What is the cause of Japan's low birth rate?

[Koir]

Originally Posted by Brass

I state that most men want a feminine woman, and that makes me a chauvinist?

No, referring to women as "skanks responsible for low birth rates" at least twice makes you that. Or incredibly foolish, or a very successful troll.

Your choice.

[dogsbody70]

Originally Posted by Brass

I state that most men want a feminine woman, and that makes me a chauvinist?

so what woman is not feminine. you want a woman who will run to their masters will saying yes sir no sir three bags full sir. you are living in the dark ages.


You sure are no gentleman with your dreadful attititudes to women. How dare you!!

Basically you are afraid of women who have a mind of their own. consider them unfeminine.

what planet are you on?

[dogsbody70]

this is an interesting history of the role of Women through Japanese History.

The Changing Roles of Women in Japanese Society

another interesting item re women and having children etc.

RIGHTS-JAPAN: Motherhood Is A Choice, Say Activists - IPS ipsnews.net

[Brass]

Originally Posted by Koir

No, referring to women as "skanks responsible for low birth rates" at least twice makes you that. Or incredibly foolish, or a very successful troll.

Your choice.

I'm not a troll and the truth is no one wants to marry or have kids with a skank.

[dogsbody70]

Originally Posted by Brass

I'm not a troll and the truth is no one wants to marry or have kids with a skank.

Guess you are a troll. GOD HELP ANY WOMAN WHO got tied up with someone like you. whatever a skank is?

[iPhantom]

Women just want money. Never give em money before having a child.

[Sangetsu]

Plainly put, the problem is selfishness. "Keeping up with the Joneses" is a popular concept in Japan, and in order to have the big home, nice clothes, and designer bags, one must forego having children. Nevermind the fact the fact that you can't take any of these material things with you when you die, and with no children there is no one to leave these things to.

In the old days there used to be a concept of "successive generations" where each generation worked to improve the quality of life for the generation that followed. The has been replaced by the "me" generation, which wants everything for itself, with no thought or care for anyone else. God forbid you have a child, you might not be able to afford a second car, or have a television in every room of your designer apartment.

Another big issue is responsibility. People nowadays have become increasingly neurotic about trivial things, and can't stand the thought of shouldering the responsibility of raising a child. People seem to forget that having children is the most natural of occurances, and human beings, like other animals, are far more adaptable to raising children than they are to adapting to otner things in modern life.

Think of all the things you have done and experienced in your life, if you don't have children, then you rob someone else of the chance to experience those things as well.

[Nyororin]

The issue is money.
Plain and simple. Money.

It`s not an issue of men working too long, and not having time for intimacy - as western men LOVE to point out as if Japanese men are sexually inferior in some way. The average working hours were longer in the past, and apparently peaked in the 1960s and 70s when the birthrate was so high there were efforts to slow it.

It`s expensive to have a kid. Housing to accommodate a child is expensive. Birth itself is expensive. School is expensive.

Companies used to offer pay raises, bonuses, etc based on the number of children you had. Now they make the assumption that both parents are working, so they don`t need to do anything like that. The biggest problem is, pay has been dropping so that it`s hard to get by without two incomes... But there is no support structure in place for the two incomes to continue once a baby comes along. Maternity leave most certainly DOES exist, but it doesn`t last until the kid goes off to school. Daycare - even the government run ones - are incredibly expensive for under 3s... Plus they tend to give priority based on income. Literally being unable to survive without mom working receives priority for the limited number of spots over those who may be able to just scrape by on one...

People tend to be financially responsible when it comes to children, so simply don`t have them until they feel they can afford them.

ETA: Wow, that article. What possessed that politician to think it was appropriate to refer to women as 'birth machines'? And 'devices'? Is that... men? Wonder what the original Japanese was...

I hate hate HATE how this has been turned into a soundbyte by the media, completely removed from context, and made into something it was NOT.

To quote myself from back when it was first attacked by feminine groups and the guy basically lynched - and all the GOOD plans he had in place discarded...

I recall his speech being that no matter how hard men in the government may sit around talking about how the population should increase, and coming up with grand schemes... It all comes down to women - There is a limited number of women, and in that population there is a limited number of "baby producing units" ie. functional wombs with willing owners - so the best we can do is to ask them to do their best for the population.

In other words, instead of old men sitting around trading theories, why not ask those who really do have the power to increase the population to do their best.

If you ignore his wording, I think what he said is very accurate, and is in fact empowering to women as he refers to them as the ones with the power, and refers to asking/begging them to do their best.

And a post I made elsewhere about the issue;

For those who don`t know, the "baby making machines" comment was not calling women machines, was not considering them less than human, etc etc... But was saying that instead of a bunch of old men deciding what is "best" for increasing population, as there are only a limited number of people out there with wombs (said with a hopefully more PC term of "baby making mechanisms" as "womb" is sort of off limits - but then correcting himself as the self coined term probably wasn`t a good one) it would be a MUCH better idea to actually listen to THEIR opinions and cater to them, as they are the ones - the only ones - who really have the power to raise the future population. But congratulations to all the groups who took it out of context and got the guy taken out of office! All the plans he had in place to actually listen to the potential mothers and make things easier have been scrapped, the team he gathered to make Japan a better place for having children has been split up... and replaced with old men who couldn`t care less what women think because they don`t bother talking to have their comments taken out of context - and only have a plan that doesn`t have anything to do with reality. Good job on the kneejerk, I say! *insert eyeroll here*

[KuranUSA]

Originally Posted by iPhantom

Women just want money. Never give em money before having a child.

I hope you are joking. If you are in that sort of relationship,then you clearly have trust issues.

[Ronin4hire]

It's amazing how many people are pulling theories out of their ass about this.

One person says that a more materialistic "keeping up with the Joneses" generation is to blame.
Another blames Feminism...

The (I would assume) RESEARCHED answer was given by Sinestra on the first page.

Thread over.