A Comparison of the Determinants of Low Marital Fertility between Korea and Japan

Using panel survey data with comparable variables, this study tests whether certain sets of hypotheses that are related to rational-choice and purposive-action theories of birth behavior hold in Korea as well as in Japan. We found many commonalities although the magnitude of the effects of the determinants of fertility differs. First, the negative interaction effect between parity and income on fertility rate predicted by Gary Becker’s theory exists for both Japan and Korea. The theory is supported more strongly for Korea than for Japan, however. This indicates that policies to reduce the costs of attaining “high-quality children,” such as the expenses of high-quality education and daycare, will be effective in raising fertility, but more efficiently so in Korea than in Japan.

Second, we found that the availability of childcare leave increases the rate of marital fertility in both Japan and Korea. This tendency, however, holds more strongly in Japan than in Korea and indicates that childcare leave policies in Japan have been more successful than their Korean counterparts in raising fertility.