Regarding the article entitled "The true cost of fertility treatment in Japan" in the June 21 edition, the difficulty and time-consuming nature of these treatments, their costs, and the anguish that is often experienced by the couples who resort to them will ensure that they can be little more than a boutique solution to the problem of infertility and no solution at all to the problem of Japan's shrinking population.
The most important statistic in the article was the average age at which Japanese women bear their first child: 30.6. That figure represents a huge period of missed reproductive opportunity. Any effort to maintain population needs to be directed at encouraging couples to marry earlier and start having children at a younger age.
Professor Yasunori Yoshimura's contention that Japan's infertility crisis will not be resolved "unless we create a society in which women can work and raise children," misses the larger point that raising children is work, especially in the early years. The well-to-do can afford to pay for the services, such as quality day care and nannies, that will relieve them of some — though by no means all — of this work. The average couple, however, must struggle on without such luxuries.
Inevitably, the cry arises that the government must help families afford these services. Where, however, with the many strains that are already placed on public funds, will the money for this support be found?
Japan will not adequately address the depopulation crisis until it comes to grips with the forces ranged against early marriage and childbirth.
The opinions expressed in this letter to the editor are the writer's own and do not necessarily reflect the policies of The Japan Times.
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