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The period when the number of only children began to increase coincides with the 'employment ice age generation' who entered the workforce in the 1990s and 2000s when the economy was in bad shape.

6 Comments

The percentage of couples with one child has surged from 10% to 20% in the past 20 years, according to the Japanese National Fertility Survey conducted by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.

© Mainichi Shimbun

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It wasn’t strictly “the economy.” It was wage suppression, a period when Japanese employers cut wages, year after year, in the form of reduced “bonuses,” which are not actually “bonuses” but deferred income. This remains Japan’s major problem today.

6 ( +9 / -3 )

If Japanese wages/birthrates were low/declining when the global economy was doing OK, think what they are going to be like in the future as supply chains are cut, imports are surcharged, food supplies become erratic and the tech industry - the main driver of economic growth for decades - gets taken down by governments and gutted of cash. It's only going to get worse. It may be time to give up on any hope of reform and start planning for the worst. Tin hats on.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

When the support for having and growing children is almost nonexistent, this is what is happening.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Nothing wrong with being or having an only child.

Quality,not quantity.

They only want more taxpayers, right?

-2 ( +3 / -5 )

Nobody would think that coincidental, less money and less job stability will lead to less children.

-3 ( +8 / -11 )

It coincidew with access to pills, women at work and media giving more importance to singles than families.

-5 ( +2 / -7 )

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