2y ago

Third of Japan's 18-year-old women may never have children: study

www.japantimes.co.jp

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2y ago

Third of Japan's 18-year-olds women may never have children: study

www.japantimes.co.jp /news/2023/08/30/japan/society/teenagers-dont-want-children/

82 comments

"The challenge is that no single cause can be identified for the declining rate." Sure you can: capitalism.
- So true. Over and over again in the article it says that people can’t afford children and universities. It keeps saying the cost of living is up and then says there is no single cause people won’t have children.
  
  And you can’t discount Japan’s absurdly toxic work culture.
- I agree with capitalism being a main cause. Additionally, many people also just don't want to raise a child. They don't want the added responsibilities and lack of freedom. Even people for whom capitalism works would rather enjoy their own life.
  
  I just don't want to go through pregnancy, personally. Love kids but not enough to risk my life and permanent bodily changes. The being poor part is secondary
- Was going to say climate change, but really the underlying cause is capitalism there too...
- It is after all, the only thing you people know how to call out as a systemic issue in the world, so it might as well be solely responsible for every gripe you have I suppose huh.
  
  Let's read the article and look the causes:
  "With the rising cost of living, I don't think people feel they can afford to, or comfortably say they want to, have children," said 23-year-old Anna Tanaka.
  In 2020, women got married for the first time at an average age of 29.4, or 3.9 years later than in 1985, government data shows.
  As people have fewer children, they are able to spend more on each child than families have in the past. That drives up the average cost of raising a child for the broader population
  Tuition at private universities jumped fivefold between 1975 and 2021, and by 19 times at public universities, data shows.
  These are all symptoms of capitalism. Alienation and seeking "class mobility" leads to people getting married later. The cost of living is a capitalist construct, and it rises primarily due to seeking profit. Colleges are also seeking to profit, and have successfully convinced people that taking debt early in life is good for individuals going into the labor pool. The debt also increases alienation and people who would have children are suddenly priced out of it due to education debt.
  
  Capitalism is surely partly to blame but it's laughable to identify it as the sole cause.
- So brave. What an insightful comment. If you people stub your toe you will find a way to blame capitalism. Such a vacuous statement with no real world application.
  
  If people dont have enough time to spend and raise their kids, dont have enough money to raise them without despair, if they dont have where to drop them during work hours, people cant have kids.
  You really should think before doing a vacuous remark about anything.
- See guys. Pirky gets it.
  
  Is this a Corky reference?
Sounds great to me. Wish every country had a declining birth rate.
- Honestly, if everyone woman only had 2 children that would still reduce the population without causing demographic collapse which is what Japan is undergoing. A rapid decline in population creates misery for everyone. You really what a birth rate that hovers around 2 for gentle population decline.
  
  I've heard the claim rapid decline is terrible before. I imagine there may be some adjustments people dislike which is easier to adjust on a slower rate of decline.. but "misery", how?
- Get real, the only reason it's a problem for them is they're too racist to encourage immigration from more populous nations.
To add onto the capitalist blame: people are conditioned to think in a capitalist way, and raising a child is a definite losing venture, hence people won't invest in that shit.
- Quite the opposite, capitalists want more human resources, human capital. There's an entire ideology, at least centuries old, about this. You can most easily read about it as: pronatalism.
  People aren't conditioned to think in a capitalist way, they're conditioned to think about their kids future not being worse than their present, since having kids can throw you into poverty.
  
  Some wrong language I guess. You talk capitalists as those who possess stuff, and you're right in this way. I talk about the liberal ideology of capitalism that produces consumer citizens and the glorification of individualism. The people a capitalist society produce.
- If you can hardly feed and house yourself ... you can't afford to woo a wife or raise a kid :/ but that won't stop some people trying to half-ass it I guess
- They’re not just brainwashed they are living a capitalist reality where those thoughts are rational observations of the truth around them.
  definite losing venture
  I get it now. You’re some teenager who doesn’t know that raising kids is literally massively expensive. Gee you must think you’re so bright for coming up with this idea that people are conditioned to think of kids as revenue negative enterprise! I can’t believe the size of the whoosh here.
  
  I don't think I disagree with you, but with this comment you're kinda being an ass
- You uh... don't know what you're talking about.
  
  Does he not? From a purely selfish financial pov having a kid is a terrible idea.
  Sure, most people don't explicitly think in those terms, but financial stability absolutely is a factor many people consider before having kids
- Tho, you make it once and have it for the rest of your life.
  
  The purchase price is negligible, but the total cost of ownership is staggering.
Sigh. All right. Guess I'll have to do my part. I can impregnate them. /s
- I loved when the news came out that Japan didn't have enough male porn stars and you could hear a bunch of chubby white guys considering a career change.
  
  What's this news?
It's more surprising that 2/3 of Japanese women have children before they turn 19!
Good.

82 comments