(Newser) – Japan has one of the lowest birth rates in the world, thanks, health experts say, to an overworked populace too tired to have much sex. Surveys show that married Japanese couples under 50 have sex an average of 45 times a year, less than half the global average. Now some groups are calling on employers to give workers more time off to procreate, lest Japan face a huge population shortage, the Guardian reports.



Japan’s biggest business organization has urged its 1,600 member companies to give married workers more time off, while the labor ministry is working on a bill to exempt employees with young children from overtime. “It’s a question of work-life balance,” said the head of the Japan Family Planning Association. “The people who run companies need to do something about it.” (Read more Japan stories.)

