GOVERNMENTS rarely succeed at egging on the stork, experiences in places like Japan, Taiwan and South Korea are showing.
Over the past decade, their governments have showered couples with all sorts of inducements to procreate but have little to show for it, a Straits Times study of their birth trends has found.
Birth rates in some Asian countries now rank among the world's lowest. Last year, they ranged from 1.1 child per couple in Taiwan - way down from a peak of 7.04 in 1951 - to 1.2 in South Korea, 1.29 in Singapore and 1.34 in Japan.
All this has come about even as Asia's governments have tried almost everything short of making motherhood mandatory to get their growing numbers of ageing singles hitched and nudge them into baby-making.
The first to address the problem was Japan. Since 1990 when it took note that the birth rate had declined to 1.57, it has introduced five major baby packages, and numerous minor ones.
These have included longer paid maternity leave, childcare subsidies, tax credits, subsidies for in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) and more child allowances for mothers.
Yet the number of babies born each year continues to drop.
In June, South Korea introduced paternity leave, flexi-hours for working mothers and a baby bonus of up to 5 million won (S$6,750).
This was after a 2006 offer of three months' paid maternity failed to work its magic. Desperate local officials have also thrown in gifts of free milk powder to no avail.
Over in Taipei, the government unveiled this year yet another series of proposals to counter the increasingly popular trend of 'bu hun, bu sheng' (no to marriage, no to children) among young Taiwanese.
The new measures are centred largely on childcare and education subsidies, but other proposals include subsidised housing loans and tax breaks to encourage child birth.
Previous rounds did nothing to reverse the slide.
Problems of cost and attitude
The concern about falling birth rates is also one that has had West European governments offering perks such as longer parental leave to push birth rates closer to the replacement level of 2.1.
In Britain, maternity leave has been extended from 14 to 37 weeks. Paid paternity leave has been brought in. There is an array of tax credits to help low-paid parents back into work.
There are lump sums - £250 (S$660) - for newborns, which are doubled when they reach seven. Between 1999 and 2003, government spending per child in Britain grew by 50 per cent.
The government also wants to bring in 'wraparound education'. That means children can stay in school, studying or pursuing hobbies, from 8am to 6pm, while parents work a full day.
Interestingly, the British have seen a rise in birth rates in recent years (see 'IVF lifts Britain's birth rate').
But this is not necessarily a clear-cut result of government perks. What is really having an impact is that more professional women are coming to children later in their lives and IVF is helping them.
More immigrants from countries where large families are still popular are also boosting the birth rates. Indeed, over a quarter of the babies are born to parents at least one of whom was born overseas.
In Asia, meanwhile, two particularly daunting obstacles continue to frustrate government efforts.
The first is the staggering cost of raising a child, not just in terms of dollars and cents, but also the investment in time and energy.
In Japan, for example, it takes at least 30 million yen (S$390,000) to maintain one child for the 22 years to graduation.
Adding to that are the opportunity costs - the impact that having kids can have on such factors as job advancement, a better lifestyle, and on giving each child a good start in life.
Thus, it is little wonder that Mr Kaito Shimizu, 39, thinks it would be rash to have another child, even though he adores his eight-month-old son. 'I need to put aside enough money for my own retirement,' said the furniture company employee.
The second - and perhaps more insurmountable - obstacle to procreation is one of attitude.
Like most Japanese men, and many in neighbouring South Korea and Taiwan, Mr Shimizu sees child-raising as something left to women.
'Taking care of the baby leaves me with no time of my own. My husband does not help,' said his wife Misato, 37.
Indeed, Mr Shimizu said measures encouraged by the government to encourage husbands to help raise their kids - such as paternity leave - did not interest him.
His response is typical of Japanese men. The male-dominated working culture in Japan still frowns on men taking time off to baby-sit. Statistics show that only 0.5 per cent of fathers of newborn children get to take paternity leave or are bold enough to request it.
The Aera weekly news magazine recently reported that a company employee was told by his boss: 'Instead of you taking paternity leave, why don't you ask your wife to extend her maternity leave?'
Similar attitudes prevail in South Korea.
In many families, a woman is expected to do all the household chores even if she has a job. And many men feel obliged to join the after-office eating and drinking sessions, which means less time for the children.
Employers who spoke to The Straits Times in Seoul were also cool about introducing measures like paternity leave, saying that it would hurt operations.
Professor Chen Kuan-jeng of Taiwan's Chang Gung University's department of health care management believes it is imperative that husbands pitch in.
'If a woman is all stressed out at work, and has to take care of the child and cope with household chores all on her own when she is at home, no amount of incentives or subsidies will entice her into starting a family,' he said.
In Taiwan, while younger men have fewer hang-ups about helping with the odd household chore, the expectation remains that women are the primary caregivers.
Mrs Tsuei Li-jie, 33, a writer at a TV station, says her husband helps out at home but the couple have decided to stop at one. 'I'm not going to stint on my first child just so I can afford a second one,' she said.
Money can do only so much
Population experts say that the growing expectations of parents can be a big obstacle.
'It is not just a matter of bringing up a child, but how they want to raise the child,' said Prof Chen. 'For instance, is public kindergarten good enough? Or only a Montessori school will do? You can't expect the government to match its subsidies to your expectations.'
Given such attitudes, governments are moving towards a more targeted approach - shifting more perks towards those who do want more children, people like 38-year-old South Korean housewife Rho Sang Mi, who is pregnant with her third child.
Said her husband, Reverend Rho Kyu Seok, 34: 'Children are blessings from God. The more the better.'
The thinking is that by improving benefits for second and third children and supporting those trying to have children via IVF, governments are likely to get better returns from the money set aside for encouraging births.
Budgets being finite, the shift is an implicit acknowledgment that monetary incentives can do only so much.
This special report was filed by:
Ong Hwee Hwee
Taiwan Correspondent in Taipei
Kwan Weng Kin
Japan Correspondent in Tokyo
Lee Tee Jong
South Korea Correspondent in Seoul
Mark Rice-Oxley
in London
Wong Mei Ling
in Singapore
This article was first published in The Straits Times on August 14, 2008.
