Population policy has been much concerned with fertility questions. In Western countries, population questions were heavily conditioned by the almost uninterrupted fall of the birth rate from the late nineteenth century until the end of World War II. In the 1930's, the net reproduction rates for many developed societies were below 1.0. A variety of pro-family and natalist measures were suggested and recommended, in order to do such things as raise the net reproduction rate to at least unity. However, since the 1940's, attitudes have changed considerably. There arose strongly determined attitudes against the understandably high rates of population growth in less developed nations. Population control and ideas for small family norms have been diffused all over the world, with few exceptions. Population policy seems to have been exclusively understood as policy regarding fertility questions, whether it has been pro-natalist or not. However, the 1974 World Population Conference precisely examined and considered population policy in every detail, defining its scope in a broad way, including not only fertility control, but also mortality, migration, age structure, and so on, and also emphasized that it should be incorporated into overall national development policy as integral part. At the beginning, population questions and policies in Japan were discussed. Pioneering work by Teijiro Ueda in the prewar days, and by Ryozaburo Minami in the post-war period were mentioned. Then, great attention was given to the scientific activities toward population policies which were conducted by the United Nations. Comprehensive analysis on population policies and movements in Europe by D. V. Glass, B. Berelson's work, and also E. D. Driver's theoretical study were discussed.
