KENYATTA UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL: HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT: GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

UNIT CODE: AGD 403

UNIT NAME: GENDER, POPULATION AND RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

TUTOR: DR. LODIAGA

NAME REG NO. SIGN

EVERLINE OTIENO C69/0778/2015

BILSOME LAMWENYA C69s/18437/2014

MAURINE MUSAVI C69/0708/2015

MOUREEN YUMBI C69/0717/2015

TASK: EXPLAIN THE GENDER RELATED FACTORS ON POPULATION PYRAMID

IN JAPAN BASED ON FERTILITY RATE, DEATH RATE AND MIGRATION.

Introduction

Fertility rate refers to the total number of children that would be born to each woman if she lives

to the end of her child bearing years and give birth to children in alignment with prevailing age

specific fertility rates. Death rate is a measure of the number of deaths in a particular population,

scaled to the size of the population, per unit time. Mortality rate is typically expressed in units of

deaths per 1000 individuals per year. Net migration refers to the number of immigrants minus the

number of emigrants over a period, divided by the person-years lived by the population of the

receiving country over that period. It is expressed as net number of migrants per 1,000

population.

Interpretation of the population pyramid in Japan

Japan is experiencing a negative population growth of -0.2%. Japan’s total fertility rate is 1.4. As

Japan’s age-sex pyramid shows, the country has a huge number of elderly and middle-age adults

with majority of the people aged between 30 and 70 years. There’s also significant number of

people especially women over 90 years in Japan indicating longer life expectancy. The country is

experiencing a dearth in the number of babies and children.

Explanation of the population pyramid in Japan

Japan, which is known as a developed and industrialized country with high accessibility for

technology and higher education, is not an exception of countries which hold demographic

concerns resulting from remarkable fertility decline. The demographic concerns have been rather

very serious in Japan, holding low fertility rate and high percentages of the elderly people. The

following are some of the root causes of low fertility rate:

a) Increase in awareness and availability of contraception and family planning services.

As birth control becomes more socially acceptable and legitimate, more women can control their

own fertility and can strategically and responsibly control their family planning. Oral

contraception is more often used by women, allowing women to control their reproduction.

b) Increase in age at time of marriage.

Women consider postponing children to be a matter of choice, while researchers refer to these

decisions as 'shifts in timing' in having children, which directly relate to the perception of a 'time

limit' (Morgan and Taylor, 2006). Shifts in fertility timing, however seemingly insignificant in

the short term, lead to much larger timing gaps over the long term. A sustained increase in shifts

over a long period of time is untenable for a society. The length of time for which women and

men chose to remain single has been increasing because they are choosing to take more time to

pursue their education and prefer to enjoy their single lives. Those with a higher degree have

more employment options, causing them to focus on their careers for a time before they

eventually start a family. The time when women start to consider having children or are ready to

have children is later than before, narrowing the time limits for child bearing and negatively

impacting the total fertility rate.

c) Financial Costs and Time Costs.

There are direct and indirect financial and time costs for women of raising children. Children are

regarded as a financial burden rather than an asset, due to educational and time costs. Expenses

for raising a child are exceptionally high in Japan, and in addition to the obvious increased food

and educational costs associated with raising more children, a second child means that parents

must provide more living space, possibly even moving into a bigger place to live in order to

accommodate an extra person. Raising children takes up most of women's time, causing them to

miss out on career opportunities. The time cost of raising each additional child is also high,
especially for women who suspend or resign from their careers in order to devote the necessary

time toward their children, which has negative financial consequences (Morgan, 2004). Each

subsequent child widens the gap between the time when the woman ends her previous career and

the time she eventually tries to reenter the workforce.

d) Overall life course.

Fertility decisions are shaped and affected by the overall life courses of women and men. Factors

that affect couples’ life courses and fertility decisions include mental and physical health

conditions, economic and social reasons, and individual choices. The lower birth rates has also

been contributed by the strict social codes. Only 2% babies are born outside marriage compared

to 30-50% in most rich countries. Japanese women are not expected to have children without

being married (Atho, 2008).

e) Increase in level of education especially of girls and women.

Today more women are pursuing higher education than ever before. Parents want their daughters

to have the same educational opportunities as their sons, which could either lead to better career

opportunities, or more opportunities for their daughters to meet men who are educated. Those

with a higher degree have more employment options, causing Japanese women to focus on their

careers for a time before eventually starting a family. Japanese women feel that after a certain

point, it is too late to have children, and as a result they do not even see the point of marrying, so

more Japanese women are electing to remain single, even if they desire to marry and have

children.