Posted on 12/04/2004 3:41:38 PM PST by traumer
The Japanese government says urgent policy changes are needed to persuade women to have more children.
Japan currently has one of the lowest birth rates in the world. Discrimination in the workplace and poor government policies have been blamed for deterring many Japanese women from having children.
But the government says that unless the trend is reversed quickly, the shortage of children risks doing damage to the economy.
The decline in Japan's birth rate is so severe they have invented a word for it - 'shoshika', meaning a society without children.
Unless women here start having more babies, the population in Japan is expected to shrink more than 20% by the middle of this century. Nearly half would be elderly, placing impossible burdens on the health and pension systems.
An official White Paper which has just been published recommends that the government now focus all its efforts on women born during Japan's last baby-boom, who are now in their 20s and 30s, in a final push to reverse the trend.
Today, record numbers of women in this age group are unmarried and without children. But it is not clear what kind of policies would work.
The government has already introduced a so-called 'Angel Plan', then a 'New Angel Plan', and most recently a 'Plus One Proposal' - all intended to offer more child-care facilities and other benefits for working mothers.
But the biggest obstacle to having families could be social attitudes. Men are still expected to spend long hours at the office and little time at home, while there is pressure on women to give up work when they have children.
A former prime minister who is in charge of the governing party's committee on population famously told women to stay at home and breed.
It is attitudes like that, still commonplace here - and not policies - which Japanese women say are putting them off getting married.
Speaking of blue state cost of living... well nevermind. This isn't a property tax thread ;-)
I was going to suggest that they adopt the European "solution" and let in limitless streams of Muslims. But then I remembered, the Japanese aren't stupid.
No income tax, but they get you every other way. Plus the quality of life here s-cks compared to NYC, which is only more expensive in terms of income taxes and housing (and not by much for the latter).
Problems in the hive....... workers are overlooking the most important part of living.
I've watched women dropping off newborn babies at a daycare center :( BTW, I agree about home schooling.
Yes, this is true, although it could well be more than two. It is called a "family suicide". However, it doesn't affect the rates very much, because the total number of "family suicides" is relatively low compared to the total number of suicides.
LOL!
Wasureruna!
But if more people became teachers (and, believe me, a flood of new, fresh-minded teachers would be awesome), the working hours parallel those of school-age children very well. So there can be two incomes (especially after the youngest is in kindergarten), and yet there can be a parent at home after school. Perhaps having only one income when the children are very small can be managed if one goes back to work when the kids go to school; then you can save for college or whatever.
Maybe this is a proposal that will enhance education and family life. Wow.
Usually involves a woman and one (or more) of her children.
Umm, yeah, uh, men can't have kids.
Oteari wa, doku desu ka?
"The US is around average of all nations in both categories."
Very interesting. It's like God (or nature) requires a certain amount of killing.
Please, don't flame me, it is just an idle observation.
My thoughts exactly. Where are all these new little ones going to live? Cribs in dresser drawers?
They are ingenious people. Perhaps they can create a landfill expansion to reach the coast of Mexico and they will have all the workers they need without asking the young women to give up their careers and stay home to have babies.
Japan has plenty of room. If they stopped subsidizing outdated and inefficient rice production, the population could move into suburbs just like in Atlanta. There's no such thing as "overpopulation," except maybe in Hong Kong ... only stupid government.
There is still quite a bit of variation, even if you add the two rates together. No where near as much as separately, but still, quite a bit.
I think culture and availability of resources has something to do with it.
It has been a few years since I compiled a list of the combined rates, so I can not give you the specifics. I think Britain or Germany had one of the lowest combined rates.
Another thing to consider is how accurate the reporting is. While murder and suicide both leave a body, it is easy for one to be reported as the other, if authorities are sloppy or bribable.
I can't understand, really, what all this fuss is about waiting until you can "afford children." Children don't really need all that much. Food, clothing, shelter and parental attention are all that's really required. A person who waits until he can afford his children probably shouldn't be a parent to begin with.
Yeah, probably just because he's near Toyko.
Moving to the suburbs is no easy thing in Japan - they're already full!
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