In Japan, 27% of women born in 1970 have not experienced any live births by the time they were 50 years of age, according to statistics from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. This is by far the biggest share among 17 countries with comparable data, the closest being Finland at 20.7%.

Austria and Spain ranked third and fourth, respectively. The OECD data does not include Germany, but the country’s official statistics show that 21% of women born in 1969 remain childless.

There are 24 countries with comparable data for women born in 1965. Among that group, Japan once again takes the lead on childless women, at 22.1%.

Western European countries have managed to contain the surge of childless individuals by offering assistance toward balancing work and family life. The share of childless women has declined outright in the US and the UK, according to some reports.

But Japan remains an outlier, even among younger generations. For Japanese women born in 2000, between 31.6% to 39.2% will remain childless throughout their life, depending on whether or not the status quo on birth rates holds, according to estimates from the Tokyo-based National Institute of Population and Social Security Research (IPSS).

Rie Moriizumi, senior researcher at IPSS, found that women remain childless due to difficulty in getting married, a preference not to have children, because they are putting off having children, or due to infertility or health reasons. The findings are based on survey responses collected by the institute.

In recent years, the share of Japanese women remaining childless due to problems getting married has jumped, becoming the top reason among women between the ages of 25 to 49.

It appears that one major hurdle to marriage is finding a suitable partner with adequate financial resources.

Women who prefer not to have kids make up the second-biggest contingent among childless women. Moriizumi estimates that about 5% of all women have made that choice, and the numbers have especially grown among younger generations.

Unmarried women are more likely to decide against having children if they have low incomes or have not found a partner.

“This suggests that more women have given up rather than actively choosing” not to have children, said Moriizumi.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government is expected to expand financial support given to families with children. Advocates have called for increased social welfare benefits for part-time workers, as well as labour reforms that help parents balance child rearing with their work life. Lowering educational costs has also emerged as an imperative policy goal.

The group born between 1965 and 1970, which has a particularly large share of childless members, was the first generation to experience the effects of equal employment opportunity legislation enacted in 1986.

Though more women entered the workforce, a lack of measures to help balance work and family forced many to choose between leaving their jobs to raise a family or foregoing children to continue their careers, leading to a decline in births.

“As women stopped making marrying and raising children their top priorities in order to develop their careers, marriage and childbirth were increasingly deferred, and more people had no children,” said Toshihiko Hara, professor emeritus at Sapporo City University, who has studied childlessness in Germany and Japan.

Some experts warn that the rise in childlessness could fray Japan’s social fabric.

Tokyo Metropolitan University professor Aya Abe conducted quantitative research to show that having no children often leads to an insufficient social support network.

Using data from IPSS, Abe found that a large percentage of individuals without children did not have daily support, such as help with small tasks, or emotional support, such as someone to vent to.

Men, especially poor men, suffered more from a lack of such support.

“Research in Europe shows that childless individuals in family-oriented countries are more likely to become isolated,” Abe said.

“We rely heavily on family for support here in Japan. With isolation becoming a major social issue, it is imperative that we create a society where people can live worry-free.”