Why does Japan have so few children? - BBC News

Japan's number of children has been reported to be at its lowest since 1950.

There are just 14.6 million children in the nation under the age of 14, according to figures from Japan's internal affairs ministry.

Japan's falling birth rate and high life expectancy is putting pressure on public spending and resulting in labour shortages.

The BBC's population correspondent Stephanie Hegarty reports.

#Japan #BBCNews

[wataru]

In Japan, a lot of young people work in a financially unstable position called 非正規雇用, which means a non-permanent position. This has been notorious for paying poorly and giving less social security compared to permanent positions, even sometimes they both essentially do the same job. Basically there's no benefit of this type of position on the employee's side, but many employers have increased the number of non-permanent positions just to cut the employment cost. In such circumstances where lots of young workforces are exploited, low birth rate is clearly inevitable. They have neither money nor time to have a baby.

[johnjiang]

I once had a trip to Japan, it surprised me that many people who were over 70 still work. My tour guide was over 75 at that time, but he could still drive for us tourists. It is unbelievable.

[ScarletNight]

Having kids are now extremely burdening, financially!
Even on a dual income, it's hard to support them, things like high rent, gas, constant bills, school debt, of course we are unwilling to.
As we get more educated and further develop, we understand that if we want to have kids, we better be financially able to provide for them so that they have a good life.
No one wants to struggle with a kid, especially with the way the world is right now. It's quite unfortunate.

[Sarcastix]

Can't afford to buy a home, can't afford an education, can't afford to have children.

[Namu]

As a japanese woman I can say that women are much more expected to do household works than men including raising kids despite many wives have their jobs same as husbands do nowadays in Japan. For example my mother had never taught my older brother how to cook miso soup nor let him do the laundry in our childhood. She is not a bad person but its just a Japanese culture.
On the other hand usually husbands are expected to earn higher salary, and because many Japanese still tend to think long time work as contribution and enthusiasm to the job, husbands cannot leave office very early every day.
It is ridiculous and younger Japanese already noticed that, but it is hard to change older generation especially older men, the most powerful ones like politicians and company managers.
So it is very natural that Japanese women don't want many kids as they are exausted between household, raising kids and job.

[snez_l]

Most people know about the bad social support for mothers and young children, in terms of maternity leave and life/work balance.
But what most people might not know, is that having baby in Japan is super expensive.
Insurance does not cover any hospital expenses, as “pregnancy is not a disease” - quote from nurse. You get some discount coupons from government but it just so inconvenient as a pregnant woman has to carry a book of coupons to every appointment. After birth you get a lump sum from government, but that covers about 60-70% of basic expenses of hospital stay, so the rest you need to pay out of pocket. If you want epidural, need to find special hospital and pay extra for that. Also Japanese hospitals do not cover any test on things like Down syndrome, so you have to pay $500-$2000 out of pocket depending on the clinic. Myself and my husband have average Japanese salaries and cost of having baby are terrifying, so I have no idea how people with lower salaries can afford it.
On top of that there is so little attention from staff to the pregnant women, when I go to my appointments it feels like I am just troubling nurses and doctor, while in Europe they give more attention to pregnant women than other patients, plus everything is free there.

[KH-ofrb]

U.S.A. declining birthrate → No problem
Finland declining birthrate → no problem
Italy declining birthrate → No problem
Japan declining birthrate → Japan's society is the problem

Fertility rates in the above 4 countries are not much different.
Italy is worse than Japan.

And almost all developed countries have fertility problems. The only countries with growing populations are immigrants having lots of children. They are from Muslim and African countries.

[ubiki]

I’m a japanese high school student.
As one of the citizens in Japan, I feel Japan is in bad mood now. There is little hope to live happy and healthy lives.
I can’t explain what the bad mood is like accurately because Im under the support of parents. I haven’t experience the actual circumstances.
However, Im sure if this circumstances continues, Japan will gets more dark definitely.

Now we japanese are proceeding towards dangerous ocean though, the next generation involves me should change this direction to hope.

[Zenkai.boost.Kekkei.Genkai]

I'm not japanese but starting a family implies having your life together and meeting certain requirements, but these days i don't even know what i'm doing, starting a family is no way near my horizon, it's not like back in the day when people were like "lets get married and have kids first then we'll figure out everything else later" , these days i feel like it's the opposite, people want to have their life together first then worry about starting a family

[yuji]

Almost every systems in Japan (welfares, educations, corporation structures) excessively prioritize seniors and exploit youths. That's why youths in Japan often have very low self compassion, and their suicide rate is heightening. What's sad is most of the elderly powerful politicians don't give a damn in order to defend their own vested interests. Thus the average age of the whole population is now about to reach 50.

[鬼ではない岩兵衛]

I’m a university student in Japan
In Japan, 50 percent of students get a scholarship, but it’s not as same as one in other countries. You have to pay back to government after graduating even if you’re at a national university.
I have two brother, and both are students too.
My parents are working hard because there is no support from government.
you have to pay for all the things by yourself when you have a kid
Japanese government takes good care of just elderly people
It’s crystal clear how this happened
I don’t want to raise a child in Japan

[Explosivecatto]

The Japanese average salary hasn’t increased in the past 20 years or so, but the cost of living has been. As a young Japanese living & working in Tokyo, if I were to make enough money to have a child is to work for foreign-owned companies - which pay about 1.5-2x or more than what you’d get paid in Japanese companies; this option is only given to those who can speak English. Even then, many managers of these companies will still adopt the Japanese work style, which will make it difficult for many people to have spare time to raise a child. Also, we are required to pay pension fees regardless of what we make per year, and quite a big portion of our income gets deducted. The irony is t's not even guaranteed that we will be paid pension funds when we become older; we are paying for security for the retired lives of people we don't even know.

[wyvern]

People are expected to work long hours, for bad pay. No one can afford to have kids.
I have a Japanese friend who I met when she was an exchange student. She didn't had kids because it's too expensive.
And that is the problem here in the US too, as well as China. The rich squeeze everything they can out of us, and pay a pittance for our labor. It's only going to get worse from here.

[sawahtb]

I'm an American woman, now retired. I had 3 children and worked full-time. My ex-husband spent less than even 41 minutes a day with domestic issues. More like zero. When he got home he'd consider it his time off. Period. He also spent a lot of his work traveling, leaving me with no other adult available. I had to get help from the older child in order to function. His brother (same parents) was the opposite, he'd help his wife and parents a great deal. I don't know what the dynamics were that created the difference. If I were able to predict this dynamic I wouldn't have married or had children honestly. I wasted a lot of time being married to him.

[coridp_]

The birth rate.
•N-Korea: They say 1.89
•Thailand: 1.4
•Japan: 1.34
•China: 1.2
•Singapore: 1.14
•Taiwan: 1.05
•Hong Kong: 0.98
•S-Korea: 0.81

[moyndebs]

I’m a Childfree Nigerian guy. This is a problem I wish we had in Africa. Underpopulation in rich country is better than overpopulation in poor country.

[earlkinmonth]

All the Japan-specific comments ignore one fact: fertility rates and the number of children being born is in general decline in most advanced economies and in some developing economies. The BBC itself has given attention to the generality of this pattern. It is found in even the most gender-equal welfare states in Northern Europe.

[RedDevilStudio]

That said I actually think one of the biggest reasons that no one mentions is HOUSING prices. A large part of most people’s income now goes on a mortgage/ rent this did NOT use to be the case.

[imxel]

I’m from the Uk and honestly it’s the same here to. The cost of living keeps going up. People are focusing on themselves.
It would be foolish to bring another life into this.

[kthan]

For some reason I find it interesting, or rather that I am left wondering, as to why it seems like the only reason why people are worried about low or falling children's population or birthrate is because of potential labor shortages. It's as if we're supposed to look at it in a business owner's (or dare I even say corporation's) point of view.