Japan is a developed country where many women, having obtained a higher education and entered the labour force, increasingly postpone childbirth and motherhood beyond their most fertile years. Whilst such a trend has been documented almost everywhere in the developed world, what is conspicuous about the particular case of Japan is how limited these women are when it comes to their options to build a family through assisted reproduction. This article puts the spotlight on five kinds of fertility patients in Japan who, by being largely denied access to assisted reproduction domestically, are pushed to seek solutions abroad, driving the regional (and global) demand for such arrangements. The article identifies as instrumental to this trend the restrictive regime created by the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

日本是一个发达国家，许多妇女已经接受了高等教育并加入了劳动力队伍，她们的分娩和孕育越来越多地推迟到他们最富饶的年龄。尽管在发达国家的几乎所有地方都记录了这种趋势，但对于日本的特殊情况，明显的是，这些妇女在通过辅助生殖建立家庭的选择上有多有限。本文着重介绍了日本的五种受精患者，这些患者由于被广泛拒绝在国内获得辅助生殖服务而被迫寻求国外解决方案，从而推动了地区（以及全球）对此类安排的需求。该文章指出，由日本妇产科学会创建的限制性制度对这一趋势是有帮助的。