The National Institute of Population and Social Security Research (IPSS) estimated in a report that 33.4% of women born in 2005 would be childless. The number of children in Japan has been falling for more than four decades as the appetite for marriage and parenting has waned and financial worries have grown, surveys show. That trend could itself be causing a vicious cycle of fewer children begetting fewer children, said Takuya Hoshino, senior economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute. As people have fewer children, they are able to spend more on each child than families have in the past. That drives up the average cost of raising a child for the broader population, putting some people off from having children, he said.

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Persons: Eita Sato, Aoi Hoshi, Issei Kato, Fumio Kishida, Anna Tanaka, Miho Iwasawa, Iwasawa, Takuya Hoshino, IPSS, Satoshi Sugiyama, Chang, Ran Kim, Robert Birsel Organizations: Junior High School, REUTERS, Rights, National Institute of Population, Social Security Research, Kyodo, Reuters, Dai, Research, Thomson Locations: Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, one's