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In this review of research on gender and low fertility, I develop three main categories: (1) studies seeking to explain why fertility is low; (2) studies on the efficacy of fertility-related policies; and (3) critical feminist studies that analyze discourses surrounding low fertility and fertility-related policy. I provide examples of each to illustrate how researchers interested in fertility use the concept of gender and to what end. I suggest that by repeatedly asking why fertility is so low and examining possible factors that prevent people from having children, demographic studies often implicitly reinforce the notion that low fertility is undesirable. More critical work points us in different directions, revealing how pronatalist policies – and the discourses surrounding such policies – may have deleterious effects on gender equity. Finally, I discuss work that asks different questions, such as how demographic trends may contribute to shaping state policies and/or other gendered structures. I conclude that future research should analyze how demographic trends and patterns are both shaped by and also shape gender.

Introduction: Naohiro Ogawa, Iqbal H. Shah, and Gayl Ness.- 1: Social norms, institutions, and policies in low-fertility countries: Anne H. Gauthier.- 2: Very low fertility and the high costs of children and the elderly in East Asia: Naohiro Ogawa, Andrew Mason, Sang-Hyop Lee, An-Chi Tung, and Rikiya Matsukura.- 3: The effects of daycare center use on marital fertility in Japan: Sang-Hyop Lee, Naohiro Ogawa, and Rikiya Matsukura.- 4: What are the prospects for continued low fertility in Japan?: Vegard Skirbekk, Rikiya Matsukura, and Naohiro Ogawa.- 5: Low fertility: Choice or chance?: Paul F. A. Van Look.- 6: Trends in male reproductive health and decreasing fertility: Possible influence of endocrine disrupters: Tina Harmer Lassen, Teruaki Iwamoto, Tina Kold Jensen, and Niels E. Skakkebaek.- 7: The sexual behavior of adolescents and young adults in Japan: Ryuzaburo Sato and Miho Iwasawa.- 8: Sexless marriages in Japan: Prevalence and reasons: Yoshie Moriki, Kenji Hayashi, and Rikiya Matsukura.- 9: Community-level effects on the use of reproductive health services in rural China: Zheng Wu, Shuzhuo Li, Christoph M. Schimmele, Yan Wei, Quanbao Jiang, and Zhen Guo.- Index.

This chapter examines the case of low-fertility countries with a special focus on East and Southeast Asia. It asks the question of whether low-fertility Asian countries are unique or whether their very low levels of fertility result from high obstacles to fertility. In particular, the chapter examines financial obstacles to fertility, work-related obstacles, gender inequality in paid and unpaid work, normative obstacles, and other obstacles. It concludes that low-fertility Asian countries are unique in their combination of strong obstacles to fertility, including the very high direct cost of children, below average governmental support for families, and the persistence of traditional norms regarding gender roles and new family forms. The chapter concludes by discussing the potential of social policies for reducing some of these obstacles.

The low-fertility trap hypothesis (Lutz, Skirbekk, Testa, Vienna Yearb Popul Res 4:167–192) describes plausible self-reinforcing mechanisms that, if unchecked, would result in a continued decrease of the number of births in countries affected. It postulates that (a) low birth rates lead to fewer women of reproductive age; (b) fertility preferences shaped early in life lead to lower fertility preferences and lower realized fertility in adulthood for generations who have grown up with few siblings; and (c) growing material aspirations lead many couples to postpone childbearing, especially when the relative income of the young decreases. This chapter investigates whether Japan is in a low-fertility trap and finds clear evidence of the first mechanism (rapidly shrinking cohorts of reproductive age), some evidence of the second (value changes resulting in further fertility decline), and some support for the third mechanism (declining relative income among young adults, implying postponed and depressed fertility). Provided that aspirations of young adults grow while the expected income for younger cohorts decreases, partly as a consequence of population aging induced by low fertility, Japan’s fertility could further decline as all three factors would then work toward creating a downward spiral in births. If such mechanisms are indeed at work, this should prompt governments to take action to avoid the trap while that is still possible.

This chapter addressed the patterns of China’s current fertility using data drawn mainly from the 2010 population census. In spite of some remaining uncertainty concerning their accuracy, it appears that all the recent available sources of data nonetheless converge to indicate that China’s fertility dropped below replacement level in the early 1990s, and continued to decline in the 2000s. These converging data therefore challenge the official TFR of 1.8 children per women, regularly used as a reference by Chinese officials.

Since the 1960s, Taiwan has moved from the regime of high fertility to one of low fertility. There is an abundant literature dealing with fertility decline in Taiwan. However, these studies and other studies like them focus almost exclusively on female fertility. Male fertility patterns and determinants have largely been ignored. This chapter brings men into the analysis when studying the fertility transition in Taiwan. It compares male and female fertility patterns and determinants in Taiwan and in 23 sub-regions of Taiwan. The results show that male fertility differs from female fertility in both rates and determinants. The findings remind researchers to take men into consideration in fertility studies and suggest that fertility theories explaining male fertility changes may need to be constructed.

In this chapter presented a simple method associated with the ProFamy projection model and software to project the annual pension deficit rate based on (1) The elderly dependency ratio determined by demographic factors of fertility, mortality and migration; (2) The retirement age; and (3) Four (or three) pension program parameters, which can be predicted by trend extrapolation or expert opinions. These input parameters can be derived from commonly available data. The illustrative application to China demonstrates that if the average age at retirement gradually increases from the current very low level to age 65 for both men and women in 2050, the annual pension deficit rate would be largely reduced or eliminated under various possible demographic regimes up to the middle of this century. With everything else being equal, the annual pension deficit rate in the scenario of medium fertility (associated with a two-child policy) would be much lower than that under low fertility (associated with the current fertility policy unchanged) after 2030. The impact of potentially faster mortality decline is likely sizable but relatively moderate; it starts earlier than the effects of fertility change. Note that one may also use the simple method presented in this chapter to explore the magnitude and timing of impacts on future pension deficits due to alternative international migration and/or pension policies by predicting or assuming the size and age/gender structure of international migration and/or the pension program parameters.

Seed nutrient reserves are an important factor in the early growth of crops, especially on low fertility soils. Seeds with different Mn content were sown in a Mn-deficient calcareous sand, adequately fertilised with all nutrients except Mn. Two Mn treatments were established (low, 5 mg/kg soil, and high, 75 mg/kg soil) and harvested after 4 weeks. Plants derived from seed with high Mn content produced more tillers and had greater shoot weight at both levels of soil Mn for all genotypes. When grown from seed with high Mn content, genotypes RAC655, Barunga and Aroona performed better compared to other genotypes, due mainly to a greater production of tillers. High Mn content in seed resulted in greater increases in shoot and root production than did fertilising soil with Mn.

European population dynamics follows a model shared in its essentials by all the developed countries, whose features are low mortality, low fertility, and a correspondingly low rate of natural increase. This situation results from a long process of demographic transition which has taken place at different rates and times in different countries.

Current demographic developments in the Netherlands and Australia —in particular, the trend toward older age structures and the persistence of low fertility levels— offer these countries both the opportunity and the incentive to achieve more optimal demographic conditions and a more ecologically sustainable environment. They also offer them the opportunity and incentive to achieve more ’supportive’ conditions for their populations with respect to both the natural environment and the built environment.

Magnaporthe grisea is the causal agent of Blast disease, the main fungal disease of rice. Since recently the genetic basis of pathogenic specificity in Magnaporthe grisea was not known, due to low fertility of isolates pathogenic to rice. Female fertile isolate Guy 11 allowed us to realize crosses with ML 25 and JP 4, two isolates also pathogenic to rice, and to develop backcrosses and full-sib crosses fertile enough. A gene-for-gene relationship was demonstrated. It was of interest to study interactions in cases where avirulence is under digenic control.

Seed yield of 14 peanut cultivars grown on a low-fertility soil with no fertilizer (Nil), complete fertilizer (All) and complete Fertilizer except boron (Bo) was determined. Seed yields varied widely among cultivars in each fertilizer treatment, ranging from about 700 kg dry matter (DM) ha−1 to 2100 in Nil, 200 to 2100 in All-B, and 800 to 3300 in All. The relative ranking of cvs by seed DM also varied widely among treatments. When their relative seed yields in all treatments were classified by cluster analysis, the cvs formed four distinct groups: Group 1-high yields in all treatments (2 cultivars); Group 2-low yields in all treatments (3 cultivars); Group 3-intermediate yields in all treatments (6 cultivars); Group 4-intermediate yield in Nil, low in Bo, high in All (3 cultivars).

Experiments performed using 15N labelled N2 gas have demostrated that rice grown under wetland conditions is able to obtain a significant contribution from plant-associated biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) (Eskew et al., 1981; Yoshida and Yoneyama, 1981). N balance experiments performed in pots by App et al. (198 6) showed that different genotypes differed in their capacity to benefit from this source. Wetland rice genotypes grown in Brazil exhibit large differences in their responses to fertilizer nitrogen, and in their capacity to accumulate nitrogen in low fertility soils when nitrogen is not applied, suggesting that some genotypes may obtain significant contributions from associated BNF.

Food legumes play a major role in agriculture, because they are capable of fixing atmospheric nitrogen through their association with rhizobia bacteria. Consequently they can be grown with minimum inputs in soils of low fertility. Research on symbiotic nitrogen fixation to improve legume production needs a ready supply of species and strains of Rhizobium for food legume species and the collection, isolation and maintenance of strains of these Rhizobium form an essential base to any research program.

Recent years have seen greatly changed attitudes to the utilization of genetic differences in plant nutrition. There is now wide acceptance of the fact that cultivars may respond differently to nutritional factors, and that this may be applied to solving specific problems of soil fertility/stress. This response is under genetic control, and therefore improved response is accessible via screening, selection and normal plant breeding procedures. At the present time, due to perceived need, most work and current advances are taking place in regard to selecting for salinity tolerance, acid soil (Al and Mn) tolerance, and resistance to bicarbonate induced iron deficiency. There are still wide differences concerning selection methods, and clearly quite a number of approaches are possible including plant tissue culture. In some cases we lack adequate field validation of selection procedures. There is still little knowledge of the factors which make some genotypes ‘responsive’ and others ‘non-responsive’. The latter should not necessarily be discarded as frequently they seem adapted to persistence under low fertility conditions, and may thus be a valuable gene source for low-input farming systems.

In general Australian soils are of low fertility. This is attributable to two major factors: (a) the geochemical nature of the rocks of the Australian continent—most are apparently low in phosphates and some appear to lack adequate amounts of some of the minor elements. (b) the strongly weathered nature of most soil materials due to either their formation from sedimentary rocks that contain only small amounts of weatherable minerals, or the long continued leeching of soils of old land surfaces from as far back as mid Tertiary, or their formation from superficial deposits that have passed through several cycles of soil formation. Quaternary vulcanism and Pleistocene glaciation—important sources of relatively unweathered parent materials in other continents—were both of minor extent in Australia. All of these characteristics are related to the low relief and greological stabilitv of the continent.