A government survey showed Thursday that 52.6% of Japanese people responding to a survey said it is easy for them to have and raise children in their home country, up 5 percentage points from the previous poll in 2005 but considerably lower than the United States and European countries.
According to the five-nation survey by the Cabinet Office on a society with fewer children, the figure stood at 97.1% in Sweden, 75.5% in the United States, 72% in France, and 16.2% in South Korea.
Please pray for Christian churches and Christian families that they may model good examples of parenting as well as giving Biblical instruction on marriage, family, and childrearing.
The Cabinet Office attributed the increase in Japan to the government’s support for families raising children, such as measures to eliminate the waiting lists for children to get into nursery facilities.
The survey was conducted from October through December last year on 1,000 men and women aged 20 to 49 in the five countries.
The survey also showed 48.8% of Japanese people said they want to have more children, lower than 86.3% in Sweden and 79.5% in the United States.
As for reasons given by Japanese people who do not want to have more children, 44.6% cited economic burdens in raising kids, while 50.5% wanted a more stable employment environment as a measure to support people who want to marry.