Daisen comments

This is number is much higher in reality as around 190,000 children are alienated every year from one of their parents in this country..including my two children. It has been 2.5 years since they have been abducted by my ex and I have only been able to see them for 1 hour in the court house last August. THIS IS CHILD ABUSE.

If anyone doesn't understand this issue do a web search of parental child abduction in Japan and you will see what a widespread problem it is.

"We take the results very seriously and intend to improve the child welfare center system to protect children's lives," said an official at the agency..

This statement is nonsense..the courts and government do absolutely nothing to protect the rights of children and ensure their safety, instead they make rulings which end up facilitating their abuse. People wonder why the birthrate is dramatically falling but never consider that Japan is karmically getting exactly what it deserves.

"Not my three young-adult kids, all living on their own in Japan, one a new father. There's the cost of getting married, raising kids, general insecurity to be considered. Ponder that before dismissing young people as layabouts."

Congrats on becoming a grandparent recently:) You have obviously done a great job in raising your kids. You must also understand that your families situation is not the norm otherwise this wouldn't be an issue and countless videos/ articles on this topic wouldn't exist.

I wasn't exactly dismissing young people as layabouts..I was referring to what they do in their time off- I didn't mean that they do these activities instead of working.

But concerning the cost of raising kids- I just don't buy into the idea that it is too expensive and that's why people aren't making babies. After WWII, families in the countryside were averaging 3-4 children and these folks were not raking in the money.

You've mentioned the cost of getting married as prohibitive but you can go to the city hall and fill out the paperwork for minimal cost, nobody needs a big fancy wedding. Raising kids- a monthly stipend is given from the gov which should cover diapers and formula. Health care is basically free. Day care is based on income- if you are low income it is practically free as well. You mentioned general insecurity but this is life- nothing is guaranteed.

If someone wants more money go out and take a risk and develop a skill and start a business. But you don't see this here. People just follow sheepishly follow the regular pattern into their ¥220,000 a month job and then say they are helpless. I think it cannot be argued that many "adults" are not exactly adulting in this country..but this could be the case in many countries, not just Japan.

2.5 minutes in and I already have to turn this off. How does the same old story get told over and over again without actually identifying the actual issue?

This is not only my observation but something any Japanese person will tell you-- Japanese people are not good at interpersonal relationships. Well, guess what you need to be able to do in order to make children?-- form a deep interpersonal relationship with your partner.

Why are the Japanese not good at relationships? It stems from the fact that from birth they are taught to internalize their feelings and thoughts for the sake of the harmony in the group. As a person does this for the first 2.5 decades of their life they really don't build up an emotional maturity because they have never worked through any complex thoughts or situations, they have just suppressed them or run from the issue completely. Eventually you end up with a person who physically looks like an adult but has the emotional maturity of a child.

This is at the heart of the birthrate issue. You have a generation of young adults who are more concerned with reading manga, watching anime, and scrolling on social media all from the comforts of the house they grew up in with their mother cooking their meals, washing their clothes, and making their beds.