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.
The immigrants aren’t the reason. Not here in Europe either.
It’s well documented at this point that people start having fewer children when medicine and economy develop in a country. It’s no longer necessary to have 10 children just in case a few die in the early years, plus there are social safety nets for the elderly so they don’t have to be entirely dependent on their children to survive when they’re too old to work.
However, while the economy is great on paper, a lot of people are finding life less and less affordable. Since the 2008 crash, in much of the world, buying a first home has started becoming harder and harder. Covid exacerbated things. Food is pretty expensive these days. A lot of people just don’t want to have children unless they can be sure they can provide for them. Now we’re also talking about the threat of being made redundant due to AI, in careers previously thought to be mostly immune to automatization. And let’s not forget the looming threat of climate change.
Really, Japan, and us here in Europe too, have to adapt to a new economic reality. Things are going to be more expensive, and there will be fewer children to cover everyone’s retirement economically - so we’re ALL going to have to make sacrifices in our lifestyles. It’s not going to be pretty, and social safety nets for the weakest among us need to be improved everywhere.
If immigrants have more children, it’s just because they’re from societies where it’s still a necessity, and normal, to have a lot of children. Fairly sure that a few generations in, it becomes normal for them, too, to have fewer children.
The immigrants aren’t the reason. Not here in Europe either.
It’s well documented at this point that people start having fewer children when medicine and economy develop in a country. It’s no longer necessary to have 10 children just in case a few die in the early years, plus there are social safety nets for the elderly so they don’t have to be entirely dependent on their children to survive when they’re too old to work.
However, while the economy is great on paper, a lot of people are finding life less and less affordable. Since the 2008 crash, in much of the world, buying a first home has started becoming harder and harder. Covid exacerbated things. Food is pretty expensive these days. A lot of people just don’t want to have children unless they can be sure they can provide for them. Now we’re also talking about the threat of being made redundant due to AI, in careers previously thought to be mostly immune to automatization. And let’s not forget the looming threat of climate change.
Really, Japan, and us here in Europe too, have to adapt to a new economic reality. Things are going to be more expensive, and there will be fewer children to cover everyone’s retirement economically - so we’re ALL going to have to make sacrifices in our lifestyles. It’s not going to be pretty, and social safety nets for the weakest among us need to be improved everywhere.
If immigrants have more children, it’s just because they’re from societies where it’s still a necessity, and normal, to have a lot of children. Fairly sure that a few generations in, it becomes normal for them, too, to have fewer children.