The government provided financial aid for a record 72,000 fertility treatments in fiscal 2008 ended in March, up 20 percent from the previous year, the health ministry said Saturday.
The record figure suggests that infertile couples are on the rise and that high treatment costs are weighing on them. Although the government has made rectifying the low national birthrate a top priority, the measures taken so far have focused on increasing benefits for child-rearing, not fertility treatment.
Total support reached around ¥7.2 billion in the reporting year, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry.