What did cause the fall in the birth rate in Japan from 1985 to 2002? One of the reasons why both the number of births and the birth rate in Japan fell was the women's empowerments. The decades from mid 1980s which could be called "Decades of women's empowerment " has been triggered by The Equal Opportunity law which Japanese government promulgated in 1985. Although more and more women began to participate in work force in the beginning of those decades, supports for them from the government and society were not enough.Therefore, a lot of women, especially working-moms were suffering difficulties of balancing their family and jobs which might make young women who wanted to work hesitate to get married and have children. Currently, the support for working women from others has been improved but it is still not enough. Japan is yet to be No.172 out of 188 countries in the world ranking of the birthrate per woman.