Without women joining the workforce, the government's tax revenue won't pick up because the population will continue to shrink.

"Without women joining the workforce, the government's tax revenue won't pick up because the population will continue to shrink."

It is time to separate women from the responsibility to raise children. Why should they serve as population resupply machines? It is clear that no country in the world yet succeeded to have women live like men, work like men, and on the top - raise children. So if you want them to be exploited at work, let's relieve them from child raising responsibilities. Currently, women have privilege of raising children. They consider it as burden and require special treatment. There are plenty of men, who would take care and raise children and work equally strong.

The necessity for a woman to be with a newborn lasts mere weeks.

Then again, if you're only prepared to do the absolute minimum necessary, why bother in the first place?

harness the creative talents of 50% of the population

Making and molding a human being isn't creative?

teach men that women are actually equal

I don't want to be dragged down to merely equal...

they don't have to be satisfied in a domestic role if that's not what they want to do

Nor should they be made to feel guilty and pressured into leaving junior with strangers in order to join the work force if that's not what they want to do.

Men in comments who think women belong barefoot in the kitchen nursing babies: check...

Guess what, it's totally possible to have both parents working and still raise children. It happens all the time, believe it or not, and if you're so worried about it, why don't you stay at home? The necessity for a woman to be with a newborn lasts mere weeks.

Reasons why we need women in the work force? To harness the creative talents of 50% of the population, to promote equality in the workplace, to teach men that women are actually equal that will subsequently lead them to respecting them as human beings and not "baby-makers" or victims to sexually harass and grope on the train, to teach girls to strive for any professional goal they dare to dream of and that they don't have to be satisfied in a domestic role if that's not what they want to do, to more accurately represent humanity in positions of power.

It's not really that hard, dudes. Sexism is the problem, and men ought to take a good look at themselves to see if they are promoting it. Women, strive for the stars, Japan and the rest of the world needs your voices.

Unemployment is already 4.5%. what jobs are these women expected to do?

So you mean, the number of jobs in an economy is fixed and new entries to the job market simply push up unemployment? This is not an accurate view of an economy.

Have you considered who is unemployed and where the vacancies are? Have you considered that a lot of the unemployed may be older or unskilled men, whereas there may be a huge demand for skilled professions such as nurses, that women could train for?

Regardless of the type of work, new entrants to the labour market increase overall vacancies. Reductions in the labour market decrease vacancies.

Japan's retiring population will anyway create more vacancies and these need to be filled. Unless they can be, the economy shrinks and the vacancy is lost.

If the populations shrinks, why can't the government shrink with it?

It's not enough to just say "women should join the workforce". The whole society needs an overhaul- eliminate gender discrimination in the work place, stop expecting women to do all the housework, and let men take paid leave for child care as well. And I think Japanese women aren't having kids because they're not happy with the status quo. Having more of the same won't solve the problem.

... or they could do the unthinkable and relax the immigration laws a tad and allow a mass of qualified, experienced and willing foreigners move to Japan and both internationalize Japanese business as well as remove some of the more archaic Japanese business practices that are strangling the Japanese economy.

Doublespeak in its purest form.

Is this guy aware that birthrates in Japan were the highest when female participation in the workforce was lowest.

This is standard across the globe as well. Countries with low female participation in the workforce have high birth rates and vice versa.

And what jobs are these women supposed to fill considering half of the batch of University grads can't find jobs each year.

Unemployment is already 4.5%. what jobs are these women expected to do?

Baby surrogates.

Unemployment is already 4.5%. what jobs are these women expected to do?

Without women joining the workforce,

Tell that to my wife. Please!

Jeff: I agree...if the women are expected to have kids, then they need a break from the workforce to at least give birth to them if not raise the kid for a year or two. And with the lack of daycare facilities in some cities, they can't really be working while raising kids at the same time. If they want to fix the issue, have more and better equiped/staffed centers for children to go to that will allow mothers to participate in the workforce if they want. Just having a bunch of women enter the workforce, especially if they are only working part-time, won't necessairly fix the issue.

With women joining the workforce, the population will shrink at an even faster rate, resulting in even less tax revenue.