Over 40% of Japanese see no need to have children: survey

TOKYO, Dec. 5 Kyodo -
A record high 42.8 percent of Japanese people do not feel the need to have
children after marriage, with more than 60 percent of women in their 20s and
30s saying so, a government survey showed Saturday.
The headline figure was up 6.0 percentage points from the previous poll in
August 2007, the Cabinet Office said in the latest survey, which also showed
68.2 percent of women in their 20s and 61.4 percent of those in their 30s did
not see having children as essential to their marriage.
According to the survey, 46.5 percent of women and 38.7 percent of men do not
see having kids after marriage as essential.
For men, 56.6 percent of those in their 20s and 56.3 percent of those in their
30s gave an affirmative answer to the question ''Do you think it is not always
necessary to have children after you get married?''
The Cabinet Office also asked whether women should continue working after they
have children and a record 45.9 percent of respondents, up 2.5 points, agreed,
followed by 31.3 percent who said women should return to work after their
children have grown up.
The results showed a growing recognition in Japan that marriage should not
limit women's work opportunities, but also revealed that government support
continues to fall short because 63.3 percent called for government support to
enable women to work even when they need to take care of their kids or elderly
relatives, up 7.6 points from the previous poll.
In the survey, 70.0 percent of respondents said marriage is a personal choice,
the third highest level ever, while 55.1 percent opposed the conventional idea
that husbands should work and wives should stay home to take care of the
family, up 3.0 points from the previous survey.
The government conducted the nationwide survey covering 5,000 people aged 20 or
older in October, of which 64.8 percent responded through interviews.
==Kyodo