Japan’s top government spokesperson said Monday that the number of babies born this year is below last year's record low
TOKYO -- The number of babies born in Japan this year is below last year’s record low in what the the top government spokesman described as a “critical situation.”
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno promised comprehensive measures to encourage more marriages and births.
The total of 599,636 Japanese born in January-September was 4.9% below last year’s figure, suggesting the number of births in all of 2022 might fall below last year's record low of 811,000 babies, he said.
Japan is the world’s third biggest economy but living costs are high and wage increases have been slow. The conservative government has lagged on making society more inclusive for children, women and minorities.
So far, the government's efforts to encourage people to have more babies have had limited impact despite payments of subsidies for pregnancy, childbirth and child care.
“The pace is even slower than last year ... I understand that it is a critical situation,” Matsuno said.
Many younger Japanese have balked at marrying or having families, discouraged by bleak job prospects, onerous commutes and corporate cultures incompatible with having both parents work.
The number of births has been falling since 1973, when it peaked at about 2.1 million. It's projected to fall to 740,000 in 2040.
Japan's population of more than 125 million has been declining for 14 years and is projected to fall to 86.7 million by 2060. A shrinking and aging population has huge implications for the economy and for national security as the country fortifies its military to counter China's increasingly assertive territorial ambitions.
A government-commissioned panel submitted a report to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida last week citing the low birth rate and falling population as factors that might erode Japan's national strength.
ClancyHabbard on November 30th, 2022 at 03:06 UTC »
There are so many issues that feed into why the low birth rate in Japan. A lot has to do with Japanese work culture and home culture though. If a woman works full time, she's still expected to do most/all of the child rearing and all of the household chores and the household finances. The husband will be absent because of the insane amount of hours working.
So basically you end up with one adult that's exhausted because of work constantly, and the other basically has three full time jobs and is seen as a failure if they can't balance everything. That's also on top of trying to get the child into a daycare, for which there are generally insane waiting lists (like you register when you find out you're pregnant and hope to get a spot by the kid turns two).
There are also other issues. Doctors are frequently unkind to women during their pregnancy, and the stay during birth is also fairly unpleasant. I live in Japan and just gave birth this month, but having to deal with that for the last year was exhausting and makes me not want to have a second child just to avoid having to deal with that again. I've been chewed out multiple times for allowing myself to get fat during pregnancy (I weight seven pounds more after birth than I did before, and was still lectured for being fat), I was lectured for not eating a diet that was proper for a Japanese baby (the doctor tried to go off on me for eating Western foods, like pasta, instead of a strictly Japanese diet), and I was constantly told conflicting information (such as to control my blood sugar, and then the next doctor would go off on me for not eating enough white rice because apparently, according to the doctor, Japanese white rice is healthier than any other rice from any other country and won't cause blood sugar issues), and when I finally was in labor was dismissed as lying or just complaining about a little pain (I nearly gave birth alone in a room in the hospital because everyone kept dismissing me).
And then during the required five day stay the nurses continuously put diapers a size too small on my baby, making the baby cry and scream with every diaper change and now they have a rash around their abdomen from it (the nurses kept insisting that the diapers were newborn diapers, and thus for all newborns, without listening to me when I pointed out that my baby was bigger than the other babies and needed bigger diapers), I was constantly shamed for breastfeeding (I was told repeatedly by doctors and nursing staff that it's not possible to have a healthy baby if a mother only breastfeeds, and that formula is necessary for a healthy baby. There's nothing wrong with my milk supply, I'm pumping and measuring now to make sure, and baby was up to their birth weight in seven days with just breastfeeding, but the medical staff all pushed that the other mothers were all formula feeding, and that me breastfeeding was bad for my baby. And they send me home with a full bag of formula samples and 'literature'. With added excuses like 'baby can't get calcium from breastmilk' and 'it will be inconvenient if you want to sleep'), and I was told it was 'strange' that I wanted to keep my baby with me while I was in the hospital instead of just putting the baby in the nursery and 'enjoying a relaxing stay'. It's like medical staff treat mothers as a byproduct to making the baby, and were confused as to why I wanted to hold and have a relationship with my baby.
All in all, trying to have and raise children in Japan, as a woman, is stressful and time expensive. And until Japan really cracks down on work culture to encourage families to actually be a family, and stops with whatever the fuck is wrong with their medical system, it's always going to continue to be an issue. I'm lucky that I have relatives that live nearby who can help out when I need it, and are retired and thus don't have time constraints like others (and are active enough to take care of a child when I need a helping hand), but that's outside the norm. It's a shitshow for most of the country.
Annoying_guest on November 29th, 2022 at 19:20 UTC »
Young people continue to tell old people exactly why they aren't having kids and the old people just say "no that can't be it"
Ceratisa on November 29th, 2022 at 18:59 UTC »
It is my personal opinion that if you want more people having children you need to make the prospect more affordable. You need to have the time, energy, and finances to raise a child