Posted on 08/16/2023 9:11:30 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
TOKYO -- Up to 42% of Japanese women born in 2005 could end up not having children in their lifetimes, according to a government estimate, a high percentage that could threaten the future of its social security program.
Japan's National Institute of Population and Social Security Research gives this estimate for women born in 2005 under its low-birth scenario. In the medium scenario, 33.4% of this group will go through their childbearing years without having kids. In the most optimistic case, the rate will be 24.6%.
The percentage is even higher for men, who are more likely to be unmarried than women. As many as half of male 18-year-olds will never have children, the report estimates.
The share of people without children is rising in such other developed economies as the U.S. and Europe. This has been attributed to a shift in values as more people focus on self-fulfillment rather than having kids.
In these countries, around 10% to 20% of women born in 1970 never had children. The share in Japan is significantly higher at 27% and could end up at more than double Western levels if American and European rates stay around their current levels.
The trend of not having children has lost some momentum in the U.S., the U.K. and Germany over the past few years. Efforts to make it easier to balance work with raising a family have encouraged more people to opt for at least one child.
Japan has also been trying to create a better environment for prospective parents with measures like its work-style reforms.
But young people have become less interested in marriage and children amid stagnant wages and deep-seated uncertainty about the future. The institute's National Fertility Survey for 2021 found a surge in the number of unmarried young people who are fine with the idea of staying single for life.
While China and South Korea have seen birthrates plunge over the past several years, their declines started later than that of Japan, which is among the first to grapple with a rise in the population of older adults without children.
In Japan, hospitals and nursing care facilities require a family member to serve as a guarantor, and it can be difficult for those without relatives to rent homes.
"There needs to be an urgent discussion on building a social safety net in every area -- including pensions, medical care, nursing care and living assistance -- that does not disadvantage people without family, along with funding," said social security expert Takashi Oshio, a professor at Hitotsubashi University's Institute of Economic Research.
Thinking of a certain Deep Purple song.
There are millions of Filipinos, Vietnamese, and Westerners who would jump at the chance to immigrate and raise the Japanese population both now and in the future. The Japanese would rather allow their society to cease to exist. Short of forcible immigration (cf. “Eagle Pass”), that isn’t going to change.
I posted this in a similar article about 2 weeks ago:
Japanese women have tremedous issues of their own.
They are two-faced (honne and tatemae). They will not tell you whats wrong. They will leave the relationship before telling you whatever the issue is. Huge problem, culturally.
They expect once married the man hands over his salry to them. Umm, no way. Dont care if dad did that for mom. If I’m not getting a traditional wife, don’t demand the man act traditional.
Third, the initial dating process of Japanese women destroys many good relationships but they don’t get the chance. The initial dates, first 3 or 4, if anything happens she doesnt like or is offended by, the guy won’t get ghosted. I am talking about stuff the average woman would be ok with, but for the 1st few dates she is hyper-critical of what the guy does and says. Like if he didnt iron his shirt properly. Like if she takes a comment the wrong way. They sabotage the chance of it working out. If a guy did this everyone would tell him hes an over-reacting baby. So the women there blow it this way.
Fourth, almost all Japanese women are atheists. May not be as major a deal to Japanese men, but to Christians and westerners thats a big deal. But anyone who doesn’t believe in a higher power, their moral foundations and way of viewing the world is a lot different than those who do.
Japanese women are very prideful as a group. If they decide to break it off with someone, they are too prideful to ever get back together with someone, even if they would want to, even if they realize maybe they were in the wrong. This level of pride is detrimental to relationships, and its something that can drive a person crazy in a very personal self controlled country like Japan.
There is also a huge cheating culture in Japan by both men and women. Women participate in the cheating culture there as well. Japenese women, being two faced, hiding things from a boyfriend or husband, are very good at hiding things from men, and they will hide their cheating from them as well. What she shows a man is not who she really is. Again its a cultural thing and its real. And its detrimental to trusting long term relationships.
The women there are not the cute adoring anime girls and the guys are always wrong.
None of those are about family/marriage and children.
Yup.
AND CHILDREN ARE WORTHLESS!!!
Think about it. If I’m a homo and shack up with another dude, both of us making a lot of money and living a great life, whose kids will support me when we’re old?
Is that wheelchair going to push itself down an assited living facility? Is that food going to cook itself when we’re old? Is that electricity, water, trash, uber driver just a figment of my imagination, or are these “people” that are making these things happen?
Better yet, if you’re the one with childen, who is paying for thier school, health care, cloths, food, transportation... What pefrcent of the true costs of children is covered by a $500 tax credit? Who has to deal with the inevitable conflicts, the hard choices of career vs. family, the hours and hours that need invested in that family and children?
And then who ends up benefitting from these children?
Here’s a visual explanation: If you’re the last human alive, and you had all the money in the world, a mountain of 60 trillion dollars, what would it do for you other than maybe keep you warm as you burn it?
Here’s the economic expanation: Money is an abstract concept representing human time. Anything with a price, is really just the aggregation of all the human time at various stages.
Here’s the problem with socialism. It deincentivizes having children because in a socialist communal system all the benefits of having these children are shared (example: social security, medicare) but the costs are borne mostly by the parents.
The Hungarians seem to be having some success with encouraging people to have children, vs. bringing in immigrants. Which they are resisting, creating friction with EU “leadership.” To their credit.
What have been the job prospects of young men there for a generation or more?
Oh.
Women, at least in the West, are indeed doing that. But they are not left happy about it. In fact 40 something career women are THE most unhappy demographic group in the US. Its much more like 80% of women are only interested in the top 20% of men. So they spend their youth pursuing such men. Since only the top 20% of women have a good chance of getting the top 20% of men, the rest just waste their youth riding the cock carousel until they find themselves in their early 30s and desperate.
Only then do they start pursuing men who are much closer to themselves in attractiveness. Of course many of these men will no longer be interested in them because they have none of their youth left to offer and because they know those women don't really want them, they're just desperate for someone. The result is many people then find themselves single and childless for life. As a result, women self report being far more unhappy than they were 50 years ago.
Third Wave Feminism has been an utter disaster - for women most of all.
That “carousel” imagery stays in the mind like some kind of GIF. It needs music in the background.
Well, train them to be childless and give them an environment that upholds childless and they will obey.
Women live having children if it is supported they will have many.
Couples Choosing Fertility Treatment Take More than 6 Years on Average to Conceive
Maybe something else/in addition is going on...
That is a big issue in the US too.
The hypergamy instinct has women demanding men who make significantly more money than them, but with affirmative action such men are hard to find.
The problem that Japanese women face is that their demands and expectations for "the expenses" exceed what regular men are able to deliver.
The key difference between now and 200 years ago, is that 200 years ago women were told "You WILL marry the best man willing to have you, and you WILL keep him happy enough to stay with you, or you will live in poverty when your parents are no longer supporting you".
The best course would be for women to start actively looking for a guy willing to commit to them while still in school, and aim to marry by 22, 25 at the latest.
I would be in favor of lowering marriage age to 16 (with parental consent) in all states.
And those bitter angry women watch the bitter angry shrews on The View, where they get their political orientation.
Agree.
With respect, an amendment, God is also unforgiving of whole nations when a "stiff-necked" people will not turn away from ways which the prophets detailed, millennia ago. Whether one relies on religious ways of looking at things, or scientific or civilizational / cultural, the demopgrahics tells all. Over time.
Young Japanese men as “salaryman” are expected to work long hours and to get ahead in the business culture need to spend time drinking with the bosses after hours. Young Japanese men also are immersed in a fantasy world of anime culture and do not know how to have a real dating experience. This problem has been brought on by a rigid Japanese culture.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.