Fertility startups in Japan step in as treatment demand soars

Worrying trend: Sakiyama elementary school students walk home in Japan. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has pledged around US$23.5bil to reverse Japan’s falling birthrate. — Bloomberg

TOKYO: A small number of startups are stepping up to address infertility issues in Japan, where shortages of treatment options plague patients in a country grappling with one of the world’s lowest birth rates.

Yukiko Nakai, one such entrepreneur, spent hours in packed infertility clinics, counting the inefficiencies that exacerbated already long wait times.