At this rate Japan's population will be halved over the next 100 years. The reason for the decline is that more women are remaining unmarried, and those that do marry and have children are doing so later. Previous discussions of the declining birthrate tended to attribute it to the burden that raising children places on women. But the white paper and other recent commentary have shifted the focus from the baby bust itself to the lack of enthusiasm among women for marriage. But this was only true back in the times when housework was very time-consuming.
Corporate managers are more tolerant of employees who remain unmarried, whether male or female.
Parents have also become less determined to get their offspring married. The fathers of many of today's potential brides and grooms devoted themselves entirely to their companies and paid little attention to their families, leaving their wives to handle all the housework and child-rearing responsibilities on their own. These women are now regretting the way they have spent their lives. When today's young women look at their own parents they find it hard to dream of marital bliss for themselves. As the authors of the white paper explain it, they have learned from their mothers' experiences what a burden it is for a woman to be a homemaker.