The number of children born in Japan in 2025 fell from a year earlier to 705,809, the fewest since data became available in 1899 and hitting a new low for the 10th consecutive year, health ministry data showed Thursday.
I think we’re just going to have to come to terms with the idea that people simply have better shit to do.
An educated population has more options to choose from, having kids doesn’t make the cut.
Meanwhile you have Handmaids Tale hellscapes like Afghanistan which has one of the highest birthrates in the world at 4.8 births per woman, is it worth it? I think not.
Ideally countries will accept people’s choices and prepare for a future with less people but the whole system runs on endless growth so I imagine we’ll see some brutal stick action when it’s obvious the carrots aren’t moving the needle enough.
I know people who want to have kids but they worry about daycare and such (rough lottery-ish system in Tokyo) and jobs (which means moving to someplace like Tokyo) and the overtime expectations and such. So much stuff here nearly expects one person being home or not working during business hours to get stuff done yet, on the medium japanese, or even Tokyo, income, that’s not tenable. The yen keeps dropping compared to other currencies yet our fuel, agricultural inputs, and many raw materials are still imported.
I’ve been here a decade and have citizenship elsewhere so, if worse comes to worse, I have options. Most japanese do not. Yet salaries remain stagnant whilst everything goes up in prise or disappears from the market.
People also generally need support if they are to have kids.
If you have a cultural expectation that people need to move out when they are of age, they can’t rely on grandparents or extended family to look after the children, and if they are spending all their other time working, they’re just not going to have the time to find someone to have kids with, or be able to actually raise the children.
In the absence of other factors, like needing the kids to help out on the farm, people have no reason to have them. Especially in countries like the US, where healthcare and childcare are quite expensive. A childbirth alone is about $3000 - $30000 over there, to say nothing of health-care costs, complications, there being very little parental leave, or any of that.
I think we’re just going to have to come to terms with the idea that people simply have better shit to do.
An educated population has more options to choose from, having kids doesn’t make the cut.
Meanwhile you have Handmaids Tale hellscapes like Afghanistan which has one of the highest birthrates in the world at 4.8 births per woman, is it worth it? I think not.
Ideally countries will accept people’s choices and prepare for a future with less people but the whole system runs on endless growth so I imagine we’ll see some brutal stick action when it’s obvious the carrots aren’t moving the needle enough.
I know people who want to have kids but they worry about daycare and such (rough lottery-ish system in Tokyo) and jobs (which means moving to someplace like Tokyo) and the overtime expectations and such. So much stuff here nearly expects one person being home or not working during business hours to get stuff done yet, on the medium japanese, or even Tokyo, income, that’s not tenable. The yen keeps dropping compared to other currencies yet our fuel, agricultural inputs, and many raw materials are still imported.
I’ve been here a decade and have citizenship elsewhere so, if worse comes to worse, I have options. Most japanese do not. Yet salaries remain stagnant whilst everything goes up in prise or disappears from the market.
People also generally need support if they are to have kids.
If you have a cultural expectation that people need to move out when they are of age, they can’t rely on grandparents or extended family to look after the children, and if they are spending all their other time working, they’re just not going to have the time to find someone to have kids with, or be able to actually raise the children.
In the absence of other factors, like needing the kids to help out on the farm, people have no reason to have them. Especially in countries like the US, where healthcare and childcare are quite expensive. A childbirth alone is about $3000 - $30000 over there, to say nothing of health-care costs, complications, there being very little parental leave, or any of that.