POPULATION-JAPAN: Preference for Girls Upsetting Tradition

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Jan 30 2003 (IPS) - Mika Hiratsuka, 30, is having a baby and she is praying that it will be a girl.

"This is the only child I am going to have so it better be a girl. Daughters are easy to rear and fun to have," remarks Hiratsuka, who owns a shop that sells used clothes.

The yearning for baby girls over boys is no longer a secret in Japan, a country that puts heavy emphasis on the male child as the heir and protector of the family name.

Statistics indicate that the sentiment is getting stronger among younger couples, mostly on the part of the wives who cite closer communication with daughters more than with sons as the most important reason for the preference.

The National Institute of Population, based on surveys taken every five years, report a steady increase in the choice for girls over boys both among married couples and single people.

In the latest survey in 1998 – it is done once in five years – 75 percent of singled women polled, up from 51 percent in 1982, expressed the desire for a baby girl in a one-child family. The trend is expected to continue this year, when the next survey is due to come out.

Among married couples, 64 percent of wives said they would prefer daughters compared to 22 percent among husbands. The survey covered 9,407 singles and 8,148 married couples.

"There is definitely a strong inclination for girls, especially among women. The choice has become clearer as birth rates keep dropping," says Ryuichi Kaneko of the population institute.

Experts on the issue say the trend will continue as Japan’s birth rates continue to decline – there was a record decrease to 1.33 children per family in 2001.

More Japanese are also opting to have smaller families for economic and social reasons. Japan’s high living costs have made education for children prohibitively expensive – around 200,000 U.S. dollars per child till university graduation.

The delay in marriage – an average of 29 years of age for women and childbirth at up to 36 years of age, according to some surveys – has also contributed to the low birth rates.

The desire to have a daughter is particularly strong among single women who want a child without getting married, adds Takayo Yamamoto of the Hakuhodo Research Institute, a think tank.

"In our surveys, we found women in their twenties and thirties setting marriage at the age of 37 years and having a child at 36 years. The trend points to some important social changes for women in Japan,” Yamamoto notes.

Often, the reasons they gave for preferring a daughter included closer communication between mothers and daughters, the greater likelihood of daughters looking after ageing parents – and the prospect of them doing things like shopping together.

"Japanese women have had to carry the responsibility of nurturing the family, mostly on her own as her husband concentrates on his job. Having daughters make it easier for her because they are of the same sex," says Yamamoto.

Mimura Masako, who has two daughters and a son, says she loves all her children but has a closer relationship with her daughters. ”We share similar interests that will last through my old age,” says the 53-year-old mother.

If the preference for daughters does give rise to more women, Yamamoto envisages a society where Japanese women, long resigned to playing a subservient role to men, will be valued more on an equal basis.

"I am not saying with the growing desire for girls, Japan will be ready to accept women as equal partners,” she says. ”But definitely as more women assert their choice for daughter and their husbands agree, there is going to be a change of attitude toward women," she says.

For example, she points out, the younger generation does not think it strange that the current heirs to the imperial family, which epitomises Japan’s lofty and age-old traditions, has only daughters.

Japanese laws define that there must be a male heir to the historic Chrysanthemum throne. But Crown Prince Naruhito and his wife, Masako, have a princess as their first born.

For all the increasing preference for girls however, analysts point out that this will not alter Japan’s demographics because it is but an expression of people’s wishes and thoughts – a far cry from going farther than expressing a choice.

"There is no evidence of abortions to eliminate male children, for instance. I see no big change in the current gender balance in Japanese population," says Kaneko.

At present, Japan’s 127 million population is divided almost equally between the sexes with males comprising a slightly higher proportion.

But a look into Japanese websites and publications show that more and more people are seeking information on how to increase their chances for having a daughter. Advice on sexual techniques, nutritional tips such as a special vegetable diet for women,and various tests are offered by doctors and other experts

On Friday, a book on how to successfully select the female gender for a child the natural way will hit the stands. Katsuhiro Nakagaki, a gynaecologist, says his method uses the natural bio-rhythm selection process.

In the end though, mothers’ preferences for daughters may also be a reflection of what they lack in family life in this male-dominated society.

Says Nakagaki: "The letters from readers talk about how they look forward to having a warm cosy relationship with their daughters. There are many women who seek marital fulfillment through their daughters.”