Kishida warns Japan on brink of social dysfunction amid falling birthrate

36 comments

1. Kishida you clever badass!

2. [deleted]

3. Took ’em a while to figure it out, eh?

4. i swear they’ve been saying this for forever with no effective plan to counteract it

5. Why even bother? It gets tiring to hear it the same thing again and again. This government, all governments, have no chance reversing the low birth rate. The problem is beyond their comprehension.

6. Are people really not having children because of the expense of childcare facilities? I’m more interested in getting to a situation in which my wife can take a couple of years off full time work to take care of our child(ren).

   The impression I often get is that prospective mothers would rather not work full time and put their very young children into institutional care. Meanwhile, fewer and fewer men attain the kind of stable employment that allows their wives to quit working (at least in the short term).

   Of course this would be counter to the LDP’s aim of having absolutely everyone in full time work and paying taxes… and it’s also probably not possible for the government to force it. But if they seriously want to counteract the birthrate decline then they need to facilitate a situation in which more men can be the sole source of income for a young family.

   Not exactly a fashionable situation, but it still seems like the sort of situation that people desire.

7. You can expect an uptick in tv shows that show how “dangerous” western countries are in order to scare the populace from ever considering emigrating.

8. If they want more kids they need to lower the cost of living dramatically. People need more free time to date, money to spend on dating and themselves, and need to feel financiallly secure. It’s the same in most countries I imagine. No bullshit with taxes to give rebates for having kids. Improve everyone’s lives by getting everyone more cash in hand without raising costs. It’s not hard.

   I’d love to be out there finding a partner, instead I always end up working optional overtime because I need the cash. So I have no time to go out and meet people. And if course, the extra cash just gets gobbled up by rising cost of goods, food, and bills.

   If It didn’t, I wouldn’t have to work the over time. I could save some cash and maybe go out. Maybe I would meet someone. And then my savings might give me the security I need to think about starting a family.

   We should be doing less work as a society as automation increases. One person’s labour today is worth so much more than in the past. Yet we’ve been stuck in a rut for decades while profits and prices seem free to go up. It’s not rocket science. People need time and money to eventually start a family and we just don’t have that now. Well, less and less of us have that, I should say. Rules for thee, not for me, as they say.

9. I’m in the only one who thinks that years of people saying the world is getting worse, that Japan is constantly becoming more dangerous, and that the future will be horrible might have something to do with people not wanting kids?

10. What will it take for Japan to look at increasing immigration as a part of its demographics and finance strategy??

11. 20 years too late.

12. In response Kishida announced that people over the age of 65 will now get to ride the train for free and get free health care. Hence getting more votes to get reelected which will enable him to warn the young generation of their impending doom for 4 more years!

13. Why does everyone worry about climate change and then worry about falling birthrate. A falling birthrate is the best thing for our planet is it not? I’m no expert obviously but that’s just my observation

14. Japan has just outsourced manufacturing (of workers) to low cost countries. Japanese companies bring over fresh labor units every year, the labor units work and pay into the Japanese tax and pension system, and when convenient, they are then sent back to their home countries. It’s a no-brainer.

15. He can warn all he likes, it’ll still fall on deaf ears. And that’s if anyone even pays attention to political news, which anyone under the age of 65 doesn’t bother with. Who can blame them? Anyone who thinks the country can get out of this downward spiral now is detached from reality. Just visit anywhere outside of a large city and you’ll see the result of 40 years of bad governance.

16. Japanese society is failing in almost every way. And these old bastards who just care should have someone to wipe their ass when they get older, so they need kids.
    Japan offers the following living conditions for a young man with a university degree (slightly better than average):
    Marrying in her late 20s and had two children, your wife will stop working at the latest after the second kind and enjoys life with mamatomo. You work 40 years for 55h/ week, have no vacation in your life in 2 weeks in a row, pay 250k each for your child’s university degree (probably low class private universities). Who want to have this shit???

17. My wife works for the government, she got home at 9 pm tonight. This country is fucked in its work culture.

18. These politicians are helpless, worthless and useless. The worst kind of slimeballs you can find in politics actually. It really is insane. This issue has been foreseen and predicted and talked about for generations, but paper pushers in ministries are just kicking the can down the road, passing the problem on to the next guy. Meanwhile, Japan Inc. is just making bank$$ on extremely predatory labor relations, low wages that have stagnated for DECADES (while cost of living is high).

    Its culture is very peaceful, but the downside of this is that there is no communication (which allows to keep the peace in the first place). People don’t wanna lose face, they don’t want YOU to lose face either, so they just circle around the issues instead of tackling them. This country is beyond fucked, let them sail into the sunset. It sounds like a rant but it isn’t, it’s just the sad damn truth.

19. Stop treating foreigners like a threat. Legalize weed. Increase the minimum wage. Shorten the work week. It’s not hard to solve these problems if you’re not a dinosaur.

20. This is obvious to anyone with half a brain or more, however i have absolutely no clue how to solve this. It would require serious sacrifices from everyone, which i honestly dont think are fair to impose on people.

21. Eh

22. Honestly, I think that all they have to do is government sanction shorter work days (absolutely no overtime, cause you know it won’t be compensated) and maybe instate a three day week end, their economy is already in the dumps it is quite obvious that their prevalent black companies aren’t going to do anything to better the economy so allowing moonlighting and for the people to do as they please will probably do more for the economy anyway. People talk about allowing more immigration, and we all know that isn’t gonna happen. I think if you just focus on making sure that the Japanese people have more time to be people and not just work-a-holics maybe they would have a lower rate of hikikomori too.

23. it couldnt possibly the toxic overwork culture??!?!?!?!!

24. “Go-to Childbirth” starting soon!!!

25. I have a two years old child.
    I was thinking about having another one but
    it would be too much expensive.
    A single emergency like a broken car, a big hospital bill or whatever and BOOM, we are broke.

    The alternative is to work as hell, so i would have the money but i would not know either my childrens faces or voices.

    Consider that i live in the most known city in Japan for child support aid.

26. Fucked up work culture, low wages and rising costs … yeh no wonder

27. Huh, you think low wages have a direct impact on willingness to have children? Maybe look into that?

28. If japan is facing social dysfunction, then might as well free dat weed.

    Let people relax as society collapses.

    I am half joking, half serious.

    Japan will sit around and lament that the world around them is burning, but then do nothing about it but lament and mull.

    Sir. Society in Japan has collapsed. Should we legalize weed?

    No! Society will…. um… because tradition.

    Sir. Weed was part of Japanese culture and society for 1900 years at least.

    No, because then all the geriatrics that got me elected won’t reelect me.

29. The headline should be “Kishida Sets Up Another Committe To Investigate Lack of Penis Use”.

    It’s a cultural issue that is too ingrained in Japanese society. Unless there are seismic shifts in work and education, there will be no change. Nobody should be surprised by this.

30. で……❓

31. They can fix this easily if they increase immigration. The yearly numbers now are way too low

32. I think another detractor for most people having kids is eating out. It difficult sometimes finding places that will accept kids. More than normal in my personal experience.

33. Same problems as South Korea.. sigh..

34. Meanwhile, not enough daycares for kids(probably because teachers dont get paid shit, cost of groceries is skyrocketing (at least 10% increase in my area), utilities is skyrocketing even more (my electric is up 40%).

35. This is a preview of whats to come for the US. We are also dysfunctional and overworked.

    Unlike the Japanese, Americans are overworked because they HAVE to. Japanese are “overworked” because of their culture. The Japanese have MASTERED the art of “looking busy.” Japan is the LEAST productive of the G7, while the US is the MOST productive. Yet, Americans are drowning in financial woes and worries.

36. Children are a huge commitment, not only in terms of money, but also energy. Parents are “forced” to put someone else above themselves and their personal fulfilment. Conversely, any economic incentive that there may have been in the past centuries to have children doesn’t exist anymore.

    No wonder people are deciding to not have children. Population decline is inevitable.