An increasing number of Japanese women say they would rather not marry at all than marry a man who wants a "mommy" more than a wife.

At age 37, an unmarried Takako Katayama has her own apartment in Tokyo, a good job at a cable television network and a network of family and friends. She’s open to the idea of marriage and kids, but says she refuses to settle for a man who won’t see her as an equal but instead as a mom for him and the kids.

"I have never met a Japanese man who did not want me to be his mommy," Katayama tells The Washington Post. "I want a mature, equal-partner kind of marriage."

The Post reports that in Japan and other prosperous nations of East Asia, an alarming number of women are delaying marriage and postponing childbirth, causing birthrates in the region to plunge.

In Japan alone, the percentage of women who remain single into their 30s has more than doubled since 1980, according to the Post’s report. The trend is similar in Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea and the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Beijing. A recent forecast showed that population loss will strip Japan of 70 percent of its workforce by 2050.

The Japanese government is this year pushing a "work-life balance" program that addresses the country’s famously punishing work ethic that often leaves men at work more than at home. It pressures companies to encourage workers — primarily men — out of the office at night to get home and help take care of the family.