Doctors warn US is barreling towards same fertility crisis as Japan – where one in 10 men in their 30s are VIRGINS and third of women will be childless

Claims that the world is becoming “overcrowded” have been in the zeitgeist for decades, but it’s the lack of new babies that really worries experts.

Japan announced this week that as many as a third of 18-year-old women may never have children due to a “sex recession” that has hung over the country for decades.

One in ten Japanese men in their thirties is still a virginNL The country’s fertility rate fell from 1.5 in 1992 to 1.34 births per woman in 2020.

The lack of babies being born is already having practical implications: Japan’s economy has ground to a halt and the country has lost its place as an economic superpower.

And experts warn that the US is headed in the same direction, where fertility rates are at historic lows.

In addition to having one of the lowest birth rates in the world, Japan also has one of the highest life expectancies, which means the country is left with a rapidly aging society, a shrinking workforce and fewer taxpayers.

Experts told DailyMail.com that America faces a host of problems, such as a slump in economic growth and difficulties for pension systems, if the birth rate does not rise.

During a baby boom in the mid-20th century, the average woman in the US had three to four children.

Today, that rate stands at just 1.6 — the lowest since records were first tracked in 1800.

And there is “nothing in the data to indicate that this trend will reverse any time soon,” Dr. Phillip Levine, an economics professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, told DailyMail.com.

He added that financial incentives – such as those promised in Japan for families with three or more children – are “unsuccessful” in significantly increasing a country’s birth rate, and that we may “have to learn to live in a world where the birth rate is high’. low.’

In January 2023, Japan increased its financial incentives, offering 1 million yen ($7,500) per child to families moving from Greater Tokyo.

It was in addition to existing moving costs of 300,000 yen ($2,000). It’s too early to say if it will make a lasting difference, but experts aren’t optimistic.

Dr. Stuart Fischer, a physician of internal medicine in New York, told DailyMail.com that a public mindset shift is needed with Americans seeing sex as a productive activity for the common good and having more “purposeful” sex to increase sex . the birth rate.

If the birth rate drops below one, it means the population is starting to shrink.

In Japan, the declining birth rate has been attributed to a declining need for marriage and parenthood and rising financial concerns, leading couples to question whether they can afford children.

It’s also due to a vicious cycle of fewer children who then have fewer children, says Takuya Hoshino, a senior economist at the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute.

Because people have fewer children, they can spend more on each child than families did in the past. That drives up the average cost of raising a child for the wider population, deterring some people from having children, he said.

Similar problems are attributed in the US, as well as women prioritizing careers and the rise of fertility treatments, leading many to believe they can wait.

But Dr. Levine said the evidence for these theories “isn’t really that great” and admitted that researchers don’t have a “good understanding” of why American women are having fewer children.

“States where housing costs are rising more or childcare costs are rising more are not having birth rates falling faster than other states,” he said.

Massachusetts, for example, has the most expensive child care, but has the fourth lowest fertility rate in the United States.

“It doesn’t seem like it’s about the finances; it seems like it’s about what people want in their lives.’

He said: “The Great Recession definitely got the ball rolling in the US and births are routinely linked to economic activity. But when the recession was over, births did not recover, but continued to fall. So that clearly played a role in the beginning, but not a lasting role because the recession was over.’

Instead, Dr. Levine thinks the falling birth rate is likely due to “changing preferences, life goals and aspirations” among women and their partners.

“Marriage and having children may not be as high of a priority among the more recent waves as they are among young people, as they have been in the past,” he said, adding that this is not “country-specific.”

An erosion of religious principles could also be a factor, Dr. Fischer said.

In Japan, the number of children has been falling for more than 40 years, which has a disastrous effect on GDP and productivity.

Japan’s population of 126.15 million in 2020 is expected to fall to 87 million by 2070, according to the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.

In China, the infamous one-child policy had catastrophic consequences. It has been described as the worst policy in history and caused China’s fertility rate to plummet by more than half, from 5.8 births per woman in 1970 to 2.7 births per woman in 1979.

And the consequences are still being felt. Government estimates show that China’s fertility rate will fall to a record low of 1.09 by 2022 – the lowest of any country with more than 100 million people.

A declining birth rate is detrimental to a country for several reasons. Fewer births mean fewer workers, which “impacts economic activity and economic growth,” Dr. Levine said.

“It causes problems for pension systems based on paying benefits to current retirees,” he said, as well as difficulties “in funding and managing a school system.”

Dr. Fischer agreed that the reasons for America’s declining birth rate are sociological.

“People are more anxious than ever,” he said. ‘People are in more desperate circumstances; the economy is obviously very, very unstable. This is not the situation that would have occurred after winning a world war, let’s say, where you are happy and want to start a family. This is the antithesis of that.’

The rising cost of living has deterred people from starting families, Dr Fischer said.

He also noted how dating has changed over the years. “It used to be arranged marriages,” he said.

Dr. Fischer said the pandemic, advancements in technology and increased use of the internet have caused people to become “more isolated.”

“It’s easier to get isolated from society on the internet… and you don’t really want to go out because you’re depressed,” he said, pointing to America’s growing mental health crisis, which has affected one in five adults is currently clinically depressed. .

He added that rising obesity rates could have an impact on both men’s and women’s fertility.

“When you have obese men, the balance between testosterone and estrogen is not correct, so fertility problems can arise,” he said.