More men in Japan becoming fathers at 40 and beyond, highlighting need for support

TOKYO -- More and more men are becoming fathers in their 40s and older in Japan. As fathers get older, they tend to be stressed not only by child care, but also by "double care" for their elderly parents, on top of increasing responsibilities at work. A support group points out that measures are needed to prevent such fathers from becoming isolated.

According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's Vital Statistics, 122,161 fathers of children born out of wedlock in 2022 were in their 40s or older -- 1.4 times the figure recorded in 2002. This represents 16% of all fathers in Japan. Meanwhile, those in their 20s stood at 190,578, 25% of the total and less than half the figure recorded 20 years ago. The biggest group was formed by those in their 30s at 438,835 (58%).

Behind these figures is a trend toward getting married and having children later in life. According to the statistics, the average age for men to become fathers was 28.3 in 1975, but exceeded 30 in 1995 and hit 32.9 in 2022.

The "lifetime unmarried rate," denoting the percentage of people who are not married by the age of 50, has also risen markedly. According to the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, the rate for men stood at 12.57% in 2000, but in 2020 it had surged to 28.25%.

Yasuhiro Kozaki, a professor of child care studies at Osaka Kyoiku University, commented, "The reality is that regular, high-income earners are more likely to get married than low-income earners in nonregular positions. It is possible that people have a desire to marry but are finding it difficult to do so for economic and other reasons."

In September 2023, the nonprofit organization Fathering Japan launched its "Senior Papa Project," which aims to disseminate information and promote interaction between men who become fathers at an older age as their numbers increase.

The nonprofit defines "senior papa" as fathers who are 45 years old or older and have a newborn baby (including a second or later child). Tetsuya Ando, the group's representative director, said, "Older fathers often have no one around them with whom they can talk about their problems, making it easy for them to become isolated. It's necessary to increase the number of places where they can casually talk to each other."

(Japanese original by Mari Sakane, Digital News Group, and Tatsuro Ando, Business News Department)