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東京大学公共政策大学院 | GraSPP / Graduate School of Public Policy | The university of Tokyo

Medically Assisted Reproduction in Japan: Prevalence and Socioeconomic Differentials January 10, 2025

GraSPP Research Seminar

Abstract

In East Asian societies, very low levels of fertility reflect the trend toward later and less marriage. Because non-marital childbearing remains rare in East Asia, the well-established relationship between biological age and fecundity means that later age at marriage and childbearing results in increasing concerns about infertility and increasing use of medically assisted reproduction (MAR). To this end, Japan holds the global record for the highest volume of MAR activity and the Japanese government now provides some public insurance coverage for fertility treatment as part of its broader policy response to concerns about low fertility. While MAR opens new possibilities for fulfilling childbearing aspirations for infertile couples, it also introduces a potentially new socio-economic divide. Using data collected from five rounds of the nationally representative Japanese National Fertility Survey (JNFS), conducted between 2002 and 2021, this study aims to shed new light on the prevalence of infertility among first-married Japanese couples and explore potential socio-economic disparities in experiencing infertility, using MAR, and achieving a birth after having used treatment.

Date & time

Friday, January 10th | 15:00-16:30 (JST)

Venue

Seminar Room 2 (Kojima Hall),1st floor, Economics Research Annex, Hongo Campus, The University of Tokyo (MAP)

and Zoom online

Registration

For those who will participate online, please register from the link below.

REGISTRATION

Speaker’s information

James Raymo
Professor, Department of Sociology, Princeton University

James Raymo is Professor of Sociology and the Henry Wendt III Professor of East Asian Studies at Princeton University. Raymo is a social demographer whose research focuses on documenting and understanding the causes and potential consequences of demographic changes associated with population aging in Japan. His published research includes analyses of marriage timing, divorce, recession and fertility, marriage and women’s health, single mothers’ well-being, living alone, family change and social inequality, employment and health at older ages, and regional differences in health at older ages. He is currently engaged in three projects: In the first, he uses newly-available survey data to examine the socioeconomic and family correlates of children’s academic performance, personal relationships, and emotional health. This is a collaborative project involving scholars addressing similar questions in China and Korea. In the second project, he is examining the social, cultural, economic, and policy factors underlying striking demographic similarities among countries in East Asia and Southern Europe, with a particular focus on the roles of gender inequality, family ties, and the growing unpredictability of the life course. He is chairing a scientific panel on this subject sponsored by the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population. In the third project, he is working with colleagues in Japan to document the well-being of single mothers and their children and to understand the ways in which intergenerational coresidence and intrafamilial exchanges of support may (or may not) offset some of the disadvantages faced by unmarried mothers.

His research has been published in leading U.S. journals such as American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Demography, Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, and Journal of Marriage and Family as well as in Japanese journals. Raymo serves on the board of directors of the Population Association of America and is an associate editor of Journals of Gerontology: Social Sciences and Demography. He earned his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Michigan in 2000.