Kazumi Kato has been married for 15 years. When she got married at the age of 22, she planned to have a baby once she turned 26 or 27. But when she reached that age, she still did not feel like becoming a mother, and decided to wait until she was 30. When she turned 30, however, she still did not feel ready and postponed the decision to 35.
She is now 37 and her biological childbearing limit is approaching, but still she does not feel like having children, she says.
Kato has a full-time job at a U.S.-owned chemical company and fully enjoys her "double-income, no kids" lifestyle. She often eats out, plays tennis, goes skiing and travels abroad with her husband. "If I had a child, it would be difficult even to have dinner at a restaurant, because my parents live quite some distance away and I couldn't expect much help from them," she says.