This book examines the trends underlying factors and policy implications of fertility
declines in three East Asian countries: Japan South Korea and China. In contrast to Western
countries that have also experienced fertility declines to below-replacement levels fertility
decline in these East Asian countries is most notable in its rapidity and sheer magnitude.
After a rapid decline shortly after the war in which fertility was halved in one decade from
4.5 children per woman in 1947 to 2.1 in 1957 Japan's fertility started to decline to
below-replacement levels in the mid-1970s reaching 1.3 per woman in the early 2000s. Korea
experienced one of the most spectacular declines ever recorded with fertility falling
continuously from very high (6.0 per woman) to a below-replacement level (1.6 per woman)
between the early 1960s and mid-1980s reaching 1.1 per woman in 2005. Similarly after a
dramatic decline from very high to low levels in one decade from the early 1970s to early 1980s
China's fertility reached around 1.5 per woman by 2005. Despite differences in timing tempo
and scale of fertility declines dramatic fertility reductions have resulted in extremely rapid
population aging and foreshadow a long-term population decline in all three countries. This
monograph provides a systematic comparison of fertility transitions in these East Asian
countries and discusses the economic social and cultural factors that may account for their
similarities and differences. After an overview of cultural backgrounds economic
transformations and the evolution of policies the trends and age patterns of fertility are
examined. The authors then investigate changes in women's marriage and childbearing within
marriage the two major direct determinants of fertility followed by an analysis of the social
and economic factors underlying fertility and nuptiality changes such as education women's
employment and gender relations at home.
