
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, June 14, 1990                   TAG: 9006140212
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-10   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: TOKYO                                LENGTH: Short

JAPAN OFFICIAL BLAMES BIRTH FALL ON SCHOOLING

One of Japan's most powerful politicians, Finance Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto, told the Cabinet this week that the reason for an alarming decline in the country's birth rate is the government's policy of encouraging Japanese women to obtain a higher education.

Hashimoto's commments, reported over the last two days by government officials and the Japanese press, appeared to suggest that Japan should take strong policy measures - perhaps including steps that would discourage women from continuing their education - to assure that Japan has a sufficient work force to meet its economic growth plans in the next century.

According to government studies, Japan's birth rate fell to an all-time low last year of 1.57 children per woman.

In 1988, the rate was 1.66.

Hashimoto's comments prompted a somewhat embarrassed flurry of statements from the government's chief spokesman, Misoji Sakamoto, who at first suggested that the finance minister was expressing Japan's official view of how to reverse the low population growth trend, and then backed away from the comments.

by CNB