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No. of children in Japan falls for 36th year to new record low

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not a good sign, increase support in child rearing might help. hopefully.

5 ( +8 / -3 )

This got me so mad I forgot basic English.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Personally decided to not have children recently as well.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

Nothing a 100 hours overtime won't fix. Seriously, it ain't rocket science. Pay your employees more, send them home by 5 or 6, don't allow them to come into the office on weekends. You know what we call having a life. Happier people with a bit of coin in their pockets are more hopeful about their lives and the idea of bringing children into the world.

OTOH, working like slaves, not realistically being able to afford marriage, let alone children, not being able to imagine having the time or energy to dedicate to kids even if you have the money--this is a recipe for a rather empty archipelago (except for Tokyo of course).

24 ( +28 / -4 )

The number of children aged 14 or under, including foreigners, was down 170,000 from a year earlier to 15.71 million as of April 1, the lowest level since comparative data became available in 1950, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said.

What's the point of including foreigners in the population numbers when they are not considered Japanese for anything else?

Unless the message is, even foreigners have a hard time with making babies while in Japan? (Pure sarcasm there folks)

Abe has been aiming to increase Japan's total fertility rate -- the average number of children born to a woman -- to 1.8 by the end of fiscal 2025 from 1.45 in 2015.

Abe is the last person on earth who should be in charge of anything to do with babies and women's issues. Dude is clueless beyond a doubt.

18 ( +20 / -2 )

Yubaru

I think most foreigners (English teachers) would have a hard time raising a family on their under ¥300,000 salary with no bonus or hope for a raise.

11 ( +16 / -5 )

The Japanese elite don't care at all or they would do something exceptional like doubling the minimum wage. It not the elite sector where population numbers are down, quite the opposite. The middle and lower class numbers are drastically low and this corresponds with wage grow or the lack of. The Japanese elite see Asian a place they can require cheap labor and no need to invest in the local lower classes population. This is happen now with convenience store in Tokyo. Watch the increase in viva, s number grow. The Japanese elite don't realise or care, that a huge majority of young Japanese people are witnessing the very poor and hard condition of the elderly and are wondering of their own future.

11 ( +13 / -2 )

Abe has been aiming to increase Japan's total fertility rate -- the average number of children born to a woman -- to 1.8 by the end of fiscal 2025 from 1.45 in 2015.

....and for that he has introduced Premium Friday ?!!

2 ( +2 / -0 )

"I think most foreigners (English teachers) would have a hard time raising a family on their under ¥300,000 salary with no bonus or hope for a raise."

Or stability given the provisional nature of most teaching gigs. But it also depends on whether your spouse has a good job. You're not going to have a shufu and 1.8 kids on 25 man-en/month. That's borderline poverty. I have a uni gig now but when my wife and I first became parents we were both making around 30 man-en. It was doable but a second child--no way.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

Look!,  government is very busy at the moment, there is a constitution needs revising. Depopulation, the economy, excessive overtime, child day care provision will have to wait their turn.  Honestly shut up, so rude!        

Apparently, there is on going nationwide search for parties that are alleged to be a credible opposition to this LDP ruling government . Diet security has them reported key opposition members as missing persons.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Any economist will tell you that the wealth gap is widening, and will continue to for the foreseeable future. Unless you are in the top 10% of earners now your standard of living will only get worse. Why would anyone want to offer this future to their offspring. We always thought that our children would do better than us, but not any more.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

Government needs to overhaul the ridiculous regulations of this country, stop racking up huge debts, so that people can have confidence in the future prospects of this place once more.

Major reforms is all that is needed to fix this malaise. If it doesn't happen I'll not be surprised or upset if my kids grow up and opt to head offshore.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Abe may be a dangerous fantasist but he's hardly to blame for this; way back in the 1970s demographers in Japan predicted exactly what would happen but successive LDP governments and the bureaucrats totally ignored them. It was bad news at a time of good news, it was a very difficult problem to solve and it was happening 50 years in the future. Of course they ignored it.

Japan should be reinventing itself as a kind of Scandinavia-in-Asia. Instead, it's going back to the 1930s; where there's no hope for the future, there are no kids.

13 ( +15 / -2 )

To deliberately misuse the old saying from the moive, "The Right Stuff":

"No bucks, no Buck Rogers."

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Population is falling in various parts of the world but it seldom gets mentioned in the media because Japan's situation is the most dramatic. Fact is, when women get educated they have fewer children. Social engineering isn't going to change that.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

I'm married, make a good living I think as does my wife. She's in her 20s and is American and I'm from here but mixed and have lived all over.

In Japan it would be very hard for her to continue her career and have a kid. I like to live comfortably and stress free and never really wanted to have kidz personally.

I think the option of early retirement and pursuit of hobbies is more appealing to me than having kidz.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

This is an economic issue at heart. Men do not and cannot support a family working part-time as 40% of them do. Women also will not marry them. So both just stay at home.

The LDP can fix this by raising wages but so far they have done nothing, if fact wages just continue to fall.

Raising kids is expensive, there is no doubt about it. Single mothers poverty rates are sky high in Japan, child care costs are why along with horrible wages. Japan should have a universal salary policy that sets a job salary at twice above poverty rates at least . Friedman called this a negative income tax. Would solve many social issues in this country and help with the kid problem as well. But now Abe wants to build more ships instead while his country is hollowed out though lack of people.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

This is ridiculous the number of children born to a woman.

of course women have babies not unless your a hermaphrodite.

There are very few of those ti the world.

May be because children and young adults are being responsible citizens only having children they can support in all facets of life .

To encourage growth in any population is to give incentives till the population increases to the level that can sustain population growth.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Abenomics, $ or lack thereof, precarious work etc is only part of the problem. Bottom line is many/most ppl in many/most countries have realised they could live a fulfilling life without children, and/or husband/wife.

The "you must have kids to be a 'real woman' mantra and other silly pro motherhood theories have been demystified long ago and women opting for a childfree life have been, thankfully, destigmatised (could still do better though).

With this in mind, it's only natural more women, in Japan and elsewhere, now feel perfectly fine about not having children. Doesn't mean we should not help women/men who 'really' want to have kids.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

I love the picture for this article.

I think the option of early retirement and pursuit of hobbies is more appealing to me than having kidz.

This is how I felt before kids, and I tried to convince my wife to not have kids. But she convinced me otherwise, and I'm so glad. The feeling when one of my kids forces their way onto my lap when they want to talk to me is not one that can be put into words. Same with the feeling of watching my kids sleep. Words just can't do it justice. I'd go through a life of poverty rather than giving up my kids.

That said, if you've never known it, you can't miss it, since you don't know it.

10 ( +13 / -3 )

Abe and his elitist buddies, just don't get it. Has anyone in any of his ministries that feed him information actually taken the time and done a feasability study on how much a family much make to support the raising of children. The cost of raising a child in Japan and also many other countries is enormous. All child products , food, clothing are almost the same cost as adults. Then there are many other factors, the cost of putting a child through childcare doesn't give any incentives to work, especially considering the wages paid. Couples are not stupid, they have children because they want to be parents not as providers for the state. It would be an enlightening revelation if a study group could actually provide the minimum wage or pension a person or persons need just to to live. My lifetime view has been that the state should provide a free health service , free education , kindergarten to university and a supportive system for when you retire. You work and pay a numerous variety of taxes for 45 years and more, so the public servants should be able to balance the books. ---------- sorry just had to laugh at the last statement.

12 ( +13 / -1 )

"This is how I felt before kids, and I tried to convince my wife to not have kids. But she convinced me otherwise, and I'm so glad."

Ditto 100%. Bill Murray summed it up in Lost in Translation, about what happens when you have kids:

"Your life, as you know it... is gone. Never to return. But they learn how to walk, and they learn how to talk... and you want to be with them. And they turn out to be the most delightful people you will ever meet in your life."

9 ( +13 / -4 )

"indicating efforts by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's government have been inadequate to tackle the long-standing issue of a declining birthrate."

EVERYTHING the man has done has been inadequate. The only promises he's kept are the one's everyone objects to except himself and the Nippon Kaigi.

This is very timely coming off yesterday's article on Japan's extremely poor asylum seekers' policies. Japan has a good chance to actually help solve the declining birth rate problem, but people here are too scared of change despite actually praying robots will come to the rescue instead of them having to take action.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Here's a tip, do something about the fact that most of the good jobs in the country are being created in or around Tokyo.

Look at the choices presented to a lot of young Japanese:

Move to Tokyo hundreds or thousands km away from familial support structures with its brutal commute times and sky-high housing costs, but where jobs are (relatively) plentiful

or:

Stay at home close to family with reasonable commuting and housing costs but face being unemployed or underemployed

do either of those situations sound amenable to raising children?

13 ( +14 / -1 )

My wife and I love being a couple, first and foremost, so we have chosen to remain childless. Having said that, sending children through the rigors of Japanese schooling and then a workplace with ever decreasing rewards seems a sad way to live life. We are, by choice, contributing to Japan's population decline.

5 ( +9 / -4 )

I have a decent life and I am not planning to have a kid. School, bullying, employment, suicide, random crimes, SNS ... Plenty of reasons to not make a child go through.

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

Is this really an issue? Yes I understand aging population and workforce. But this little planet of ours could possibly do with a few less people straining our limited resources. Maybe more countries should consider this...

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

If my parents felt like many posters both me and my sister wouldn't be around.

Having kids is a great reward and not a burden, plenty challenging for sure.

Without my son the family name would die, rest of his generation are all girls.

Populations are shrinking mostly in western countries but increasing in others.

2 ( +5 / -3 )

Strangerland.

Apparently you gained wisdom through your wife.

One saying not to have kids is like saying one doesn't care about his parents to me.

I am more proud of myself each second my kids take more of my time. I laugh at those egotistical people who will have rather sooner than later to find somebody to wipe their ass, but will not find that person...

It is already happening.

Payback will be harsh alas for those who do not dedicate time for their future which is not money.

Not saying either to have plenty but just let nature and feelings get through your heart.

Going to join one of ly daughter for breakfast sorry !

1 ( +6 / -5 )

That's nice Strangerland and all those of you who have found fulfillment through your kidz.

Its also nice that I do not need that, and I don't mind missing out on one kind of lifestyle to earn another. I think it's almost impossible to regret your kidz, but if you don't have them to begin with, its cool.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Jonathan Prin

Labeling those who choose another way as being egotistical.

Also assuming I won't have anyone to care for me if I don't have kidz is also false.

Payback won't be harsh for me...at the rate it's going my payout will be sweet man, for me and my wife!

I hope you and your kid stay close and don't fight later on in life or you won't have a hand to wipe...oh wait, that would be a silly thing to say wouldn't it?

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Recall how proud my Dad was hearing that I did better at my age than he did at same.

Looking forward too seeing my sons kids and I will be upset if he is selfish not to have them, brought him up to know better.

My 0.2yen.

0 ( +2 / -2 )

Not disagreeing but what is the purpose of all living beings?

Get born, raise offspring and die.

-1 ( +2 / -3 )

Have kids, don't have kids, can't have kids, adopt kids. There's no right or wrong way and it's entirely up to those involved and whichever way the coin falls the other sides should quit preaching and imposing their values on the others.

I agree 100%.

Some people shouldn't be parents. They'd be (or even are) horrible at it. Others don't want kids, why should they have them? Less population on this planet is only a good thing right now.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Personiamnow.

Get money, you'll need plenty later indeed.

Anyway, my writing was just a picture to make it easy to understand. Apparently, it didn't work that well.

Please do not care about what people with more insight and probably wisdom can tell like Yubaru or Strangerland and more.

And know I have persons in my family who did not wish to have kids so needless to say experience speaks.

-5 ( +1 / -6 )

Not disagreeing but what is the purpose of all living beings?

Get born, raise offspring and die.

That's certainly not my purpose. It's what I'm doing. My purpose lies elsewhere.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Abe has been aiming to increase Japan's total fertility rate 

No, he hasn't.

He says he has, but let's look at the policies he has foisted on his people:

It would be easier for people to have more children if their savings retained its value and they were assured of being able to buy life's essentials at low prices. Abe ams for the exact opposite.

Nothing is being done about the life-destroying amounts of overtime that corporations demand and which prevent people from finding marriage partners and from being good partners. Abe instead endorses the ridiculous 100-hours-of-OT-per-month "standard".

People would feel more secure in having children if they knew they lived in a peaceful country that would never send those children to die in a war. Again, Abe aims for the opposite.

Abe does not care about the bottom 95% of this country. Impoverish them, destroy their savings, work them to death, and send them off to die in war. He doesn't care; all he cares about is rich family dynasties like his own.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

I'm saying that Inrespect those wh have kidz and those who choose not to.

I want them all to be happy and not living a lie.

But if you disrespect me because of my decision and question my "wisdom" it says something about you, that you are willing to pass judgement without knowing me, my situation, or even the other people who you think are so wise.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

I think most foreigners (English teachers) would have a hard time raising a family on their under ¥300,000 salary with no bonus or hope for a raise.

Whoa, where did this come from? I made no mention of anything other than question why foreigners are included in the numbers.

Took a HUGE leap of the imagination to go where you did, based upon my comment.

Foreigners should not be included in the statistics, unless they are permanent residents, and the article should state it as well.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

@zichi Exactly

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Yubaru, take it easy. I didn't say anything BASED on what you said.

What I said, is what I said to you as I commented directly after you.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

Sadly the population pyramid has been staring Japan in the face in plain site for the last 30-40yrs & NOTHING was/is being done to manage population decline is a smooth manner, in fact the opposite is happening with the birth rate having dropped like a stone & very unlikely to climb upwards, in fact the population pyramid shows its likely  to continue to decline. Combined with a VERY top heavy elderly population its all rather grim.

This is one a many reasons we choose not to have kids, the other biggie was the education system, I don't like what I see & the costs in time & $$ are obscene.

Those with kids I hope they turn out well & if they cant find opportunity in Japan(its brutal NOW for young people!) they can elsewhere!

1 ( +2 / -1 )

What I said, is what I said to you as I commented directly after you.

Yeah but it sure looks like your comment was directed towards me...next time don't quote me, leave your own post to stand as is, less confusion that way.

You can chill too ya' know.

I am like Zichi, have three adult children, grandkid on the way, have kids, dont have kids, it's a personal choice. Personally speaking, rather have them, even with all the headaches and problems they bring, wouldn't hyave it any different.

My wife and I have spent close to 3千万円paying for their education and everything, could we have used the money elsewhere, sure, but no money was better spent than what we used on our children.

I ain't greedy, if I have my beer, my cigs, my wife and kids....my dog....damn life is good!

2 ( +3 / -1 )

 think most foreigners (English teachers) would have a hard time raising a family on their under ¥300,000 salary with no bonus or hope for a raise.

Why do you think most foreigners would be teaching English? Most foreigners are from China (30%) and South Korea (20%) and that already covers half of all the foreigners living here. Add Taiwan, Vietnam and Brasil and you cover already almost 70%. English teachers are a very small minority.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

Weiwei

Youre right, most of the foreigners here aren't English teachers at all.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Back on topic please.

Yubaru

Since it obviously bothers you, sure, I won't direct comments at you.

I never quoted you though.

Enjoy the beer and cigs!

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Foreigners meaning ? Permanent residents or non-Permanent Residents ?

What about Native Japanese ?

For a Study to have significance, we need to understand what the aim was and what the breakdown of its population was - otherwise it's simply no better than Fake News.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

For a Study to have significance, we need to understand what the aim was and what the breakdown of its population was - otherwise it's simply no better than Fake News.

Even without knowing those things it is still better than fake news.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The Japanese government/ establishment are not interested in helping to raise the birth rate/ proportion of children in Japan so stop wasting everyone's time with these news stories and soundbytes. It's a waste of everyones time reading this stuff. Any country that basically has no paternity leave support, does not encourage working mothers with decent benefits, has done little to provide nursery place support in its capital city, has a married couples tax allowance that forces wives to earn a pittance, is just not interested in increasing the birth rate. Good luck to the Japanese pension pot in the future by the way..

2 ( +3 / -1 )

Seimei wa kicho desu.. dakara they overwork adults, ban others from living in their country and complain about the lack which they enforce. So I cannot feel sorry for a country who do not value life.

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Apart from crowded Tokyo it is depressing to see so little government investment in other parts of Japan.

The Tokyocentric focus might be beneficial to making money but not to raising children.

Bringing up children in such a

environment?

No thanks!

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Buy a dog instead of having a human child. It's much easier and less expensive and one always gets love back.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

Many people on this forum seem to misunderstand the reasons for the lower birth rates. It is not due to financial hardships or economic conditions. Having children is simply not considered so important to the new generation anymore. Anyway, I don't think Japan needs so many children, not at this present time anyway. Children can be disruptive and make a lot of noise. They can be a bit of a "meiwaku" for the older generation who like peace and quiet so maybe it is a good thing. We should try and see the positive side in the lowering birth rates.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

Sure the West has the same problems but just reading the news recently in Japan - birth rates falling, child abuse cases at record levels and Japanese mothers having child custody cancelled at increasing rates somethings wrong

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Children can be disruptive and make a lot of noise. They can be a bit of a "meiwaku" for the older generation who like peace and quiet so maybe it is a good thing. We should try and see the positive side in the lowering birth rates.

Right, and those same "older generation" were kids once too and "meiwaku" to the older generation back then as well....except the older generation back then had tolerance for children that they themselves lack today.

Oh and it's the "older generation" that is causing a hell of a lot of disruption and noise of late too!

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Japan is not alone. Germany and Italy have the same problem. Blame urbanization. Today 70% of Japanese live in the golden crescent between the great Tokyo and Osaka metropolitan areas. Housing is cramped and expensive. The cost of living is expensive. Often times both spouses must work to afford living in the golden crescent. There is no extended family. Result? Fewer births. Surprise, surprise.

The highest birth rate is in rural Okinawa.

Germany and Italy have to some extent overcome their falling birthrates by encouraging immigration. This is an anathema to racist Japan.

So good luck. In a century National Geographic will do a photo essay on the vanishing Japanese.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Right, and those same "older generation" were kids once too and "meiwaku" to the older generation back then as well....except the older generation back then had tolerance for children that they themselves lack today.

Oh and it's the "older generation" that is causing a hell of a lot of disruption and noise of late too!

I'm sorry if you misunderstand me. In my day we used to show respect to our elders. The young children of Japan today are being poisoned by influences such as Kamen Rider and AKB which offer no value to Japanese society. This is why the new generation are having so much difficulty transitioning from "gakusei" to "shakaijin". They have difficulty grasping the fundamentals of responsibility and harmony. New parents fear that they will be unable to bring up their children as responsible citizens and this failure will only bring shame to their families. We do not like to lose face. When these issues are resolved only then can our birthrate continue to grow again.

-3 ( +1 / -4 )

We'll we have 4 children who are half Japanese and half white American. I feel japan's problems with low birthrates which a previous comment said is the work culture. I will say that culture is killing it citizen's, too much work. You have people committing suicide because they spend most of their time at work. Then the government expects them to marry and have children. Sorry Abe but if you want birthrates to go up, you need to change japan's work culture of long long hours.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I will also say that there are many of us would like to move back to Japan but finding work is not easy for a gaijin.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

It's kind of Darwinian theory in action.

You have what should be a booming, prosperous society that should at the very least be keeping it's population stable.

Instead you have is a society that, according the the birth rate is more dystopian than utopian. You have an expansive set of rigid social conditions that shackle your every step, you have men that are far more married to their workplace than their family, you have the same corporate driven system that leeches every last drop of life out of them for that privilege, which results in all sorts of social, physical and mental issues, etc, etc.

And you have politicians who don't have the courage, or the inclination to really stand up for their constituents and enact real change for, and on behalf of them. Perhaps because the people themselves just passively accept it as their lot, so they don't really have to.

A lack of will to procreate in the existing socio-political milieu has to be a pretty serious red flag. But I suppose you also have to be able to recognise it, and adapt. Or die.

I'm being overly dramatic of course, but it's a pretty damning review of a society, and culture by it's very own.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Abe may be a dangerous fantasist but he's hardly to blame for this; way back in the 1970s demographers in Japan predicted exactly what would happen but successive LDP governments and the bureaucrats totally ignored them. It was bad news at a time of good news, it was a very difficult problem to solve and it was happening 50 years in the future. Of course they ignored it.

Japan should be reinventing itself as a kind of Scandinavia-in-Asia. Instead, it's going back to the 1930s; where there's no hope for the future, there are no kids.

Alfie nails this. Japan's birthrate crashed in the 1970s and the country has done nothing significant to make it recover. Like the aging problem, Japan has had a chance to develop coping mechanisms for societal changes that have hit Japan before other First World countries, but has failed to do anything of note.

I think Japan is a very family unfriendly country. Workers belong to their companies, not their families, and their children belong to schools, not their families. Any time parents spend with their kids has to fit into what is left after the kids have done how much overtraining their club expects and after the parents have done whatever duties their employers, their neighborhood, and the PTA expects. This can leave very little time to have fun. It is also a given that the family itself has a father and mother and in inaka, grandparents to run the kids around and look after them when the father and mother are doing the various duties mentioned above. No other form of family is ever considered. The needs of single parents, visitation rights of parents without custody, rights of parents who don't want to get married etc. are not considered.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Japan power culture is based on entrenching status quo with concentration of power at the top among the old, elites and rich in government, businesses, associations, etc. The old and powerful are either relishing and enjoying their power and its related cultural benefits or physically too weak, seeing doctors to be really concerned about demographics realities, though they will superficially lament about it. Japanese are trained for status quo since young and not about truth to confront real issues. Its not a questioning, seeking nor anticipatory society but group(s) based socially conformist society.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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