Japan IVF Births Reach Record 86,473, One in Eight Newborns
Japan recorded 86,473 births through in vitro fertilization in 2024, or 12.6% of all newborns. The record came as the number of treatment cycles fell, while…
Japan recorded 86,473 births through in vitro fertilization in 2024, making one eight babies born via IVF about one in every eight newborns nationwide. The record came even as the number of treatment cycles declined from the previous year.
IVF accounted for 12.6% of the country’s 686,173 births, according to data from the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The figures put fertility treatment at a substantial share of births as Japan seeks to address its declining birthrate.
There were 1,436 more IVF births than in the previous year. Treatment cycles, however, fell by 11,399 to 550,265.
The difference matters: the number of births rose while cycles dropped. The data show the scale of IVF’s contribution to births, but do not establish why the number of cycles declined.
IVF involves fertilizing eggs with sperm outside the body and transferring the resulting embryo into the uterus. Japan has recorded more than 1 million children born through the procedure since its first successful case at Tōhoku University in 1983.
Most successful births involved frozen embryo transfers, rather than fresh transfers using conventional IVF. Fresh transfers, in which eggs and sperm are left to fertilize in a petri dish, accounted for less than 2% of births.
In the more common frozen-transfer approach, embryos are frozen and transferred in a later cycle after the uterus has been prepared. Most of those embryos were created using intracytoplasmic sperm injection, or ICSI, which places a single sperm directly into an egg.
The treatment data also show a concentration of cycles among women in their late thirties and early forties. Women aged 39 had the most, with 45,124 cycles, followed by women aged 40 with 44,315 and women aged 42 with 41,447.
Japan expanded public health insurance coverage for fertility treatments, including IVF, in 2022 as part of measures addressing the declining birthrate. The coverage rules cap treatment at six attempts for women who begin before age 40, and three attempts for those aged 40 to 42.
Those limits are believed to drive the high number of procedures in that age range. Yet successful births from treatment peak for mothers in their mid-thirties and then steadily decline, according to the data.
For people considering treatment, the figures show both the reach of IVF and the role of eligibility rules: coverage provides support, while the number of covered attempts depends on age at the start of treatment. In 2024, IVF births represented 12.6% of all newborns in Japan.
