Posted on 05/29/2023 3:20:58 PM PDT by MinorityRepublican
Set against mountains and forests, Nagi basks beneath a cobalt sky, reflected in perfectly symmetrical rows of submerged rice paddies. But there is more to this town in western Japan than pretty views and agricultural output. Nagi is quietly producing what much of the rest of the country is lacking: children.
On a recent afternoon, groups of schoolchildren weighed down by their randoseru stopped off at the museum of contemporary art on their way home. In a public building nearby, adults struggled to make themselves heard above the din of excitable preschoolers.
It is the sound of a community that is defying Japan’s stubbornly low birthrate, and by some margin.
The fertility rate in Nagi doubled from 1.4 to 2.95 in 2019, dropping slightly to 2.68 in 2021 – still more than twice the national average of 1.3, or the number of children a woman can expect to have in her lifetime.
Amid warnings from the prime minister, Fumio Kishida, that Japan’s declining birthrate threatens its ability to function as a society, the town’s 5,700 residents might just have found the answer.
Its elevated birthrate is the result of two decades of local initiatives designed to make this farming town a child-rearing utopia and, perhaps, arrest a demographic trend that, according to the most recent government forecast, will send Japan’s population plummeting from 125 million today to 87 million in 2070. With population decline comes a shrinking economy, huge pressure on families and an over-burdened workforce.
Nagi has earned the nickname of Japan’s “miracle town” through a combination of generous financial incentives and, as the Guardian discovered during a recent visit, by involving every member of the community in bringing up its youngest residents.
‘We love the sound of children’s voices’ That approach is on display at Nagi Child Home,
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
One of the hardest parts of raising 4 children was the isolation. This seems to be a solution.
Send the seniors away. Leave room for the young. Hawaii(big island) is undeveloped. So is Australia. Hawaiian weather would be perfect for them. Build Japanese style housing with tatami mats. More tourism for family reunions. Build a university extension in Hilo. A Japanese version of The Villages. I’m way ahead of you folk.
>>by involving every member of the community in bringing up its youngest residents.
So Hilary was right? “It takes a village....”
No, it does not “hold the key.” Part of the local organization of this town (which was covered in the Wall Street Journal) was that the elderly were drawn into child care. Once Japan’s current elderly women die, that option is foreclosed.
If mothers are not going to take care of their children personally, and old people have died, the only option is immigrant servants.
> If mothers are not going to take care of their children personally, and old people have died, the only option is immigrant servants.
AI and robotics is coming along very quickly.
Where is your data? I thought Israel was much lower? Does that come from Palestinians?
Using seniors is the natural order of things. While the parents are busy earning an income, the seniors can teach the family’s culture.
In theory, but the seniors have to be there and take the jobs. Although each child born has four grandparents, those people’s being alive and available to bring up the child while the mother and father are in paid employment is not guaranteed.
We live in a mortal world and that’s how it is supposed to be. You’re right there is no guarantee because many things can happen that can take our grandparents away prematurely. However, that’s how we were designed to live. We are supposed to be clannish, so that other family members can help raise the kids.
The left wants the clannish values, but they think they can translate those values over millions of people and who come from different cultures and ethnicities.
I agree on the evolutionary principle, but translating it into policy doesn’t work.
Suppose I have a child at 24, and that child has a child at 24. Now I’m 48. If I have a professional career, I’m not retired at 48 and going to be a fulltime caretaker of my grandchild. I’m just hitting my peak years of earning and professional success.
Not to mention that the mathematical sequence of “four grandparents = two parents = one child” is societal extinction in the fairly near term.
AI and robotics can’t take care of children.
It wouldn’t translate into just one child. Families who lived like this had 6 or 7 kids, who would be raised by the grandparents.
I agree that it couldn’t be made to work in the modern world, but the modern world is what is devastating families and resulting in the societal ills that we see today, like transgenderism.
Maybe when Christ comes, we can have that society back. It doesn’t mean your career aspirations have to go.
The 6 or 7 children in a family (in Japan) are today’s elderly. When they’re gone, they’re gone.
In the restored heavens and earth of the Messiah’s reign, “career” won’t even be a thing, because none of us will die again, and there won’t be new children. There will just be ... life ... and our minds formed in our fallen, temporary lives have a hard time conceiving it.
Japans increasingly gynocentric society will crush any hopes of increasing birth rates.
This isn’t daycare for working moms, it’s low cost daycare for Sahms so they can do errands or shopping.
They seem to be making larger families fashionable again.
I tend to disagree with the idea that there is no bonding in Heaven. We were made to bond and we can see the results, in both men and women, what happens when a person can’t bond. They become basically sociopaths. It’s built into our natures to bond.
Having said that, I think what Christ said is that the legal aspects that we require for marriage is what goes away because our natures will be changed. Nothing Christ has said indicates that we won’t be bonding in the eternal life, but we won’t need the legalities in regards to bonding that we need on this side of eternity.
https://www.patheos.com/blogs/goodandtruth/2012/09/is-there-marriage-in-heaven/
Just imagine a robot with AI changing diapers for your kid!
Good news! I hope many more Japanese communities as well as the national government follow this community’s lead.
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