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What's HOT among parents-wannabes in Japan?
That's "Gender Selection" and "On-Demand Pregnancy".

Yup, you heard it correctly.
It's not "Planned Childbirth" or "Planned Delivery"; it's On-Demand "Pregnancy", that is.

According to an obstetrician in Japan, Dr Hara of "Hara Medical Clinic", more than 80% of Japanese couples who visit his clinic for their second child or more will ask for so called "on-demand pregnancy", meaning they already have a desirable date, sometimes even down to the timing of the birth (e.g. "I want my daughter to be 9:30 am in the morning of 21st of September 2008!"), in their minds, even before they conceive a child.

Why? Many of them state fortune-telling as a reason; they believe that a child born on a certain date and time will have better future prospects, or even have a better temperament. ;-) Some others are going for on-demand pregnancy because of their biological clock (e.g."I need to give birth within this year, before turning 35 years old, etc) or academic reason (e.g. "I want to avoid giving birth my child in March, because that will give him/her disadvantage when entering a primary school - since Japanese education system starts from April; kids who were born in March have to enter primary school almost one year earlier than kids who were born in April)

On top of that, many of these parents who go for "on-demand pregnancy" also prefer having "gender selection".
According to Dr Hara, in Japan, the accuracy of gender selection technique in Japan is as high as 95% success rate. And 90% of his clients prefer having girls for they think it's "easier to take care of girls".

The funny thing about Japan is, though the society is pretty open-minded about "gender selection" and "on-demand pregnancy", they still have much resistance about "planned delivery" and "painless childbirth".
Painless childbirth with epidural anesthesis is still rare and only available at a certain privately-operated clinics, which are usually very expensive and in only a certain selected area of Japan. Women are not at the liberty to request for C-section on their own will, unless doctors see it required for serious medical reason.
 
Japanese society has this ideology that "Childbirth has to be natural; and the mothers-to-be should be able to survive the agony of childbirth no matter what. That's what it takes for them to become a mother". If a mother in labour moans and groans too much (or too loud), doctors and nurses will scold them saying that "You are going to be a mother! How can you become a mother if you can't take this!"

What the he*k. Fathers still claim their fatherhood and make their kids follow their paternal surnames even if they do nothing but ejaculation.

Original Article from: http://www.iza.ne.jp/news/newsarticle/living/style/80274/