In response to the increasingly serious problem of Japan's falling birthrate, patients and medical professionals involved in fertility treatment are calling for the cost of treatment to be covered by national health insurance.
They point out, however, that insurance coverage alone would not solve the problem.
On Friday, the last day of a three-day symposium in Tokyo organized by the Japan Society of Fertilization and Implantation and the Japanese Society of Fertility and Sterility, participants discussed ways to help people who are having problems conceiving.