Abortion in Japan

This page gives information of type abortion about the country Japan.
See all pages giving information on abortion for particular countries|See all pages giving information about Japan

Data sources

Abortion data is obtained from Johnston's archive, which in turn relies on a variety of sources. Data is not of high reliability.

Fertility data referenced on this page is drawn from the Human Fertility Database, which is of high reliability. The UN data and the HFD data correlate highly, even though the former is slightly less accurate, so the inconsistency in data sources should not affect broad conclusions. For more detailed fertility data, see the fertility in Japan page.

Qualitative history of relevant events

See Wikipedia:Abortion in Japan.

Year	Event	Postulated effects seen in abortion statistics
1869	abortion was banned nationwide, but punishment was rare except in cases of adultery or death to the mother
1880	ban on abortion was included in the penal code
1907	women could be incarcerated for up to a year for having an abortion; practitioners could be jailed for up to seven.
1923	doctors were granted legal permission to perform emergency abortions to save the mother's life; abortions performed under different, less life-threatening circumstances were still prosecuted.
1940	National Eugenic Law outlined a set of procedures doctors needed to follow in order to get an abortion.
1948	passage of Eugenic Protection Law legalizing abortion and facilitating the provision of family planning services	Likely huge increase, but no pre-1948 data available anyway.
1996	replacement of the Eugenic Protection Law by the Maternal Health Protection Law, making abortion illegal except in case the fetus had significant defects or in case of danger to the mother's health	No discernible effect, but probably because the law itself didn't change reality on the ground.
2006	abortion was officially made legal conditional to the mother's consent	No discernible effect, but probably because the law itself didn't change reality on the ground.

Abortion ratio and abortion rate

Year	Abortion ratio	Abortion ratio minus previous year's abortion ratio	Abortion rate	Abortion rate minus previous year's abortion rate
1947
1948
1949	91.3		4.9
1950	209.2	117.9	15.1	10.2
1951	298.6	89.4	21.3	6.2
1952	401.7	103.1	36.3	15
1953	571.8	170.1	47.7	11.4
1954	645.9	74.1	50.2	2.5
1955	693.4	47.5	55.5	5.3
1956	696.2	2.8	53.9	-1.6
1957	716.4	20.2	51.2	-2.7
1958	683.9	-32.5	50.6	-0.6
1959	677.1	-6.8	48.4	-2.2
1960	663.3	-13.8	46.7	-1.7
1961	652.6	-10.7	45.3	-1.4
1962	610.8	-41.8	42.1	-3.2
1963	576.3	-34.5	39.5	-2.6
1964	512.5	-63.8	42.1	2.6
1965	462.9	-49.6	33.4	-8.7
1966	596	133.1	31.5	-1.9
1967	386.3	-209.7	28.9	-2.6
1968	404.6	18.3	29.1	0.2
1969	393.9	-10.7	28.4	-0.7
1970	1318.3	924.4	28	-0.4
1971	369.7	-948.6	28.3	0.3
1972	359.4	-10.3	27.8	-0.5
1973	334.9	-24.5	26.4	-1.4
1974	334.9	0	25.6	-0.8
1975	353.9	19	25.2	-0.4
1976	362.4	8.5	25	-0.2
1977	365.4	3	24.2	-0.8
1978	361.7	-3.7	23.4	-0.8
1979	373.6	11.9	23.2	-0.2
1980	379.3	5.7	22.6	-0.6
1981	390.1	10.8	22.7	0.1
1982	389.5	-0.6	22.5	-0.2
1983	376.7	-12.8	21.5	-1
1984	381.9	5.2	21.4	-0.1
1985	384.3	2.4	17.8	-3.6
1986	381.7	-2.6	19.8	2
1987	369.6	-12.1	16	-3.8
1988	370	0.4	18.2	2.2
1989	374.5	4.5	14.9	-3.3
1990	373.9	-0.6	17	2.1
1991	356.7	-17.2	16.1	-0.9
1992	341.6	-15.1	15.4	-0.7
1993	325.5	-16.1	14.6	-0.8
1994	294.2	-31.3	14	-0.6
1995	289	-5.2	13.4	-0.6
1996	280.9	-8.1	13	-0.4
1997	283.9	3	11	-2
1998	277	-6.9	11	0
1999	286.4	9.4	11.3	0.3
2000	286.6	0.2	11.7	0.4
2001	291.8	5.2	11.8	0.1
2002	285.4	-6.4
2003	284.6	-0.8	13
2004	271.6	-13
2005	272.1	0.5
2006	252.9	-19.2
2007	235.5	-17.4
2008	222.1	-13.4
2009	212	-10.1
2010	198.5	-13.5
Mean	406.4306451613	1.7573770492
Median	369.65	-2.6
Standard deviation	186.4819215856	178.0449535548
Slope for best linear fit (for linear regression)	-5.6067613508	-0.8574775251
Multiplier for best logarithmic fit (for logarithmic regression)	0.9881171583

Relation between abortion and fertility

Year	Crude birth rate (CBR)	Total fertility rate (TFR)	Abortion ratio	Abortion rate
1947	34.65	4.566
1948	33.95	4.444
1949	33.42	4.357	91.3	4.9
1950	28.42	3.672	209.2	15.1
1951	25.55	3.281	298.6	21.3
1952	23.6	2.995	401.7	36.3
1953	21.67	2.713	571.8	47.7
1954	20.27	2.502	645.9	50.2
1955	19.58	2.383	693.4	55.5
1956	18.63	2.236	696.2	53.9
1957	17.38	2.058	716.4	51.2
1958	18.18	2.129	683.9	50.6
1959	17.71	2.061	677.1	48.4
1960	17.33	2.008	663.3	46.7
1961	16.99	1.963	652.6	45.3
1962	17.14	1.974	610.8	42.1
1963	17.4	2.001	576.3	39.5
1964	17.81	2.045	512.5	42.1
1965	18.72	2.145	462.9	33.4
1966	13.85	1.579	596	31.5
1967	19.49	2.224	386.3	28.9
1968	18.63	2.127	404.6	29.1
1969	18.58	2.119	393.9	28.4
1970	18.8	2.129	1318.3	28
1971	19.21	2.153	369.7	28.3
1972	19.3	2.138	359.4	27.8
1973	19.35	2.135	334.9	26.4
1974	18.52	2.04	334.9	25.6
1975	17.14	1.9	353.9	25.2
1976	16.34	1.84	362.4	25
1977	15.5	1.786	365.4	24.2
1978	14.95	1.774	361.7	23.4
1979	14.25	1.751	373.6	23.2
1980	13.57	1.731	379.3	22.6
1981	13.07	1.726	390.1	22.7
1982	12.86	1.755	389.5	22.5
1983	12.72	1.788	376.7	21.5
1984	12.48	1.8	381.9	21.4
1985	11.92	1.757	384.3	17.8
1986	11.45	1.719	381.7	19.8
1987	11.1	1.689	369.6	16
1988	10.79	1.657	370	18.2
1989	10.2	1.576	374.5	14.9
1990	9.96	1.543	373.9	17
1991	9.95	1.537	356.7	16.1
1992	9.8	1.506	341.6	15.4
1993	9.61	1.464	325.5	14.6
1994	9.98	1.507	294.2	14
1995	9.55	1.426	289	13.4
1996	9.68	1.43	280.9	13
1997	9.54	1.392	283.9	11
1998	9.61	1.388	277	11
1999	9.39	1.347	286.4	11.3
2000	9.49	1.359	286.6	11.7
2001	9.31	1.336	291.8	11.8
2002	9.16	1.318	285.4
2003	8.91	1.29	284.6	13
2004	8.81	1.288	271.6
2005	8.43	1.254	272.1
2006	8.67	1.313	252.9
2007	8.64	1.331	235.5
2008	8.66	1.36	222.1
2009	8.5	1.361	212
2010	15.366984127	1.971047619	198.5