This paper, based on 1985 Demographic Survey on Changes in the Family Life Course and Household Structure, examines the sex preference for children among couples in Japan. We analyze behavioral data of birth histories of couples, by investigating sex ratio of last child, sex sequence of children, parity progression ratio by sex sequence at parity two, and applying logit model. The results are as follows : (1) balance sex preference is clear even among couples whose wife is at the age 30-39. (2) balance sex preference is still shown after controlling socio-economic variables (education, occupation of the head of a household, and size of city) (3) balance sex preference is apparent among such categories as `higher education', `white color', `big-city dwellers' (4) sex sequence of two children has a moderate, but coherent effect on parity three.
