ABSTRACT
Japan’s total fertility rate stood at 1.32 in 2005, very far indeed from the 2.08 required to maintain the population at a steady level. In 1989 the fertility rate fell to 1.57, below the figure recorded in 1966, the last “year of the fiery horse.”1 The realization that a fertility rate which looked like a drastic but temporary fall just 20 years ago was now the norm provoked a wave of panic that came to be called the “1.57 shock.” That shock prompted the government to start work on policies to combat the falling fertility rate. The 1990s saw a series of government initiatives such as the “angel plan,” the “new angel plan,” a new system of childcare leave, and the Basic Law for a Gender-equal Society, among other attempts to counteract the falling fertility rate. Even so, the fertility rate has continued below replacement rate for over 30 years now, and in 2006, a year earlier than forecast, the population itself started to decline.
