Exit, voice, and family policy in Japan: limited changes despite broad recognition of the declining fertility problem

Abstract

Japanese policymakers have been troubled by the ‘declining fertility problem’ for two decades, ever since a sharp drop in births raised public awareness of the issue in 1990. This article explores why it took a full decade before government officials diagnosed the problem and called for a shift toward gender-egalitarian labour market policies in order to reverse the fertility decline. It also asks why the prescribed changes have yet to be adopted, despite continued hand-wringing over fertility rates. Both delays, it argues, stem from the ability of Japanese women — who began entering the workforce in an era when they had already gained full control of their fertility — to ‘exit’ from the work—family reconciliation challenge by postponing or opting out of motherhood. This deprived the reform movement of the ‘voice’ needed to transform male breadwinner structures that are rooted not only in public policies, but also in private sector practices.