In December 2004, the Mainichi Newspaper, in cooperation with UNFPA, Tokyo, published its first "National Survey on Population, Families and Generations in Japan," a renewal of an earlier survey entitled "National Survey on Family Planning."

Published in Japanese and containing an English translation, the survey covers topics such as changing family norms, unmarried cohabitation, women's employment and the cost of children, gender views and reality, and persisting gender inequality.

With a preface by Makoto Atoh, Director-General, National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, Japan, the publication "...provides a milestone in discerning the direction in which Japanese family values and her fertility at the lowest levels will change in this century."