifically: money, a stable job, and social security.
If society won't provide those, there's no incentive to supply it with slaves.
Even for people whose lives are going well, kids could be exactly what drops them into ruin, so it makes sense they wouldn't want one.
If you end up with a child who needs round-the-clock medical care, your whole life basically gets poured into that…
And even kids born perfectly healthy sometimes grow up to become criminals.
I get what you're saying, but
if you avoided everything with odds lower than a traffic accident, you'd never be able to leave the house.
Choosing a spouse is something you can steer with your own judgment and how you handle the relationship, but kids come with way more uncertainty.
Build state-run orphanages and raise Japanese children there.
I wrote it myself, but yeah, 10 million yen was too much for something where you're not even the one raising the kid.
500,000 yen (~$3,500) is probably about right.
Background and key points of this discussion
The Basic Survey on Birth Trends is Japan’s largest survey on declining birthrates, conducted by the IPSS every five years among single people and married couples; this round is the first since 2021. What makes this data notable is that, against a debate over unmarried and declining birth rates that has typically been chalked up to “economic reasons,” the segment that simply doesn’t want children at all has surged in just five years. In the thread, one camp argued that “the cause isn’t money — it’s that people have started weighing marriage and childbirth in terms of costs and benefits at all,” while another argued that “boosting government payouts would solve it,” but the survey data itself can’t settle that debate. It only tracks how stated preferences have shifted over time, not the underlying change in values driving them. It’s also worth noting that the share wanting “three or more” children declined for both men and women, suggesting that anti-declining-birthrate policy may need to shift focus from just supporting marriage to motivating people to want children in the first place — a point barely touched on in the replies.
※This article is compiled as an excerpt/summary of the 5ch (Breaking News Plus) thread “Growing number of unmarried young people who don’t want children – tops 30% for first time, IPSS.”
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