The chapters in this volume originated from papers presented at the International Conference on Low Fertility and Reproductive Health in East and Southeast Asia, organized by the Nihon University Population Research Institute (NUPRT) in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP), and the Mainichi Daily Newspaper. The conference took place in Tokyo, Japan, from 12 to 14 November 2008 and brought together more than 50 experts from such fields as demography, economics, sociology, anthropology, and medicine.A\We are grateful for the financial support received under the "Academic Frontier Project" for Private Universities: matching fund subsidy from MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology), 2006-2010, granted to the Nihon University Population Research Institute (NUPRI). We also wish to express our gratitude for the sustained support of Nihon University and the World Health Organization at all stages of the project and in organizing the 2008 conference on which this publication is based. In addition, in preparing this book we have received outstanding logistical support from NUPRI's staff, including Ilja Musulin, Maki Ogawa and Naomi Makabe. We gratefully acknowledge the support received from the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP) and the helpful comments and suggestions of the IUSSP reviewer of the manuscript. We also thank the reviewers of each chapter included in this volume and Dr. Robert Retherford, who assisted the editors in reviewing multiple versions of many of the chapters. Last but not least, Sandra Ward has effectively helped us edit the manuscript. Tokyo, Japan:Naohiro Ogawa, Boston, USA:Iqbal H. Shah

1.Introduction 1

2.Social Norms, Institutions, and Policies in Low-Fertility Countries 11

3.Very Low Fertility and the High Costs of Children and the Elderly in East Asia 31

4.The Effects of Day care Center Use on Marital Fertility in Japan 59

5.What Are the Prospects for Continued Low Fertility in Japan? 75

6.Low Fertility: Choice or Chance? 101

7.Trends in Male Reproductive Health and Decreasing Fertility: Possible Influence of Endocrine Disrupters 117

8.The Sexual Behavior of Adolescents and Young Adults in Japan 137

9.Sexless Marriages in Japan: Prevalence and Reasons 161

10.Community-Level Effects on the Use of Reproductive Health Services in Rural China 187

Index 211

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