jg12345 comments

If 10 adults have 8 children and live in 5 houses, why should the 8 children pay the pensions of the 2 adults who didn't have any children? 7 children will go into debt (student loans, car loans, mortgage on a house), while the 8th child will become a hikikomori and smartly realize that he can get ahead financially simply by not going into debt. Better to have a zero net worth than a negative net worth.

When all the pensioners pass away, there are 5 houses and only 8 children. 6 get married, that's 3 houses. 1 is a single female who earns a lot of money and she buys her own house, but refuses to marry a hikikomori. Then there is still a 5th house. In 10+ years, the hikikomori gets it for free under a government program to reintegrate them into society.

Hikikomori wins. These are not stupid or lazy people, they are very smart. With stupidity like Abenomics you can expect a lot more of them.

1950 Japan population pyramid: http://www.ipss.go.jp/site-ad/TopPageData/1950e.png

2015 Japan population pyramid: http://www.ipss.go.jp/site-ad/TopPageData/2015e.png

People debating the social aspects of this article really don't understand what is happening to the world financially. The global financial system is imploding. You can attack and criticize young people, but they didn't create these problems. This youth unemployment crisis is an epidemic that is getting worse, and it's not just Japan, it's everywhere. In Europe 30% of young adults are unemployed. All jobs were sent to other countries while the ageing middle class citizens lived wildly beyond their means by running up the government credit cards.

Major crisis is coming I think. Can't have a society with no babies and complete economic denial of the young.

Women want to marry up, but they also fight for equal opportunities. Those two things aren't simultaneously possible.