Paying people to have babies backfires in Japan

13 comments

1. This is just translating Garbage LDP talking points (blaming Social Justice, gender equality) with an extra dose of catholic “family values” shaming.

2. >This time the subsidies that were going to be handed out were about US$400 to match the average price for giving birth at a clinic. And guess what? All those clinics on hearing the news that an unexpected bonus was coming their way have raised their prices accordingly.

   This is exactly what happened with all those travel subsidies too. Oh, you can get a 5000 yen discount off a 10,000 yen stay at a hotel? Surprise, the stay now costs exactly 5000 more the day after the program is in effect. As usual, the businesses get a nice little bonus and the consumer gets shafted. I only know of a very small number of people that actually managed to get some noticeable discounts with those programs.

3. “One reason is that the traditional family structure and traditional gender roles are slowly but surely coming under attack with the imported justification of discrimination and inequality and society needs to become more inclusive and equal.” I was wondering what the hell this steaming pile of bull shit was, then I realised it’s a Catholic ‘news’ website and it all made sense.

4. Japan always likes to act like they’re working on things when in fact they’re not doing anything at all. Like Abe’s reforms to get more women in the workforce

5. I once watched this old interview with two young married professionals. The wife said how her husband works long and erratic hours. He is a warehouse manager. She said that the Japanese man works a lot. The wife is a white-collar worker. She said that she was worried about if she were to have a baby when she comes back from maternity leave if she would still have her same position.

6. maybe just pay us in monthly payments to help with the cost of childcare? finland gives out boxes of goods like diapers and other shit. this isnt rocket science. if they really gave a fuck, they would have done some homework.

7. This article is religious propaganda masquerading as news.

   > Traditional family structure and traditional gender roles are slowly but surely coming under attack

   That’s what this publication really cares about. It’s a Catholic website. They call the unwed single life “hedomism” for Christ’s sake.

   This junk should be removed from the sub.

8. 400 bucks to have a kid?? Lol

9. The real solutions are easy, require no increase in bureaucracy, and will solve problems. Reinstate tax-deductible for families with children, make high-school free, make university free.

   None of the above create jobs for the politicians making the policy, nor opportunities for them to create new budget that trickle to their amakudari friends.

10. The reason why this backfired is that the government promised “Unprecedented measures” but what actually came out are just additional benefits for those those that already have children or planning to have children. I would have though “Unprecedented” would involve things like changing the minds of those who are determined to stay childfree, providing benefits to everyone (including family with children), investing in immigration and integration, or even transitioning to a low population model where the country can be run by a smaller population.

    There was absolutely nothing unprecedented about this at all.

11. a fucking mazing. Article makes wild claim about average prices of birth at a clinic, offers no sources of information for the cost, and draws conclusions that are convenient for his own ideology. People in the comments doing the same thing about travel. Having traveled recently, none of the hotel prices were significantly higher than even when I traveled 5 years ago around Japan.

    No offense.

12. Was this written by a high schooler?

13. The “phony priests” was funny. My coworker told me of his AET buddy that would moonlight as a priest for extra cash at those wedding places.