Declining Birthrate and Marriage: Can Life Design Support help reverse the trend of late and non-marriage?

Rising Trends in Late and Non-Marriage

Japan’s birthrate continues to decline, accelerating the problem of a shrinking population. In recent years, there has been growing awareness that one of the primary causes of this decline is the trend toward later marriages or not marrying at all. One of the policy responses to this issue is known as “Life Design Support” (also referred to as life planning support). This article introduces the background behind these initiatives, explores their potential, and discusses their limitations.

• Providing Opportunities to Envision the Future
• Easing Anxiety about the Future
• Preventing "cannot choose" without knowing
• The Challenge of Creating Opportunities to Meet
• Combining Multiple Program Approaches

Providing Opportunities to Envision the Future

Sample Timeline for Life Design

Source: Compiled by the author

Let us first define what “life design” means. In simple terms, it refers to the process of planning one’s life—when and whether to experience key life events, and how to approach them. These life events may include entering higher education, starting a career, getting married, having children, and raising a family. They are typically major turning points in life that often come with changes in relationships and living environments.

Life Design Support refers to initiatives—mainly by local governments—to help young people explore such life events. This is done by offering opportunities to reflect on life choices through information, workshops, and seminars, as well as via printed or online materials.

For example, Kyoto Prefecture offers a program titled “Young People’s Life Design: Experiencing Work and Parenting,” which includes a workshop using timelines and stickers to simulate life planning. The stickers represent various choices, such as “working for a company” vs. “starting your own business,” or “getting married” vs. “not getting married,” to help participants visualize potential life paths ⁽³⁾ .

Saitama Prefecture has also implemented a “Life Design Development Support Project,” which includes programs such as a one-day “family study” experience in which participants visit and observe households raising children, as well as guided tours of obstetrics clinics and childcare facilities ⁽⁵⁾ .

These programs aim to combine knowledge and experience to help young people better understand both work and personal life.

Easing Anxiety about the Future

Life Design Support can help young people develop a more positive attitude toward marriage. According to a 2024 survey by the Children and Families Agency, individuals who had participated in life design education were more likely to express interest in marriage than those who had not. Among men in particular, the percentage of those who wanted to marry was around 10% higher in the group with life design learning experience.⁽³⁾。

出所：こども家庭庁（2024）「令和6年度『若者のライフデザインや出会いに関する意識調査報告書』」p.131を一部改変

Importantly, life design education may help reduce anxiety—particularly financial anxiety. In the same survey, 19.1% of participants who had become more open to marriage or childbirth after life design education cited “career planning” as a key factor, while 18.2% mentioned “financial and economic information” ⁽³⁾ . This suggests that visualizing the costs of marriage and child-rearing, and understanding how to balance family and work, played a significant role.

Preventing the Inability to Choose Due to Lack of Awareness

Another important purpose of Life Design Support is to prevent individuals from being unable to make informed choices simply because they "didn't know." The “Working Group on Life Design and Encounters Envisioned by the Younger Generation,” established by the Children and Families Agency, emphasizes the importance of providing accurate information—such as data on average age at marriage, correct knowledge about sexuality, pregnancy, and childbirth for both men and women, and information about public and private services related to marriage and child-rearing. This is to ensure that people do not base their life design on misunderstandings ⁽⁴⁾ .

This is because, without access to this information, individuals who marry or have children later in life may find it difficult to achieve their ideal balance between work and family or have the number of children they had hoped for.

One important factor to be aware of in relation to late marriage and childbirth is the relationship between fertility and age. It is widely recognized that fertility declines with age for both men and women. In women, fertility begins to gradually decline after the age of 35, and by around age 45, even with advanced reproductive technologies such as in vitro fertilization, the pregnancy rate drops to below 10% ⁽¹⁾ .For men as well, it is said that after the age of 35, aging leads to a decline in sperm count, motility, and the proportion of sperm with normal morphology ⁽⁶⁾ . Some Life Design Support programs provide information on fertility, and it has been suggested that this can serve as an opportunity for individuals to reconsider and plan their career paths accordingly ⁽¹⁾ .

 It is also important to understand the increased burden of child-rearing that can come with having children later in life. Hiramatsu (2019) conducted a Life Design course for university students, which included group work where students created life plans for hypothetical married couples. During the exercise, students came to realize things such as, “If we want to have two children and ensure they graduate from college while we still have a stable income, we’d need to have the second child soon after the first,” and “Our 30s will be much busier than we imagined” ⁽⁷⁾ . Raising multiple infants and toddlers while establishing oneself professionally can be physically demanding. It may require adjusting one’s work schedule or even lead to having fewer children than originally desired. That is why it is important to consider these factors in advance and incorporate them into one’s life design.

According to Hiramatsu (2019), most young people were not consciously aware that they would soon need to make important decisions about various life events. University students, in particular, tended to postpone marriage and childbirth, ideally waiting “until they had established their careers and reached a more settled point in life” ⁽⁷⁾ .

In order to make the life choices they truly desire, it is meaningful for young people to have opportunities for self-awareness and reflection through Life Design Support programs.

The Challenge of Creating Opportunities to Meet

While providing information and experiences to help envision future life events is valuable, these measures alone are not enough to address the issue of declining marriage rates. 

One major obstacle is the lack of opportunities to meet potential partners.

In the same 2024 survey, 29.3% of unmarried respondents cited “lack of opportunities to meet people” as a barrier to marriage, and 26.1% expressed concern about “whether they would be able to meet their ideal partner” ⁽³⁾ .

Even when people do meet, a lack of confidence and communication skills can deter progress toward a relationship. Among those who said they lacked opportunities to meet, 57.1% also stated they had low self-confidence, and 50.6% said they were not good at approaching others. This suggests that anxiety about interacting with the opposite sex is a significant barrier ⁽³⁾ .

Programs are needed that not only create opportunities to meet, but also help participants become more confident and proactive in engaging with others.

Combining Multiple Program Approaches

Life Design Support is meaningful in that it helps those who wish to marry better understand their options and take action. It holds promise as a countermeasure against the trends of late and non-marriage. However, current programs—which mostly focus on information sharing and planning—are limited in their ability to reduce anxiety about interpersonal interactions or to provide actual meeting opportunities.

To overcome this limitation, group-based discussions involving both sexes may be an effective addition.

In Hiramatsu’s (2019) workshop, students designed life plans as hypothetical married couples, discussing various topics such as “when to get married,” “whether to have a wedding ceremony,” “how many children to have,” “career decisions during childrearing,” and “whether to buy a car.” Participants said it was interesting to exchange views with people who thought differently and realized, “My way of thinking isn’t the only right one” ⁽⁷⁾ . Some even commented that “marriage is about embracing a partner’s perspective and merging it with your own” ⁽⁷⁾ .Such realizations can help people feel more open and prepared to communicate with potential partners.

In summary, Life Design Support can take many forms. The key lies in combining diverse programs into an integrated and multifaceted approach.

References

1. 1. 臼井綺海・西岡笑子（2020）「自治体におけるライフプランニング支援の現状」『防衛医科大学校雑誌』44(3・4)、pp.122-137.
2. 2. 京都府Webサイト「ライフデザインワークショップ」https://www.pref.kyoto.jp/shoshi/lifedesignlabo.html　（閲覧日：2025年4月24日）.
3. 3. こども家庭庁（2024）「令和6年度『若者のライフデザインや出会いに関する意識調査報告書』」　https://www.cfa.go.jp/policies/shoushika#chosakenkyu　（閲覧日：2025年4月24日）.
4. 4. こども家庭庁（2024）「若い世代の描くライフデザインや出会いを考えるワーキンググループ　議論のまとめ（中間報告）」　https://www.cfa.go.jp/councils/lifedesign-wg　（閲覧日：2025年4月30日）
5. 5. 埼玉県（2021）『ライフデザインガイドブック』https://www.pref.saitama.lg.jp/a0607/r2_lifedesign.html （閲覧日：2025年4月24日）.
6. 6. 日本生殖医学会「よくあるご質問　男性の加齢は不妊症・流産にどんな影響を与えるのですか？」　http://www.jsrm.or.jp/public/funinsho_qa25.html （閲覧日：2025年4月24日）.
7. 7. 平松紀代子（2019）「ライフデザインする力をはぐくむ試み」『滋賀大学教育実践研究論集』1、pp.9-16.

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