JAPAN: Fertility Clinics Boon to Women in Conservative Society

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Jul 12 2002 (IPS) - Japanese nurse Kuniko Nakayama recalls the darkest days of her life — the time she had tried but failed to get pregnant.

“I had been married a year and had not conceived yet. My in-laws blamed my job and pressured me to quit — which I didn’t do — and the result was that life turned into a long hell,” says the 55-year-old widow.

Childless Nakayama was forced to give up her inheritance — the house owned by her husband — after his death on the grounds, according to her parents-in-law, that she had no offspring.

“I was devastated,” she recalls, pointing out the lack of sympathy for her personal loneliness and her inability to bear a child, which became a major issue against her by her husband’s family.

Today, women like Nakayama would find comfort in the fact that there are more options for those who want to have children. Indeed, fertility treatments, which were uncommon in her time, have now become a huge business in Japan.

According to the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, a couple on average spends five million yen (41,700 U.S. dollars) over three years for in-vitro fertilisation, a process where fertilisation occurs in a laboratory after eggs and sperm have been collected from a couple. Embryos are later transferred to the uterus to continue growth.

The society reports that there are 474 medical institutions, including university hospitals and privately owned clinics in Japan, offering fertility treatments. This is compared with 20 in Britain and 350 in the United States.

Analysts attribute the proliferation of fertility clinics to Japan’s s high infertility rate, coupled with the immense pressure on women to produce heirs to continue the family line – in a society where population growth rate is but 0.2 percent and where there are just nine births per 1,000 people.

“Despite Japan’s rapid modernisation, traditions die hard. Women believe they must have children to gain social respect,” explains activist Keiko Ochiai, who started Crayon House, a women’s library.

Increasingly popular here are amulets, alternative medicine and various other methods that offer treatment for infertility, a sign of the importance many put on having children and finding ways for infertile couples to bear them.

In-vitro fertilisation appears to be the most popular fertility treatment. In 2000, more than 11,000 babies were born in Japan through this kind of treatment – or 15 percent of the total number worldwide.

Ochiai explains that the notion of the ‘perfect family’: mother, father, and two children — is at the centre of the social pressure on women.

Women who cannot fit into this mold in Japan’s conservative society are automatically outsiders, a situation that many find hard to cope with, she says.

Activists say one sign of this discrimination against women unable to have children can be seen in the Japanese term for infertility, ‘funin’, which made is up of the character ‘fu’ meaning “not able” and ‘nin’ meaning “woman’s work”.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare estimates that one in 10 couples suffers from infertility in Japan. The situation has alarmed the government, already worried about falling birth rates partly due to the conscious decision of some couples not to have children.

This has prompted some groups to set up new hotlines to provide advice on treatment options for those wanting to have children.

A survey last year by the ministry reveals that adoption is not a favourable option in Japan. Only 0.3 percent of the polled 350 couples, whose in-vitro fertilisation treatment failed, say they considered that option.

Late marriages, stressful careers, and medical problems including low sperm counts in men, a newly discovered trend, are the main causes for high rates of infertility in Japan.

In August last year, Japan’s oldest mom, a 60-year-old woman, gave birth to her first baby using ovum donated by an American woman. The woman, who married in her fifties and whose identity is kept a secret, called her baby a “godsend”.

Despite the social pressure against women who cannot give birth, younger women have recently begun speak out about the subject.

New websites have been launched by women who suffer from infertility. Comments posted on a website called ‘The Tadpole Pond’, are a frank revelation by childless mothers talking about their mental suffering.

“I have been trying for ten years. I am tired and worried,” writes Momo, who describes herself as being in her thirties.

Another woman, Mikarin, says: “After four years of marriage, we have learnt that both of us are having infertility problems. It was such a shock to be told this but we are now learning to try to enjoy life again while trying hard to have a child.”

Comments by men are posted on the site as well. “I was diagnosed as sterile because of low sperm count,” writes a 20-year old man who says he is glad he can now share his problem with others.

In many ways, observers say the delayed pregnancy of Princess Masako — she gave birth to a princess in December after eight years of marriage — has helped ease somewhat the deeply-entrenched conservative views about child-bearing.

“But still the issue is deep-rooted and causes women much pain and stress. We need a more open Japan where women are not judged by their reproductive abilities,” argues Ochiai.