Japan’s Demographic Crisis is Getting Worse
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Japan's birth rate has hit historic lows highlighting the worsening issues with their population, with the PM claiming they are on the brink of collapse. So in this video, we break down the latest data, why it's a problem and how they're trying to fix it.
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1 - www.reuters.com/world/asia-pa...
2 - www.dw.com/en/japan-to-channe...
3 - asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Soc...
4 - www.bloomberg.com/news/articl...
5 - www.reuters.com/markets/asia/...
6 - www.wsj.com/articles/japanese...
7 - japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/polit...
8 - www.theguardian.com/world/202...
9 - apnews.com/article/japan-birt...
10 - thediplomat.com/2023/01/japan...
00:00 Introduction
00:43 Japan’s Demographics Explained
04:03 Japan’s Plan To Fix It
07:08 TLDR’s Race Across Europe
From personal experience working in Japan, I think the core issue is workplace culture and the fact that most places expect you to spend your life at work. There's just no time for kids
Patriarchal workplace culture, excessive bureaucracy/tradition built into everyday life, xenophobic resistance to immigration. If you run into any young Japanese person living outside of Japan, a lot of them don't want to go back because they can see what they are missing living abroad.
@@stuntmonkey00 what kind of immigraton are you talking about? like u.s nd Europe
It is pretty sad the problem is obvious, but since they can't see the obvious right in front of them then they aren't gonna be able to fix the problem so it will always persist. Like it is pretty obvious that if folks across the world worked monday through sunday from like 08:00 to 22:00 they both not gonna be in the mood to have kids nor the time.
@@stuntmonkey00 I don't think that immigration solves any problems as you can currently see in Germany. It is highly important to distinguish different culture and education groups in immigration to make it work solving this issue.
@@mrmap4875 those are honestly the only places on Earth that practice immigration on a large scale lmao, when you think about it. But yes, Japan certainly needs immigration… “illegals” aren’t “stealing” my Systems Analysis jobs, they’re typically being hired by a business owner trying to keep costs down, or work on a farm.
There's nothing someone working 60 hours a week wants to do more than marry someone else working 60 hours per week and raise 2.1 kids in their closet sized apartment.
Yeah really
You nailed it!
That's Tokyo, not the entire country.
@@jc3drums916 Japan has like a90% urbanisation rate, so most people are living like that in the cities. Not many people have 3 bedroom houses to raise a family lmao
@@jc3drums916 Most of japan is empty, anything outside of the major urban areas is slowly dying out, becoming abandoned. Japan has tons of abandoned towns. One of the big reasons that the outlying towns and villages started to die is when Japan went for "big corporate farming", consolidating the old community driven operations into mega-corps that don't need the villages and so, no work, people who can, leave.
Who knew that a toxic work culture, high cost of living, and bleak outlook for the future would make people not want to have kids? Shocking!
Maybe but that isn't the case for EU countries, that have some of the highest quality of living, have a lot of time off work, paid time off at that, and a lot of social benefits, including child support, and yet, people don't seem to want to have kids.
Basically, EU countries have some of the better conditions to have kids, a lot of support from the government and more free time, yet, it doesn't seem to be having much if any impact on population growth.
@@paul1979uk2000lol after Japan western Europe has some of the lowest birth rates in the world
@@paul1979uk2000European population growth is being driven by immigration not by high birthrate
True, although Japan's cost of living actually is not that high. Food is typically less expensive than in the U.S., aside from fruit, which is considered a luxury there, you don't need to own a car, and rent isn't that high - an apartment in Tokyo might be tiny, but at least reasonably priced apartments exist, which is more than I can say for some Western metropolises. Live in a small city or village, and you can easily find a non-breadbox apartment that is affordable.
@@sammyttheg412 That's exactly what he wrote. Why are you writing like you're disagreeing with him?
I really hate how our children are just seen as potential productive workers for both governments, and corporations.
for YOU! Who do you think will be making the stuff you need when you are old and incapable. Who will wipe your arse for you then? It isn't about governments - they are just the conduit by which tax becomes old age pensions.
Why do people with room temperature IQs fail to understand that governments don't have any money, only taxpayers do, so where is your unemployment / pension / healthcare cost coming from? Workers - working FOR YOU.
as the old saying goes "a single death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic" it's the same thing being applied to living people: a single person is something to be treasured, a million is an economy
That's why I scoff when somebody panics over population collapse, because the main reason they worry is the economy. Rather that thinking of how we should restructure our whole way of life and work, we are pushed to just breed and give "the economy" more slaves
@@izramisEconomy is a code word when talking about this. People aren't saying "oh no the GDP isn't as high". They're saying that people are going to lose their jobs, people who've paid into social security and other welfare benefits their entire lives won't be able to reap benefits for when they need it, we won't be able to have a good replacement rate for all the professions (doctors, paramedics, etc).
Modern day slavery 👻🇯🇵
When 88% of the average Tokyo residents income is going to cost of living, somehow I doubt $107.00 per month is going to make that much of a difference.
WHO CARES ABOUT JAPAN? SIR MY INDIA IS THE REAL SUPERPOWER 🤗🇮🇳 WE HAVE THE BEST INFRASTRUCTURE AND HIGHSPEED RAIL 🤗🇮🇳 THIS WHY IM SO LUCKY LIVE IN SUPER INDIA THE CLEANEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD 🇮🇳🤗 , WE NEVER SCAM! WE GIVE RESPECT TO ALL WOMEN THEY CAN WALK SAFELY ALONE AT NIGHT AND WE HAVE CLEAN FOOD AND TOILET EVERYWHERE 🇮🇳🤗🚽, I KNOW MANY POOR PEOPLE JEALOUS WITH SUPER RICH INDIA 🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳
That's obviously not true have you seen their cost of living it's fuck all compared to any other 1st world Capital city
Thats not true.
Wont make a difference. We can already see the situation is getting worse. The only way is to increase 10x
SIR MY INDIA IS THE REAL SUPERPOWER 🤗🇮🇳 WE HAVE THE BEST INFRASTRUCTURE AND HIGHSPEED RAIL 🤗🇮🇳 THIS WHY IM SO LUCKY LIVE IN SUPER INDIA THE CLEANEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD 🇮🇳🤗 , WE NEVER SCAM! WE GIVE RESPECT TO ALL WOMEN THEY CAN WALK SAFELY ALONE AT NIGHT AND WE HAVE CLEAN FOOD AND TOILET EVERYWHERE 🇮🇳🤗🚽, I KNOW MANY POOR PEOPLE JEALOUS WITH SUPER RICH INDIA 🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳
I forgot to mention the ridiculous work schedules. They should pass (and enforce) a maximum work week. Any company that works its employees to exhaustion needs to be publicly shamed and fined.
...and not the other way around. I find it astounding that anyone may call working even 50 hrs/w "slacking off".
Good luck doing that in Japan, I assume you don't know the Japanese culture 😂
@Daniyal BBD I do, actually, at least somewhat. The answer is so obvious. I was hoping that common sense would finally win out.
@@daniyalbbd5281 They said the same about Europe in the industrial revolution, and the US as well. And yet more and more restrictions are being put into place. The reality is that culture changes as authority decides. If they cared about their people, their people would adjust their attitudes.
It's a cultural issue where women in Japan are usually expected to give up their careers after they have children. They're supposed to become a homemaker and rely on their husband. Many, many women are unwilling to give up a career and remain independent so they're not getting married and having children. Instead they're going to Host Clubs for companionship where they get the attention that they want without the hassle of having a relationship and compromising their career by having children. Then you have to look at the Herbivore Men who have rejected masculinity expectations and decided to work on themselves, which means not being a salary man, not having a girlfriend, etc. And then there's the hikikomori phenomenon where people choose to reject social norms because they never fit into a group anyway, and never leave their homes. If you don't belong to some kind of a family or social group in Japan, you may as well be a ghost. This is an issue that's more complicated than "work-life" balance that everybody keeps talking about. Massive changes has to take place in their society but breaking over a thousand years of social norms is not an easy task.
Japan: I'm gonna over-exploit my youth, make them feel inferior than their seniors, blame them for everything, pressure them constantly, and expect that they fix the current economy.
Japan youth: *Literally can't start thinking about starting a family because they are struggling surviving, and feeling so overwhelmed that suicide rates increase.*
Japan: *Surprise Pikachu face*
Japan ranks 25th in the world for sucide rate @ 15.3 persons per 100,000. America ranks higher @ 16.1. Korea ranks 5th @ 22.6. Also, Japan ranks 30th in the world for hours worked per annum, meaning "the overworked Japanese" is also an Internet trope that doesn't hold up to scrutiny.
Internet comment: Japan has a high suicide rate and people work 80 hours a week.
Reality: Japan's suicide rate is 15.3 per 100,000 persons. The Japanese on average work 40 hours a week.
Suicide rates have been decreasing. You have to pressure the youth else they won’t have a winning mindset. If they can’t handle it, then they’re weak and they took themselves out of the game. The same thing happens in the UK but they actually try to destroy the morale of the youth and vote against their interests E.g. removing free school meals for kids
Atheism is the core problem
this is funny
Me: Looks at Western and Northern European countries, the most developed and welfare centric states in the world. Extinguishing.
Also me: your comment is BS dude
Their government is doing the bare minimum to be able to save face and justify that they "are doing something." Sadly, the problem will persist until major changes are made. They need to talk to young people and find out exactly why they are not having kids, as in what hurdles prevent it. The absurdly long work grind and the marriage of employees to their work is the first place to look. They would need to make huge sweeping changes to how business is done and how the society functions at large, and which values are celebrated, and so on. Basically, they would need to seriously rock the boat to turn it around.
Honestly if the old fkers in the Japanese government haven't noticed the problem yet without talking to the youth- i have nothing much to say.
The cost of living crisis is making child rearing entirely unaffordable, as it is people are barely earning enough to even sustain their own needs through the month, even if the workaholic culture is removed in theory, the problem will still persist if they don't increase the wage rates in proportion to inflation or the rise in price of consumer goods, children are truly pets that are only afforded by the high earners, it's not even an option for the working class youth who are barely able to save any money.
Women in all developped countries are hypergamous, it's always like this.
When you look at the stats, even in Japan, it's mostly just men not having relationships or sex, whereas the rates of virginity and lack of romantic experience are pretty stable for women. Meaning a small portion of men have the luxury to have a sex, but obviously won't use it to procreate.
Because not everyone wants to have kids!!!! People are not obligated to have kids!!! I've been married since I was twenty-two but we still don't want to have kids because not everyone wants that. How your statement comes across as is saying that young people are obligated to go ahead and have more kids so we have to figure out why they are not fulfilling this obligation that older people are arbitrarily putting on them as if the older people somehow have authority.
@@soulysouly7253dude I work. Most millennial women do. We are not hypergamous we just understand the importance of financial stability.
Sex isn't a luxury dude. You have not entitled to women's bodies why are you talking about women as if we are objects?
Cry harder incel
@@UlexiteTVStoneLexite You are an exception...good on you, but who gave YOU the authority to speak for others?...
Im over 30, want to have a family but "the state i live in" dont give an Effff about it as long I pay taxes, cuz money....who cares about family... If I would like to have kids, I would not have the finances to have even one kid and buy all it needs )no, PS5 is not a necesity -.-""")
It blows my mind how this country rather dies out instead of making laws allowing for a better work-life-ballance. If you're at work 12 hours a day of course you don't have to time and energy to go on dates, let a alone to start a family. Japan would fix almost half of it's problems over night if it was to give it's people more free time. (Or vacation - Yes, most companies don't even let you take a week off)
Finally someone mentioned the work-life balance. Long hours at work took away the energy and time for family.
Aye, exactly what i thought. Throwing money at the problem isn't gonna fix the underlying cultural and structural problems.
Maybe they are just a cog in the machine and the one pulling the levers will not allow them
As if more time for motherhood would make young women want to be mothers.
Look at mothers and how stressfull and boring their work is.
And don't forget all the risks and body damage of pregnancy.
Which I find it odd they rather add paternity leave then ban companies from firing mothers of maternity leave. But it's also important to remember the US which on advage people do have a good work life balance and can raise children while working like my parents did don't now for other reasons like the hostile dating market, income, beliefs and a sort of other things.
I can already tell that this program won't solve Japans demographic issue. Similar program has been implemented in Poland called "Rodzina 500 plus" (Family 500 plus), commonly just called 500+. It's 500 PLN (Currently around 112,49€) per month per kid under 18 years old if you have at least 2 kids that are under 18 years old (Or one disabled kid under 18.). Ever since it's introduction the population growth continues to decline as it was before. No such program will ever solve the population decline as money is just one of the reasons for it. I think the main reasons are:
*1. Time*
Having just one child is a huge time investment and it's very hard to find time when you're constantly overworked. In Asia, especially in Japan and Korea it seems that everyone ever since they go to school are constantly overworked and having huge overtime commitment. How are you supposed to meet your partner, or have a kid with them if you go to work in the morning, return exhausted in the evening having only enough energy left to watch some TV and go to sleep? Yeah, there's weekends, but house chores exist and you want to have time for yourself and your hobbies. Have one stay-at-home parent? Great idea! The other will be even more overworked and will see their family less and less becoming an alien to them. What's the point of having a child if you won't get to know them and once you do, they might be a completely alien person to you.
*2. Housing*
You have found time somehow? Great! Enjoy having 3 kids in one-bedroom apartment! Both parents and their children require some private space and time, we're all human after all. But using housing as "investment" lead to ridiculously priced houses which lead to people living in smaller and smaller homes. Which of course leads to not having enough physical space for a hamster, let alone a kid.
*3. Safety*
The safer the city is, the easier it is to make children more independent earlier. Which allows parents to regain some of their free time. Like for example, in Dutch cities it's normal to see kids aged 5 to go by themselves to schools, because those cites try to remove dangerous car traffic from main roads in favour of pedestrians and bike commuters. While in the USA/Canada if your 8 year old kid plays by themselves in your very own backyard a police might be called on you for not providing sufficient supervision... And the car centric design of the cities requires one of the parents to become the stereotypical "soccer mom" until the kid grows 16 and gets their own car licence.
*4. Money*
In rural areas the population growth is usually higher than in the cites, as on farms kids are free labour, while in cities they are more like very expensive and time consuming pet. And city dwellers cannot afford those "pets" due to late stage capitalism which makes wealth gather for smaller and smaller number of people, because the goal of the capitalism is gathering as much of your own wealth as possible and the main virtue for it is greed. The government subsidies won't solve this underlying issue as it might be seen by employers as a justification to lower wagers or increase prices.
*5. Society*
How are you supposed to find a life partner if from the very beginning i.e. the school everything is focused on competition!? In the school you compete for better grades instead of cooperating for knowledge acquirement. In your workplace you compete for promotions and better pay and to not get fired when _THE BOARD_ wants to show to the investors that the line is still going up and firing some workers is the easiest way to do it quickly. Heck, even in social life we compete for attention all the time and dating already become "a market" where you try to be the best "value". Folks trying to find their perfect partner that has the best "value" instead of looking for their soulmate. Our biggest strength as a species is cooperation and yet we've decided to compete all the time.
And no government subsidy nor constant complaining that "those youngsters have it so easy today and are just lazy" will solve those issues. The subsidy is like an band-aid for a freshly cut off leg... Those issues are deeply rooted and aren't and won't be easy to solve. It could take decades to change those fundamentals but it seems like we prefer to stick to the sinking ship. What also doesn't help is the growing number of elderly that fulfilled their social contract and now expect their payout, so they don't want any big changes. I hope we'll be able to find some compromise, but as of now things doesn't look good as we're willing to destroy our own and only planet for the line to go up and not take care of it for the humans that live on it.
Good list. Japan has points 3 (you can see small kids going to school alone even in the middle of Tokyo) and to certain extent 4 and 5 (as long as you follow the myriad of hidden societal rules). It is points 1 and 2 that are so bad that people can not date because they do not have the energy to date anyone or an appropriate place to do the deed (and that is why Love Hotels exist).
"not just bikes" viewer spotted
You provided the neatest possible summary of the "Why don't people just have more kids?" - except for point #3, Japan is a very safe country particularly for children.
500+ helped a lot
Time is complicated and sort of mixes with housing and money all in one. That is because while you can get an affordable tiny apartment to store your belongings and sleep in and be a short commute away from work it is nowhere near enough space for two adults raising a child. There are affordable places where you could house a family, but that will come with a hour long(or more) commute in one direction. While it technically is a numbers problem, it's also a housing problem. You're essentially asked to sacrifice at minimum one of the three in order to start a family in Japan.
Safety is definitely not something to be concerned about in Japan. On rare occasion something does go wrong but there are very few places(if any) to be a child than Japan.
Society is a bit of mixed bag. There's definitely a culture shock for us westerners but there also isn't the notion of expecting a payout because their reached retirement age. That doesn't really happen in Japan. As for the promotion stuff and all that - yes, major industries in Japan are centered around one or two companies and changing jobs for a raise has a hard cap on how many times you can do that so there will be more "commitment" for a career with one company. As far as dating goes it's... complicated. I never fully understood it as my Japanese isn't good enough but I got the impression that it's always a major commitment or entirely casual with nothing in between. So developing meaningful relationships takes more time than it would elsewhere.
My Japanese wife's contract was ended pretty much immediately after she told work she was pregnant. I can't take paternity leave because when my child is born I will have been working for only 10 months at my company instead of the required 12 months.
There's also a shortage of kindergarten places (despite the decline in birthrate even!) because of the low early childhood teacher salaries and horribly long hours. Another factor among many making Japanese couples reluctant to have kids.
Seriously considering moving back to my home country at this point.
Get outta there dude
Do not and I mean DO NOT retire in Japan ,there's no way it won't collapse
Get out of Japan alone. Divorce quickly.
They did to themselves with there cult like work ethic. I have no sympathy for them in the slightest. Sadly, developed countries birth rates are going down because of capitalist greed. Why would anybody have a kid if they have to work 50 hours a week?
I was considering moving in japan :(
I am a Japanese resident in Japan who is not familiar with the economic field. In my layman's opinion, rather than worrying about Japan's decline, I expect the characteristic Japanese employment system of "lifetime employment", "seniority system" and "lump-sum recruitment of new graduates" to collapse. After their collapse, it will take a certain period of time for structural reforms to take place. The decline means that the previous generation's system will collapse, which I personally welcome because it is natural. My generation will not be rewarded, though.
If your young you will be rewarded. A job and perks will be easy as workers will be in demand. All that land and houses are now yours.
There is nothing bad with low population. But if anyone worry about it, pay (more) to have children. 5% of the kids paycheck goes to the parents.
If people don’t want to pay for children, well, then it doesn’t seem so important then.
@@TheBooban government incentives for child raising, education, health care, eldery pension, it all costs money for the government, money funded by taxes paid by the population, with fewer young people to work, they will have to work more to fund these spendings. With more people reaching retirement age and stop working, and fewer people entering, the toll will be increasingly unberable. The younger generations will have to work more to make their particular retirement funds, because the public one will not be able to pay they enough to survive when tney decide that is time for retirement.
@@jackjones4824 There won't be enough JOBS to support the elderly. All forecasts point to 50% of current jobs being made obsolete by mass-automation and AI, within the next 25 years. An influx of non-employable immigrants will just put more strain on the public coffers.
@@marcoantoniobrandaotada937 with more unemployed,. the public coffers will have even more of a strain put on it.
@@jackjones4824 The fact remains that Japan has an endless lineup for people applying for 3-5 year work visas which address current work shortages. Having too many elderly is an issue, certainly. Having more unemployable young is not a solution. What is needed is an economic model that doesn’t require population growth to sustain it. Especially, in a country that is 80% mountainous, non-arable land roughly the size of California with a current population of 125 Million. As it stands Japan can’t feed itself. The least bit of geopolitical turmoil could prove to be a disaster in terms of famine. A reduction in population is prudent at this time.
15-64 year olds are young people? Thanks, TLDR, you’ve made my day.
Young enough to pay those sweet sweat taxes! 🤣
They are in Japan where people live to 100+ , they need to start eating crappy US food and take up chain smoking ! problem solved !
WHO CARES ABOUT JAPAN? SIR MY INDIA IS THE REAL SUPERPOWER 🤗🇮🇳 WE HAVE THE BEST INFRASTRUCTURE AND HIGHSPEED RAIL 🤗🇮🇳 THIS WHY IM SO LUCKY LIVE IN SUPER INDIA THE CLEANEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD 🇮🇳🤗 , WE NEVER SCAM! WE GIVE RESPECT TO ALL WOMEN THEY CAN WALK SAFELY ALONE AT NIGHT AND WE HAVE CLEAN FOOD AND TOILET EVERYWHERE 🇮🇳🤗🚽, I KNOW MANY POOR PEOPLE JEALOUS WITH SUPER RICH INDIA 🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳
Anyone that works is considered young by Japan's standard I guess
As long as you remain a cog in their beast system you are "young"
these people use the same vocabulary as you, just not the same dictionary.
No one mention that pregnancy and childbirth aren't cover by healthcare. And it's not cheap either. It was cheaper for me and my wife to fly back to EU, pay a year of healthcare and live there for 2 months than to have our child deliver in somewhat rural part of Japan. On top of that, the service you're getting for the money is abysmal. I quote a friend who had here child there: "The ob-gyn in Japan is medieval"
Stop being silly, it is not about prices. Religious people are poorer on average than non-religious yet have more children anyway. What you are saying is: "I cannot have children whilst at the same time consoooooming"
WHO CARES ABOUT JAPAN? SIR MY INDIA IS THE REAL SUPERPOWER 🤗🇮🇳 WE HAVE THE BEST INFRASTRUCTURE AND HIGHSPEED RAIL 🤗🇮🇳 THIS WHY IM SO LUCKY LIVE IN SUPER INDIA THE CLEANEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD 🇮🇳🤗 , WE NEVER SCAM! WE GIVE RESPECT TO ALL WOMEN THEY CAN WALK SAFELY ALONE AT NIGHT AND WE HAVE CLEAN FOOD AND TOILET EVERYWHERE 🇮🇳🤗🚽, I KNOW MANY POOR PEOPLE JEALOUS WITH SUPER RICH INDIA 🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳
@@LastBrigadierComparing the price and gains from EU with those from a country which follows US's model of capitalism is not silly. I have heard over and over that in US one has to pay a card of money just for being consulted by a medic while in EU it is free (and not because of bad quality) if it is state healthcare.
Also, In Japan, religious affiliation, particularly Shintoism and Buddhism, has historically been intertwined with cultural, social, and ethical values rather than directly linked to economic prosperity. The Japanese economic model has often been attributed to factors such as industrialization, technological advancements, education, and societal values like discipline, teamwork, and innovation.
It is not accurate to conclude that religious people in Japan, as a whole, are poorer than non-religious people based solely on their religious beliefs.
Yes. Religious people usually have more children. In my opinion, the gouvernment should be glad for it and offer to pay them a decent sum for it in a country where the birth rate is less than the mortality rate.
How can the ob-gyn be good if it does not have experience? How can an ob-gyn be good if it rarely sees labour work?
@@Hardcore_Remixer Again more of the "throw money at the problem, Bro!" arguments. This is not an economic Issue, a 100% social one. People simply would rather work, earn money, and use that money on consumer products than actually have children. it is as simple as that.
When people say "I cannot have children" what they mean is "I cannot have children whilst maintaining the same level of consooooming"
One other thing I've noticed with this living in Japan since 2015, is that not only is the workforce shrinking, but the remaining workforce is more and more centered around keeping the aging population comfortable. For example, a LOT of young people decide to have a career in elderly care, tech is focused on easing the lives of thr elderly instead of developing tech of the next generation, etc.
Of course, these are all good things....within measure.. but I rather think it's too much compared to how much emphasis is on the future of the country. It's out of balance.
At least, that's my hot take based on what I've seen.
All forecasts point to 50% of current jobs being made obsolete by AI or mass-automation within the next 25 years. The fact remains that Japan has an endless lineup for people applying for 3-5 year work visas which address current work shortages. Having too many elderly is an issue, certainly. Having more unemployable young is not a solution. What is needed is an economic model that doesn’t require population growth to sustain it. Especially, in a country that is 80% mountainous, non-arable land roughly the size of California with a current population of 125 Million. As it stands Japan can’t feed itself. The least bit of geopolitical turmoil could prove to be a disaster in terms of famine. A reduction in population is prudent at this time.
The real problem with dropping birth rates is cultural. Corporate work culture, the need for highly educated youth before they can get a job, and higher levels of education of the youth
I'd suspect this one of the reason as well. The short work hours are there, but mostly for the upper management or top end of the public company. The wage hasn't gone up in over a decade so that's likely eating into their savings too. If you make giving birth a commodity only for the top end , off course the birth rate will drop.
Japan has always had the same work culture...even in times of baby booms. Actually, in the 50's and 60's when Japan's birthrate was at its highest levels, Japan's "corporate work culture" was even more severe and demanding that it is now. Currently, Japan ranks 27th in the world for hours worked per annum.
still wont change massive population decrease they literally dont have a choice and have get od foreignors procreate that literally only option they have and they been just stalling their conservative stigma
The Japanese government would do literally anything but allow it’s people to work a little less
They literally increase their parental leave by 50%
i think its because it might damage their economy just as much
This stereotype is outdated by a good 10-15 years, high competition for limited workers in addition to a lot of media coverage of work-related suicides has led to a lot of change in work culture for most companies. You can tell things have changed because roads and trains are packed from 5-7PM because companies don't want to run overtime unless absolutely necessary.
@@alizaidi2893 But is that leave paid? Otherwise how are people gonna be able to afford taking leave without lowering their standards of living?
@Elldallan most companies around the world don't offer PAID leave. That's why countries usually compensate with government employment insurance. But yes, it is usually only a % of what you usually make, so the standard of living will go down if you haven't been saving
This problem will affect the whole world eventually , they are just 30 + years ahead. The med countries in Europe are going the same way.
Europe has a lot more immigration.
@@oatbear8243 Problem is all those countries people are emigrating from also have falling FRs. All immigration does is put off the inevitable.
Even china is having it now.
I knew someone who be in the comments suggesting that even Japan's horrific birth rate would be an indication that they are ahead of the rest of the world in some way.
Europe is undergoing a population replacement, so no worries there
This problem will solve itself, once the older gen is gone the demographic will probably level out. Obviously work life balance needs to exist and politicians need to actually help the young generation.
The older gen isn't ever gonna be "gone" because there will always be new old people. Unless you mean they should start murdering old people
Big flaw with that argument. Japan has a very long average life expectancy so the leadership won'tchange for a long time, and the culture of Japan puts heavy emphasis on seniors being objectively superior. These values have been drilled into the minds of japan's young, and as a result, their values simply won't change.
One other thing I feel is always overlooked is that Japan makes it so difficult for foreigners to immigrate. so when a mixed couple starts a family they often decide to live in another country.
If "maintaining societal functions" includes continuing to exploit the young , then it deserves to fail.
I've seen a youtuber (Unrested) say that old ppl close down children playing areas then complain there are no children. Also I've heard quite a lot of Japanese give young people with children bad looks and think of toddlers as nuisances.
@@destroyerinazuma96 Where I lived in Europe was mostly old people, few children and tired adults trying to fill the gaps.
Young adults are realising It is not easy anymore to prosper and are loosing hope or simply giving up.
Things are getting worse much faster than any prediction and as the fertily rate keeps momentum and less young adults contributing to mantain the status co things will decline faster and faster.
I'm 37 and when I turn 65 most people in most countries will be 65 or older. Babies will become a novelty before I die.
It is almost impossible to change this trend without a major change in society. We just have to accept and enjoy the decline.
@@zetranquilo5459 This will be the future of every country as it is world wide trend. As every countries are mature over time in the end everyone will have this problems eventually.
@@mukamuka0 Yeah but we'll manage... I mean population is just dropping to a managble level really. Every nation that modernises has that big BOOM in population. Europe experienced it around 1900 even before and Africa is facing it now.
@@zetranquilo5459 ur lack of bi,tches is society problem? sounds like skill issue
You don’t need more workers if productivity increases. Since the WWII we seen an exponential growth of productivity. Wages however haven’t grown as much. Having children has become unaffordable.
The decline in population will eventually cause the local market to shrink, there is no point to increase productivity in a shrinking economy. At the end of the day robots do not pay for services.
@@Somerandomguy524 that's not true tho, just look at what's considered "standard" to live in society today vs 100 years ago.
Washing machines, smartphones, Internet connection, computers, cars etc.
The issue here isn't about the absolute number of workers, it's about the ratio between workers and dependents (here, almost exclusively referring to the older gen). No matter how productive a society gets, it will be tough to support 1 pensioner per 2 workers (or whatever the ratio is). Western societies have had more than a 100 years to slowly adapt. Japan is going through what West will need 200 years for in 50 years.
@@chinguunerdenebadrakh7022 What does any of that have to do with what he said? Rent/mortgage is 40x higher in proportion to income than it used to be. My grandfather bought a house, adjusted for inflation, at $15,000, vs. $300,000 for a starter home now. 20x more per month spent on a mortgage, and wages have decreased by half. So 40x more of your income. How the F does a $500 smartphone even weigh in to the discussion?
@@Arcessitor your grandfather also used to spend around 33% his income just on food which has fallen today to less than 8%
Clothing we spent around 12-14% now its less than 3%
and on and on with similar examples..
your life is considerably easier than that of those that came before you. ..considerably
Another huge problem with Japan's approach is that even if it does work it will be 20 years before they start seeing the benefits. In the meantime they would have to deal with not only an increasing number of retired people but also an increasing number of children, placing a double burden on their declining working age population.
Yup and no one talks about this. These small baby step changes needed to start happening in the mid 90’s/early 2000’s. Japan is well past that point and kinda screwed no matter what.
dont worry. it wont work. young people dont care about having kids. they rather spend their time watching netflix, playing video games and so on. and they are so socially awkward that they dont even try to go on dates.
@@eldendong4956The problem started in the 1970s, and you're blaming the current generation when the trend uplifted around 2007?
I am Japanese and living here. I reckon working culture is different depending on the district. My university is in Tokyo, but I am working as an engineer in Niigata where I grew up. We often finish my work within 8 hours, including break time.
I am definitely not pessimistic about our demographic crisis. I have two reasons.
First, I think about 120 million people is too much of our land. I appreciate the decreasing popularity cuz I can rent much more huge house with cheap price, and I do not like dense area. The other reason is that it is much easier to start a business and compete with other rivals. When I had my own business, I could get helped by some old managers of their companies just because I am a 23 year old young guy and there are a small population of young people, but I promise to revitalize our city. (My home city is kind of famous for cutlery in the world) I believe that the value of young people in Japan is increasing, and there is no need to have a lot of efforts to stand out. If I started the business in cities like London, Los Angels, Paris and New York, it would be super difficult to have business and succeed. My friends said Tokyo is still easy, even compared to those cities cuz those cities have so many young immigrants and there are so many very ambitious young people. That makes it hard to succeed.
In conclusion, I am taking advantage of this crisis.
But for the moment it's simply not true. The value of the yen continues to fall, year by year and wages are not stagnating, but in fact, decreasing. Just 20-30 years ago my line of work in Japan would easily net me 400-500k a month. And that was with a much stronger Yen. Nowadays it's more like 200-300k a month, and everything is more expensive. And in every workplace I've worked in Japan, my Japanese colleagues always arrive 30 minutes early and leave an hour to two (sometimes even more) later. Whereas I arrive and leave on time and I'm seen as probably a somewhat lazy foreigner for wanting to maintain an 'okay' work-like balance. The colleagues that did have children, usually had a 'stay at home mother' simply because otherwise, there'd be nobody home to make their children dinner, and to afford to have a household with one breadwinner, they were usually men who had been in the same job for 30 or so years, were in their 50's and just starting a family.
It really is a scary situation. It feels in a way that, the bubble generation were able to gain massive loans from banks and fund crazy projects, and every time they did, they robbed something from the next generation. Now they're able to hold onto their assests, old theme parks, decrepid hotels etc, and live crazy lifestyles while the current generation suffer and can't even have children.
俺新潟住んでるぞ！
@@327legoman if you talk about bubble generation problem, that's a worldwide issue, not just in Japan.
Whatever you do is all upto you but make atleast 3 kids. We Indians need more of you Japanese to counter China in Asia.
@@AjayTiwari-en9nz bro just give india another 20 years they themselves will produce another China
Japan's proposals to address this issue have already been tried by several other countries and they've already proven to be ineffective. By the time Japan realises this, it'll be too late... and it's already too late!
not too late just that they still stalling their coservative stigma against foreignor coming to work and procreating
american governmant was retarded for not turning it into a state
@@ericx6969 Yeah, because all of the foreigners coming into the West is working out so well in the United States and Europe. I do love stagnant wages that don't keep up with the rate of inflation, more competition in the labor market (which is only to the benefit of corporations), overpriced rent and nigh-unaffordable home mortgages, and cultural/ethnic clashes between disparate groups who ultimately set up parallel societies.
The smartest thing in the long-term for Japan to do is endure this demographic decline. As a result, younger generations will see wages for both educated and manual domestic labor rise, as the demand for and competition between companies for those workers will be higher. In addition, the housing market will open up and rents/mortgages will reduce, enabling people to have those larger families that will help stabilize the population. And, finally, they won't have a huge swath of dissimilar people and clashes between cultures that are inherent to any multicultural and multiracial/multiethnic nation.
The only reason for Japan to admit foreign workers by the millions would be to line a bunch of old farts pockets with yen, euros, and USD. It would do absolutely nothing to help the Japanese people, and would be more damaging in the long run.
When you make a country so hard for its own people to live in, what incentive do they have to raise children even if they are capable of doing it?
why do people in developing countries crap out babies like its nothing?
@@sahulianhooligan7046 Contraception costs. And even in Australia, many first born children are the result of contraception slip ups. I know intelligent, educated women whose first children were surprises.
@@sahulianhooligan7046because they're further behind the curve. The challenges they face in life aren't the same as what the developed countries face
@@sahulianhooligan7046it’s because in developing countries, they don’t have a lot of bureaucracy in people’s lives, it’s very common there for people in developing countries to buy their own land, build a house the way they want to even if it takes years, secondly developing countries don’t have pensions or social security unless you work in high level government positions and even then it’s not guaranteed or it’s very little, so you need kids to look after you in old age, they don’t have nursing homes and most importantly, they still have communities, they don’t have multiculturalism and diversity which alienates people
@@wamnicho ? Multiculturalism and diversity affects birth rates how?
The work culture is probably the biggest practical hindrance to people starting families and having children. There's massive social pressure to basically just live to work, especially for the salarymen.
Another problem I have seen discussed in this regard by non-Japanese living and working in Japan is that, with the ever-increasing percentage of elderly, that also means the elderly get increasingly more vote share, meaning political parties have an incentive to cater more to the older generations and their opinions and needs when compared to those of younger generations.
Europe have a better work culture balance and still manage to get insanely low birthrate, some countries even worse than Japan.
Japan ranks 27th in the world for hours worked per annum according to OECD's numbers...numbers that are reflected in Japan Rail's numbers that cite the hour between 5~6pm as being the busiest in train stations throughout Japan (which reveals that that is when MOST Japanese are returning home from work). The work culture in Japan is extremely exaggerated. Certainly, there are sectors such as finance, marketing and agriculture in which overtime is rampant, but that is true of everywhere else in the world. When "documentaries" focus their cameras on Japan's work culture, they neglect to show father coming home at 6pm Mon~Fri then spending his Saturday watching his son's baseball game and Sunday watching his daughter's piano recital...because that doesn't make for very compelling documentary viewing. As a result, outsiders get a skewed, myopic view of Japan's work culture. The fact is, most Japanese work standard 40 hour work weeks.
@@ramonemiliochaconperdomo7225 Yes because it's mainly that urbanization that causes this, no one wants to have kids in a city. Every developed country faces this issue but very few countries worse than Japan (I wouldn't even count China since the OCP skews the numbers far more than any organic cultural reason). Of course most western countries have the benefit of actually encouraging immigration, unlike Japan and China.
Used to studied in Japan , gott say the workplace culture and the higher cost of living is a major factor
It now just that you have to work so hard you don't have time for your family , things are getting more expensive everydays and with both of this combine not only you don't have time for your kids it also an extra expends you have to cover so most people just doesn't bother having kids
Japan is 30 years too late to do something about this. Even if this creates a baby boom (which I doubt will have much of an effect) it will take decades until they reap any benefits from it.
The best day to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best day is today. I think the same applies to this situation.
What needs to be taken into consideration, is that many other countries face this same problem. Many European countries, S Korea, China etc.
50 actually, birthrate dipped below 2.1 in 1975.
@@mguitarte They are not planting trees though, are they? Looks more like raspberry bushes to me. That wont sustain a nation.
Aging population means that there'll be a rapid decline in population once the oldest pop off but the resources those people leave behind will be huge. Things will balance out eventually.
One of the other biggest factors is time to raise a child, since japan has a lot of black companies employees are effectively forced into working unpaid overtime 80 - 150 hours a month extra at minimum that is an extra 4 hours a day. They did introduce in 2022 a fine for companies forcing overtime for 80 + hours 3 months in a row but that is not enough. They need to crack down on this because this is the main problem.
@just_a_curious_thinker Here is a wiki article explaining them it is a Japanese term to describe a company that acts like a sweatshop.
Maybe try Google it before exclaiming racism.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_company
Population decline is normal. Japan simply dont need that big of a population.
One of the problem is the concentration around Greater Tokyo region. It is causing a brain drain across the rest of Japan, thus you have youtube videos and articles of houses being almost free for newcomers to certain areas. Tokyo isn't unaffordable, but it is significantly more expensive than most other regions. In most places of Japan, you can get a decent 2 level, 4 bedroom house for like $150-200k USD..... but something similar in Tokyo will easily be double, triple the price or even more. More money required means more income required... and usually that means working more, thus less time starting families.
Huge population in Tokyo means potentially lower salary too, especially when they are importing more labour into the country. Using the supply/demand formula, less labour means higher salary. At some point, there will be insufficient labour and salary will go up again. During the Boom period, employers will throwing money around to get people to fill jobs. Importing cheap labour messes with that.
Many other parts of Japan are paying slightly more money for people to move there. My wife's sister was a teacher in Osaka.... but decided to move to Gifu. An extra 20% bump in salary plus a now much larger home at a cheaper price than her "manshion".
Living costs are proportional to how much you earn at that location. Tokyo has the highest living costs because it is the place where you earn the most money on average. Of course there may be exceptions and you may find better job offers in other places, but that is an exception not the norm. In Tokyo if you live renting it is usually the most profitable place economically speaking, although it is true that if you are going to buy a house it is not profitable but at the rent level the variations between the different cities are not so high. The reason why the Tokyo metropolitan area has the lowest birth rates in the country is because of cultural reasons and mere individualism. Because if it were for economic reasons it would not make any sense considering that it is where the most money is earned and where people work the least hours on average.
Greedy companies making workers work non stop is killing them it’s really not healthy to work that much.
They need to stop seeing what people as workers! People are people there not cogs in the machine!
thats why the japanese live the longest?
@@shiramaro I guess they live long due to healthy diet lol food in US is not always good for u
I have been traveling to Japan periodically for about 15 years now and this is super visible on the ground and it is bad. In the outer suburbs of Osaka where my wife's parents live, their town has been in a steady decline for decades, with no new families moving into the area and with there being no value in property, the community is aging at the same rate as the people living there. The busy community of 40 years ago now has almost no children living in it and every other home is empty and run down. We have 3 kids and have considered moving back there but ultimately agreed that Australia, where we currently live is a better, happier, more socially accepting country, with greater economic opportunities and relative to living and education costs. We are still open to the move if things change but I don't have faith it will. People in Japan would rather let the country dead than allow any sort of cultural shift.... it is sad but Japan is a strong case study as to why immigration and a strong social safety net is so important for developed countries.
I don't understand how immigration can be a solution. It's a band aid. It is not addressing any of the issues a country faces be it economic, social, mental health, cost of living, etc. Addressing these issues will only improve everyone's lives. Even any potential immigrats who move there. But immigration as the core solution is just stupid. Plus Japan and many Old World nations just are too homogeneous. No doubt they will slowly become more open as human history continues. But immigrats would never feel welcome there in large enough numbers compared to say Australia and the America's. Plus it would erode Japanese culture.
oh yeah, I recently saw a video where apparently there are a lot of ghost towns, now they are giving houses and other buildings away, because of all the abandoned infrastructure, I could not believe it, they are offering houses for free! you still have to pay taxes tho.
Grateful someone said this. Nailed it on immigration and social security laws.
Immigration is just a Band-Aid solution in the long run, cultural disruptions aside by allowing mass immigration. All you’re really doing is decreasing one country’s pool of human capital and increasing another country’s pool of human capital, the long-term downside to this are that birth rates in the long run will continue to decline, and the country which the immigrant is leaving is deprived of human resources that could help that country develop and become more prosperous.
There are financial barriers to having children, but the psychological ones are more impactful, many people see marriage and children as burdens rather than blessings and that is certainly not good for numbers.
@@allthenewsordeath5772 Most people see families as burdens because they can't afford them. People tend to have kids when there is financial stability. If you can barely feed and house yourself, why would you try and start a family when it's a struggle already?
My wife wanted a third child however her experience of the NHS has put her completely off. In the end she gave birth with no medication as there wasn't time because the nurse was approaching a shift change and filled in the notes to get off on time rather than care for her patient.
families are becoming more fragmented, and again from experience Grandparents, even aunts and Uncles simply don't want to step in to assist with child care needs. In some cases this is due to caring for other elderly family members or advice has changed, in many cases to the polar opposite to what they done they no longer feel confident or trust their instincts. We have noticed with aunts, uncles, cousins and siblings there is a very strong attitude of "they're your children, we're not getting with any care of your kids". I'm talking even extreme refusing to hold the baby while I put something in the bin or even make sure a toddler doesn't do something while I go to the toilet.
Oh wow that is terrible. I know the answer is nurses were treated like s*** but how do you only have one nurse assigned per person??!? That's how you get mistakes happening!
In india it's good to get more children for families
@@Indian_Tovarisch That what I was going to say just make it easier for Indians to live in the country. You guys are great wish it was easier for you to enter the US and stay.
I think the problems of families becoming fragmented dosent apply to Japan and Asia in general, as Asians are more likely to maintain their relations with Family as they place a lot of value in them. This is more of a problem in the West, especially the US where being independent is seen as more desirable
U Japanese?
Having lived in Japan for many years, work and career has always been the focus in Japanese culture never family. I’ve always associated Japan with being a “loveless” place despite how amazing the country is.
Japan ranks 30th in the world for hours worked per annum. Also, having lived in Japan for more than 30 years, the impression I've gotten is family is paramount and "homemaker" is the most valued role in society. A recent poll conducted by the Japan Times (2015) indicated that more than 1/3 of high school girls indicated "homemaker" as what they want to be in the future.
@@gordonbgrahamIt might be a consequence of the ubiquitous and toxic nature of Japanese work culture that so many young girls want to avoid it.
@@DaDa-ui3sw What does that mean specifically. Do you mean corporate finance or marketing work culture in which overtime and stress is rampant throughout the world? There’s nothing specifically Japanese about that. Most Japanese work standard 40 hour work weeks with quite a few national holidays to go along with their breaks during Golden Week, O Bon and New Years. I’ve worked in Japan since 1988 and haven’t found the work culture to be anything besides supportive and encouraging.
This is concerning for businesses, but they are one of the root causes of that decline and refuse to address it.
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yep, always
they can like .. change the insane work culture that makes people avoid having a family
Japan ranks 27th in the world for hours worked per annum according to OECD's numbers...numbers that are reflected in Japan Rail's numbers that cite the hour between 5~6pm as being the busiest in train stations throughout Japan (which reveals that that is when MOST Japanese are returning home from work). The work culture in Japan is extremely exaggerated. Certainly, there are sectors such as finance, marketing and agriculture in which overtime is rampant, but that is true of everywhere else in the world. When "documentaries" focus their cameras on Japan's work culture, they neglect to show father coming home at 6pm Mon~Fri then spending his Saturday watching his son's baseball game and Sunday watching his daughter's piano recital...because that doesn't make for very compelling documentary viewing. As a result, outsiders get a skewed, myopic view of Japan's work culture. The fact is, most Japanese work standard 40 hour work weeks.
1:56 I think there's a rendering error. What happened to the y-axis, and what's the scale of the graph?
If you have built the system based on a pyramid scheme... well its going to end poorly sooner or later. (Unfortunately the same for most countries)
Basically capitalism is killing humanity.
All those law changes won't do anything. A few hundreds of dollars a month isn't what's stopping people from having children. If Japan and South Korea want to improve their birthrates, they need to deal with the main issue - the insane workload people there suffer. People just won't have children if they are also expected to work 60 or more hours a week in their jobs.
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it’s not just that. The government needs to enforce better safety for parental leaves too. If it is not forced well enough, the companies would just choose not to hire people with children/babies
And income is a problem too. A few decades ago a single income was enough to raise a family, now in many countries you need two incomes to afford rent of a 2bdr apt.
That's why Nordic countries, where there are good social programs, good work-life balance, and are among the most developed and most equal countries, have a sustainable population... except none of the do.
Finland's TFR was at 1.32 last year, which is not even that far away from that of Japan's 1.26. Many eastern European countries have a similar situation where there's also a rather low TFR and a population that has been on decline for years, if not decades like Bulgaria. But no one ever talks about them.
Japan is just ahead of the world as their TFR had dropped much earlier than other countries, the rest of the developed world WILL face the same situation one day in the future. This is not something that's just unique to Japan.
100% true. I don't understand why Japan is treated as so special in this regard... So many westerns laughing and attacking the 'dumb hentai country' for it's birthrate issues. Did any of them ever care to look up their own country's birthrate before hitting 'reply'? Hahahaha
@@tborsje Who is laughing? No one respectable is laughing, Tim! we see Japan at the vanguard of these changes that you correctly pointed out will visit all modern western-styled nations (wherever on the globe they exist)! Respectable people usually dont laugh at the demise of others, so, unless you can point to who is laughing at Japan, i just dont see what you are seeing!
Sweden's rate is at 1.67, Norway's rate is at 1.55 and Denmark's rate is at 1.72 according to the World Bank 2021 figures. Now that may not be the same as the ideal 2.1 rate, but it is not particularly alarming either, especially since many of these countries had a birthrate of near 2.0 in 2010 which is only 13 years ago, while Japan's birthrate hasn't been at 2.0 since 1974, which including next year will mean 50 years of deficit births!
Other countries make up the shortfall with immigration, but Japan doesn’t. That’s why only Japan is talked about.
@@theamici and what is the replacement rate ??
Well, I did my job. I helped produce three children with my Japanese wife. You're welcome, Japan.
If I don't see meaning in my own life, if nothing in the world seem to matter, when everything is a chore and suffering, why would I birth another, condemn them to all this, and how would I be able to raise and guide them in finding their way, when I don't have one of my own? That would be too cruel.
I have never seen this channel before, but wow, amazing quality
When just living alone by yourself is already drowning you with cost of living, how will you have the means, resources and enthusiam to bring another life into the planet? ARE THESE POLITICIANS STUPID?
They will make you pay "single tax" soon! Just wait...
@@anti-emo4721 You already pay a de-facto Single Tax in basically every developed country. Married couples get all sorts of tax benefits that single people don't.
@@HeadsFullOfEyeballs Yes, but there will be more, soon! And I think in some countries it has also been tried before. "Bachelor tax" or something.
politicians these days are too busy simping for corporations.
corporations only care about their lines going up
@@anti-emo4721 Won't those taxes backfire? People struggle to get into relationships and then if their wages are not sufficient, they will seek better job opportunities and then job-hopping happens so frequently that young workers will only work for the highest bidder.
Japan ranks 25th in the world for hours worked per annum. There's a reason Japan Rail cites the hour between 5~6pm as the busiest in train stations throughout Japan. That's when MOST people are returning home. Of course there are sectors like finance, marketing and agriculture in which overtime is rampant, but that is the case throughout the world in those sectors. The fact is most Japanese work 40 hour work weeks.
I believe that’s true. Literally every Japanese shares the problem of their working culture now, and seems like things have actually improved in the last decade.
I want Japan to keep making amazing video games, this is a real concern
Raising children require a community effort, not just money. A family is more than a mother, father and children. Parents require a lot of help to successfully raise children. They also need people to lean on emotionally when things go bad. They need a method to add flexibility to their already demanding lives. Before, the elderly would help raise children as the parents work and young parents. Neighbors would also offer assistance when necessary. I wonder what is situation now.
I think the worth of having a family is seriously being undervalued. Children are seen as pests, and the parents become isolated and emotionally stressed. I don't know why but I think there a global drive away from having families and part of that discourages people from having children.
The government would need to somehow change how families are perceived in the society and the entertainment industry is key to that. Maybe they can make documentaries about families living in different parts of japan and the struggles they face.
It is all to easy to forget that everyone was once a child...
There is a global drive causing people to have fewer children: urbanization. Another of Japan's programs is actually a good idea if they went full-force into it: recolonizing the countryside. If you live in an apartment without a backyard and you don't trust your neighbors you'll always keep your kids indoors which creates a massive load of stress for the parents. Allowing parents to just let their kids go outside for the bulk of the day significantly lowers that stress.
Additionally, keeping kids indoors means funding entertainment for them. Kids are already extremely expensive, so expensive that the only places that have significantly positive birthrates are either farms or with people who are mormons. So the lesson we can take from that is that government systems need to subsidize kids to such a degree that kids are actually a money making solution; which it costs $1522/month per kid in the US these days. So for the US to succeed they would have to give people, AT MINIMUM, $1600/month per kid.
Each country needs to take a hard look at what kids actually cost before trying to make programs encouraging birthrates, because they're going to have to foot a massive bill if they actually want to survive. I'm far from a commie, but this is one payment governments cannot do without. Arguments about socialism can't even happen on this one, because if someone argues against this just remind them that it's the only solution to prevent the countries' total annihilation.
This is same in india
This has always been the case. Throughout history cities have been in population decline of native citizens either due to dieseaes or low birth rates. Cities used to maintain and gain population through people coming in from the countryside. The native city population is always in decline.
The difference is now majority of population lives in cities so there's not much people living in countryside to replace the city folk.
Population growth was always driven by rural people having a ton of kids.
Korea: Those are rookie numbers. Hold my beer.😂
You actually stated the issue right out "more to life then working, producing, and paying taxes " and honesty i doubt that those in charge think past those three issue. I don't think the political class actually think this is an issue beyond meting their desired production and tax revenue. That the primary policy of a dressing this issue always boils down to "here a little bit more money, now get back to work making other more money" shows that they do not seem concerned with the lives of the people involved.
That they made a world where the where one of the most basic behaviors of life its self is now so unappealing and so hard to do that people are not doing to their own population decline.
And people voted for these politicians! Sometimes I'm completely astonished how politicians who openly despises people, tell them how they will basically punish them with new taxes, rules and regulations get elected! HOW?
Japan ranks 27th in the world for hours worked per annum. All of North America works more on average.
@@anti-emo4721 That's a whole other story. The LDP has ruled the country nearly continuously since 1955, only breaking that trend twice: once after a coalition of basically every opposition party forced it out for about a year (1993 to 1994) despite the LDP having the most seats, and once after losing the only election it has until now (in 2009). It's even been given a name in the country: the 1955 system. The opposition in the country is effectively seen by most of the populace as being incompetent, despite the fact that a new direction is desired. The only lasting government run by anyone other than the LDP (from 2009 to 2012) effectively bungled the response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster and passed a consumption tax increase that was extremely unpopular, and in the 2012 elections actually ended up in a worse position than where they were before they gained power. The LDP also has a large number of internal factions which can appeal to different sections of the electorate in constituencies, while also courting the nationalist demographic. They also are associated with having presided over Japan's economic miracle in the 20th century and are constantly buoyed by rural and older voters (the latter of which is an increasingly large demographic due to population issues) as well as business interests (especially immediately post-World War II as growth was needed), and Japan also tends to be societally and culturally conservative overall, with most changes in ideas coming from different factions within the LDP instead of different parties.
$107 per month for a year? Is this a joke? Even in freaking Bulgaria you get minimum wage for a year even if you haven't worked an hour in your life. And if you're working you get 2 years of maternity leave which pays 90% of your salary.
Europe man. If it weren't for Europe and America, I would have lost hope in humanity.
@@joelsalvatore america??? dawg that country and what's going on there and what they've done around the world makes me lose all hope in humanity
If young people have free time and can afford a home, your birth rate is high.
If young people have to work every waking hour or spend half their income on rent, your birth rate is low.
Fertility tends to be correlated with levels of economic development. Historically, developed countries have significantly lower fertility rates, generally correlated with greater wealth, education, urbanization, and other factors. Conversely, in least developed countries, fertility rates tend to be higher.
And consumerism is low too, you can't buy stuff at the mall or go to the theater without disposable incoming, and with even less disposable income you cannot afford to have a child.
WHO CARES ABOUT JAPAN? SIR MY INDIA IS THE REAL SUPERPOWER 🤗🇮🇳 WE HAVE THE BEST INFRASTRUCTURE AND HIGHSPEED RAIL 🤗🇮🇳 THIS WHY IM SO LUCKY LIVE IN SUPER INDIA THE CLEANEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD 🇮🇳🤗 , WE NEVER SCAM! WE GIVE RESPECT TO ALL WOMEN THEY CAN WALK SAFELY ALONE AT NIGHT AND WE HAVE CLEAN FOOD AND TOILET EVERYWHERE 🇮🇳🤗🚽, I KNOW MANY POOR PEOPLE JEALOUS WITH SUPER RICH INDIA 🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳
In less developed countries, people have free time, lots of it. In developed economies, we have jobs that take a lot of time amd energy. Yiu have to give some support to families, it's not that hard, but many cultures seem to value working their people to the bone
Well that is utterly a lie. look at the Netherlands, they have that yet abysmal birthrates. People would rather consume in their younger years than have children, basic fact.
I love the D&D book in the background instead of the youtube award ♥😄
I have friends who lived there and between how difficult it is for people to move and live there and how much time they expect people to work this isnt surprising.
Living in 1st world countries is simply too expensive. The basic costs of food, water, fuel & shelter are at or nearing record highs. Children are expensive, and our modern economic & social policies do not support families. This problem requires a complete realignment of values in business & government... and they just don't want to do it. Like any major long term issue, governments will chuck a little money at the problem and let the next one deal with the consequences.
No it not that Joe, Japan has lot of unique problems.
@@mandarinandthetenrings2201 unique problems of working their people to death.
@@mandarinandthetenrings2201Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong kong's birth rates are way lower than Japan. The West is just slightly higher only due to the numerous immigrants. Even with the immigrants Italy, Spain and Germany etc., are no different from Japan.
Yeah "Japan has unique problems".
@@v.d.2738Even poor countries are seeing a steady decline in birth rates….As they develop I expect less and less immigrants going to western countries….
Mexico for example..way less Mexicans go to USA now .
Way less Salvadorians go to USA now.
It goes beyond the work culture. It also has to do with the fact that all of the urban development and high paying careers are concentrated into the handful of large cities in Japan so the young generations leave their towns for said cities. If you’ve ever been to or lived in rural Japan you know how different it is and you will see first hand how much older the work force is.
the graphic at 1:57 (given that it's base is not 0) has very little actual intelligible information, if not a misleading depiction of data (by not starting at 0 and not mentioning it). It seems the blog tried to be more dramatic/sensationalist with the graphic representation of the argument instead of more informational.
Love how companies say that they are sceptical that government funding will work when wage stagnation, the expectation to work long hours and no benefits for parents working are issues that are coursed by those companies, at least from an outsider's opinion. If there are any strategies employed by the large companies in Japan please correct me.
Monaco is basically a micro nation set up to be an expensive retirement destination. Being only slightly behind them in average age is a troubling sign.
Monaco is great because it show what the average live expectancy is with really good health care and good nutrient very useful.
@@southcoastinventors6583Just like Japan.
@@v.d.2738 Japanese are not rich so they cannot fly to the best hospital. Plus they have a lot junk food since people have less disposable income.
this kind of social/welfare system didn't (and still doesn't) work in Poland, true, these two are different cultures, but the main problem is to be yet identified - in my opinion the problem is already high cost of living and uncertainty (if I can not allow myself (afford) to own essential things for living - eg house, car, etc. but instead I'm forced to rent it how can I feel safe enough to have children?)
gdp成長率と平均株価が好調なので何とか立て直してほしい‥
I am currently working in japan and man it's tough. I dont even have time to do other stuffs except work.
It seems to me that in general the more successfully a country is economically, the more it is urbanised, and the more unsustainable is its birth rate. As the world-wide birth rate is 2.3 and trending towards less than 2, you can not really rely on immigration either. Having enough kids is just way too expensive in a city, and the global trend is to move to cities for jobs, so a population collapse in the developed world in inevitable. How are average young people supposed to have more kids when you have to pay like $600K for a two-bedroom 60m2 apartment?
if I had to guess I'd say the 3 biggest contributing factors have been universal access in the western world to female contraception and abortion, The global shift to get female parity in the workforce, and the extended higher education that an increasing number of woman now receive compared to their male counterparts..
None of which is meant as a dig against women or their choices, just an observation that those that actually give birth have had several changes in societal behavior stack up against them this last 60 years or so, that reduce the chances of them having one or more children intentionally or accidentally during their lifetime.
Which is a fairly obvious when you look at nations that fail to give access to one or more of those 3 things to their female population...
@@johntowers1213 people might disagree with you.
But I also think it is the main factor
The Japanese Yen is getting worse too. Almost 140 to the dollar now. And japanese yen has also fallen almost in half against chinese yuan in just the last dozen years.
This is a crisis that will hit all present developed countries in 10-20 ys simultaneously with a sledgehammer and I am of the view that the dimension of its impact on the very social fabric is still fairly underestimated, be it changes in population-composition due to migration, demand of products, burden on the working population, etc. Indeed: "On the brink of not being able to maintain its societal functions". What will happen if all these societies fall off the cliff?
You have a Volo's guide to monsters there, I want a DnD segment in the next discussion on Nebula :)
Was looking for this observation 😄
May your campaigns be full of epicness and fun my fellow adventurer!
As long as government don't realise that the the fertility crisis is linked to
1. the housing crisis,
2. stagnating salaries,
3. inequality between the sexes and
4. discrimination against parents (especially mothers) in the workplace
there will be no increase in birth rates. It's simple as that.
1. Ensure homes are affordable and prohibit housing market speculation. remote work may result in lower productivity, but it's clear how important it is for parents to have time and work flexibility. It is clear that people will not give up their careers to have children, often because they simply cannot;
2. tax the rich in order to cut salaries for people under 45, and provide free childcare and schooling;
3. institute mandatory, EQUAL parental leave, so that there is no reason to prefer hiring and promoting men compared to women;
4. Make discriminating against women socially and culturally unacceptable, and institute laws that allow prosecuting managers that discriminate against new parents. Make harassing mothers or fathers a felony and allow the judicial to force managers to resign without severance pay when they discriminate against women or parents.
This is a crisis, and we must decide if we value short-term corporate interest and the wealth of a few elites over the well-being of society.
This. I would also include anti-abortion laws and criminilizing pre-natal healthcare, which contribute greatly to women not wanting to have children.
@@warmetalpacifist
This isn't effective, instead you'd see society do what it always does when abortions are illegal. The rich will fly to nations where it is legal. Those who cannot will use back alley way abortion providers. Those babies who are born will be thrown into foster services. These services are almost universally poorly funded, and tend to produce mentally scared individuals with higher rates of crime, suicide and drug use.
In some more extreme cases, like 1800s Europe, or countries with less development, these foster services are little more than state funded infanticide. I believe the fatality rate for children in 1800s France in orphan homes was around 80%.
If you want to see people have more kids, encourage it, don't take away rights, instead give people the right to have kids, and to take care of them. Economics currently in Japan says you can have them, not that you can afford to take care of them.
5. Remove the law that allows an entity to sue over 'loss of honour.' This perpetuates many issues as well, such as sexual harassment/assault, corruption, etc.
I don't think Japan has felonies
@@warmetalpacifist Having access to abortion doesn't lead to women not wanting children. Unless you do the mental gymnastics that you're doing.
Your reactionary ideas won't solve the problem in any way.
South Korea, China, and Japan all have the same problem. A strong culture of patriarchy, rigid gender roles, and conformity does not mix well with late stage capitalism.
Nothing mixes well with late stage capitalism save for the linings of pockets of the few capitalists at the top, to be fair.
On the contrary, it is the breakdown of the "patriarchy" that is the problem here. When women choose to remain single and prioritize meaningless business careers over the much more rewarding role of being a mother, then this is the natural outcome. Every single western country has the same problem and make up for the low birth rates by importing people from 3rd world countries, which is just making things worse over all.
@@ybergik except thats not a problem that would be fixed by having more patriarchy, just look at russia.
Hell, japan has a lower birth rate than countries like iceland, norway, denmark etc. countries that are far more into equality and the abolishing of patriarchy (i foregoed mentioning sweden because otherwise you'd just shriek about "muh immigrants).
and this is all without mentioning how children are, technically, being born at a above replacement rate. the average women produces 1.3 children. the problem is a hyper capitalist system that favors constant growth.
@@ybergik Nope. The problem is the necessity to work, not the "LiBeRaL vALueS" you think off.
There's no way in most western countries nowadays that one working parent can earn enough to raise a family, in the vast majority of cases.
You know that full well, but you don't care about the actual problem, because it doesn't confirm your reactionary worldview.
you got it backwards. birth rate was maintained (or even grew) BECAUSE of structured gender roles that are now being eroded by feel-good gender dynamics theories concocted in the gender study thesis papers which are detached from reality. but you are correct about capitalism playing a big role in the issue (and yes, I believe lower than replacement birth rate is an 'issue', unlike some people who think it's a good thing).
Kishida said the government official need increasing their salary . What a hell. What about us.😭
Ive been considering going over there to teach but I've heard so many horror stories haha
Economists and politicians like whining about their indicators, but is there any evidence that the population decrease has negative impact on the people? Does it actually make living in Japan worse than in countries with large population growth or immigration?
It negatively impacts the state, compainies and economic growth, but positively impacts individfual people in that rent gets cheaper, wages rise and competitiveness is decreased.
It's not just the parenting roles. It is the changing society after the 1990s that raised insecurity for both men and women. It's not ony women, the men don't want children either. And the role burdened on men with being the career man is a standard many won't be able to fulfill or don't want to fulfill. That's also why marriages are falling rapidly. There is a relationship shortage that leads to a baby-shortage.
Or maybe stop looking for excuses and just jump on with both feet?
@@tobiwan001 That's why you're not @ed in the reply😁
or maybe start accepting immgrants and stop denying war crimes.
@@gungan5822 why would anyone want to bring a CHILD, to this abysmal world? honestly it's immoral to have children, knowing the direction the world is going in. it's better to adopt and make existing kids lives better.
@@kirapink80 You're the problem right there. You are what you get when you give kids neuroses and anxiety by teaching young people the world is ending unless the 7 year olds with no agency of their own march for marxist causes and "climate change".
It's never immoral to have a family. It's probably the most satisfying thing you will ever do in your life, and it's the social connections that support and sustain you for the rest of your life. Childless people are the ones who die lonely and alone when all of their friends are already gone, and nihilism is no way to model your life, or the world.
Abysmal world? You haven't lived in an abysmal world. 99% of the people who lived before you lived hand to mouth sustenance living, went to the bathroom in a hole in the ground, and died from common diseases at 40.
Adopting kids is good too, but it's incredibly difficult to do from a regulation standpoint, and then you have the government in your private life for decades. My wife and I tried it. It's expensive. It's a lot of classes, and then you pretty much roll the dice.
Cool book!
its interesting how very high work hours and stressful enviorment is still 1 of the higest life exectency
this crisis is not unique to the japanese. they were just the first to encounter it. and now we are catching up with them. soon this will be the norm for every country in the world, and we need to somehow survive this period
Only at the 5:05 mark still, so perhaps too early to say this, but if Japan and any other country facing similar issues wants to actually induce a baby boom in this lifetime; they need to fund the single people who are looking to start a family first and foremost. The benefits that exist for families already are good enough in a lot of cases and as Japan is doing correctly, just need some upwards movement in age based allowances, reduction of caps or removal, and increasing funds with more children even more than before. This combination will help many struggling families, and the well off even more due to reducing the costs they must earn themselves via normal employment. (which is the topic that becomes prevalent at 5:05)
For example:
1. Don't give the single benefit to everyone, but instead anyone who applies stating they wish to start a family but can't get ahead to do it properly. The simple fact they would be going about it like this, shows to government that this person is probably more responsible than the run of the mill folk who end up having kids; they just don't make enough in today's economy for whatever reason.
2. Give that person a match amount for whatever they already earn, with no cap provided all earnings are provable and done through employee pay-roll or other authorized method that can be properly audited. The no cap part is important, because you don't want to incentivize earning less to avoid punishment. Instead you just set some baseline rules of what's not allowed as a income for this benefit due to not being able to be audited correctly. Those industries, if they wish to be part of this benefit, will fix themselves accordingly due to it. They'll want those workers, because they'll use that benefit as leverage to lower the wage just enough to be worthwhile over hiring non-benefit earners.
3. Penalize those who abuse #2 as just stated. Those employers end up paying extra fines which will be too large to just pass on to the consumer entirely forever without risking going out of business eventually due to being too expensive compared to the competition.
4. Add a bonus on for the benefit earner if they are building their own home, not buying. It must be new build on a plot of land in whatever town, city, or rural area of their choosing. This allows for a lot of flexibility, as some families might want to be started on a farm for instance. Combine this benefit with others than already exist in each municipality or other scenario that is affected by whatever extra benefits exist for it already in the chosen area; and there should be little reason a person cannot start a family.
5. To keep this money from causing inflationary pressure on said economies, there is a catch. Create two new taxes that all citizens who earn, must pay. They are very small taxes, but just enough through cumulative effect to help balance out the effect of the benefit itself in regards to inflation. These two taxes could be for anything really, but they have to be applied unilaterally across the board on absolutely everyone. Otherwise it won't be seen as 'fair'. Some will still complain, but some will complain about being comfortable... So sometimes you ignore that 'some'. Find ways to convince them to find new problems to complain about instead, etc.
The end result of this set of points, will be a system that makes it nigh impossible for single folk to find a way to start a family. Even if it takes them a while to do it, due to wanting to do things like go to university first, get a better paying job first, etc. Once they have that security, many more will jump on board as well as the first to try the new system.
And then when they actually have families started, they get automatically moved into the original system for families, altered to help ensure they don't lose money for having started a family. That would just be backwards.
Lower birthrates is a result of increased living standards and the fact that our economy is geared towards ever increasing population shows that somehow we need a new system. I have not seen anyone that found an answer to what that is though.
Maybe if they stopped working 24/7 they'd have more time to do anything else? Just an idea Japan.
Yeah, Europe can do that to…oh wait they did and still not working!!
Nah just got to make it easier to smash and also pay celebrities/famous people to have big families, it collective society so just have to have famous people doing it and anime characters the rest will fall in line.
Hungary bruh who tf wants to live there
1:55 This graph is straight up horribly misleading. It implies that Japan's population is 1/3 from that of 2014 when in reality, the population has only dropped by a few percent. This is poor journalism on TLDR's side
One data point that is generally not considered is the "hidden" stat of family size. Usually these types of reports only look at the average national fertility rate, however seeing the family size gives additional info.
Definitions: Fertility Rate is the average number of children the average woman will have over her lifetime. Family Size (as I'm using it here) is the average number of children in a family - the average number of a children a woman who _has children_ will have over her lifetime. In other words, it's the Fertility Rate, but excluding all women who have no children.
In the US, at least (as it's the only country I have data on), the average family size dropped dramatically from the 70's to the early 90's, going from about 3 down to 2.4. It's not clear exactly when it hit that 2.4 mark (could be anywhere from mid-80's to early 90's), but it has remained stable ever since then. In other words, women who have children are having roughly the same number of children today as they had 30 years ago.
However the fertility rate has continued to decline during all of that time, which means that the real change impacting the population crisis is the number of women who aren't having any children at all.
So government programs that provide extra funding for families with children are kind of missing the point. I'm sure it helps those families out, but if a family has any children at all, government benefits aren't likely to influence how many children those families have. It certainly isn't going to have any notable impact on the national fertility rate.
If governments want to fix the fertility rate problem, they need to look at why women aren't having any children at all, and focus on trying to solve those issues. Bonuses to families that already have children don't really fix anything (as seen by this same type of effort having failed in numerous other countries).
It can be summed up by that green mile meme..."I'm tired boss...."
I know people are saying it is about the cost of living, work hours etc. But countries like Germany, Denmark and Norway who are the most equal and work the fewest hours has the most support for families etc. still do not come close to reproduction rate (2.1). Denmark sits at 1.7, Norway 1.5 and Germany at 1.5. It is something else that is driving this - partially because people are being told, when they are young, that the most important thing in their life is to get a degree and a career and to not have kids. When they are grown, they are then being told that they can always wait to have kids until they are in their 30-40s, but this is a lie and an illusion - by the time a woman has turned 30, she has lost 90% of her eggs and the risk to her, carrying out a pregnancy increases every year she gets older. I think we need to reverse the order of the way our current system is and advocate for having kids early and then do a degree and a career after. We have decades and decades after having raised children to go on and have degrees and careers. People born today, will most likely have to work until they are in their 80s, and with fewer and fewer babies being born, they might not even be able to retire at all as there simply aren't enough people to provide for the larger groups of old people.
Great point!
WHO CARES ABOUT JAPAN? SIR MY INDIA IS THE REAL SUPERPOWER 🤗🇮🇳 WE HAVE THE BEST INFRASTRUCTURE AND HIGHSPEED RAIL 🤗🇮🇳 THIS WHY IM SO LUCKY LIVE IN SUPER INDIA THE CLEANEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD 🇮🇳🤗 , WE NEVER SCAM! WE GIVE RESPECT TO ALL WOMEN THEY CAN WALK SAFELY ALONE AT NIGHT AND WE HAVE CLEAN FOOD AND TOILET EVERYWHERE 🇮🇳🤗🚽, I KNOW MANY POOR PEOPLE JEALOUS WITH SUPER RICH INDIA 🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳
Yeah, that isn't gunna fly very well in the modern day, having a kid is a bigger commitment then getting married and I can tell you right now I am super glad that I don't have any. If the government really wanted to force me to have children a few things would have to change. To start, the issues with the family court system when it comes to things like custody battles needs to be reformed, its bogus that there is a prejudice against single fathers in said system and I am not trying to lose the ability to see my kid if I ever have one. Part two is the support infrastructure. If you wanted people to pursue a career after having kids then day cares would need to be free so that people could attend classes, work etc. Outside of daycares companies would need to get a lot more liberal with working hours, no more 80 hour work weeks or sudden impromptu calls, which doesn't align with the modern day working environment especially within higher paying roles. Kids are a massive time sync until they turn 16 and getting a drivers license, in which case they finally have some autonomy.
Outside of the actual hurdles to having a kid, raising the kid, etc. There is still one other super important factor that the government can't help with and that's relationships, you need to have a stable partner before baby making is on the table. No responsible person is just going to have a kid with someone they have only known for a few months, especially if there is no guratees of finical stability
Its a expensive endeavor and the truth of the matter is that the real answer to the problem is through immigration, plenty of people our in the world who want a better opportunity in life encouraging immigration would be a much faster way to solve the issue than betting on the native population to just start popping out kids, plus there will be ramfications down the line if that rate of population spike doesn't sustain itself steadily
wtf of course women dont lose 90% of their eggs after their 30’s, where the hell did you see such a ridiculous claim ?
@@dennisp8520 Certain demographics will basically go extinct with your conclusion, but I agree it's the only feasible solution that doesn't involve crafting an actual solution. As for the soon-to-be gone, oh well. Survival of the fittest! 💪
One can hope they manage this somehow, looks like a tough battle ahead
same with south korea
European countries and the US "solve" this issue with immigration of skilled workers. This brings its own problems though. The children of immigrants will grow up here and have just as few kids as the rest of us. The only long term solution is to make it affordable to have children. And increase the people's confidence that it will remain affordable for the next ~20 years. If you believe the next Japanese government will reverse these measures then you're not gonna be able to afford (another) kid.
I've gotta day quenec does it right there are dang babies everywhere. They pay thousands a year for one kid, we geta year off maternity and there's paternity leave, we get vacation, my employer is flexible, now ofc there's wfh, yeah dang babies everywhere
Japan is a unique country because they don't want "cultural enrichment".
Looking at the grey cultural nothing that other countries have become...
WHO CARES ABOUT JAPAN? SIR MY INDIA IS THE REAL SUPERPOWER 🤗🇮🇳 WE HAVE THE BEST INFRASTRUCTURE AND HIGHSPEED RAIL 🤗🇮🇳 THIS WHY IM SO LUCKY LIVE IN SUPER INDIA THE CLEANEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD 🇮🇳🤗 , WE NEVER SCAM! WE GIVE RESPECT TO ALL WOMEN THEY CAN WALK SAFELY ALONE AT NIGHT AND WE HAVE CLEAN FOOD AND TOILET EVERYWHERE 🇮🇳🤗🚽, I KNOW MANY POOR PEOPLE JEALOUS WITH SUPER RICH INDIA 🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳
Great video, kind of funny how almost none of the stock photos and videos depict Japanese people.
Biggest problem with Japan is that since over 50% population is over the age of 40, there is absolutely no way for younger generations to vote for a politician that will benefit them. The amount of taxes used for older people is insane
Government: Man, we just can't seem to figure out this demographic problem
Median income citizen: I can't afford to own a home so I am not going to start a family. Get wage stagnation and the housing market under control.
Government: Hmm, nahhh. That won't fix the shortage in taxpayers we need to take care of the elderly...
Prospective Immigrants: We want to fill the labor shortage and pay those taxes but your visas are too strict and we also can't afford to live there.
Government: Hmm, nahhh. Boy, this is a head scratcher. A real puzzler. Oh, I know, let's pay people to have kids! We'll take the tax revenue we don't have! Genius.
Medium income citizen: "I'm practically living at work"
It's not just cost of housings. It's also costs of everything relevant to raising children. It is not good in West, but it is even worse in Japan/China/Korea.
@@rspy77 It's a combination of conservative voters who are afraid of change and corporate lobbyists who benefit from high living costs. At least in the democratic countries.
WHO CARES ABOUT JAPAN? SIR MY INDIA IS THE REAL SUPERPOWER 🤗🇮🇳 WE HAVE THE BEST INFRASTRUCTURE AND HIGHSPEED RAIL 🤗🇮🇳 THIS WHY IM SO LUCKY LIVE IN SUPER INDIA THE CLEANEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD 🇮🇳🤗 , WE NEVER SCAM! WE GIVE RESPECT TO ALL WOMEN THEY CAN WALK SAFELY ALONE AT NIGHT AND WE HAVE CLEAN FOOD AND TOILET EVERYWHERE 🇮🇳🤗🚽, I KNOW MANY POOR PEOPLE JEALOUS WITH SUPER RICH INDIA 🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳🤗🇮🇳
Not as easy as you put it. Allowing more immigrants has a massive set of issues on itself, and I say this as an actual immigrant in Japan.
30K yen (so 200€) seems nothing for a rich country like japan, especially to compensate costs. here in germany, we have a similar subsidary, which currently is 250€ for each child/Month, and this does not cover nearly every cost, and thats why we discussing in raising it to lessen child poverty ...
My sister worked for years in Japan and married a Japanese guy. Shortly after they had their first child they found that their quality of life was far better here in the USA. Their children are now fully English speaking Americans who can speak some limited Japanese and know all the food.
I like how long life expectancy is frame, not yet a problem, but kind of a problem... probably that's the slow marketing strategy to make use say "oh yeah that makes sense" when laws to make lifetime into a currency start popping around
Increase the birth rates by kicking employees out of the office after 5pm and having a private life and meet finally the special person in your life. Money won't be enough, because first you need a spouse. Japan government could also try to invite foreigners to work in Japan, until they have solved their demographic problems.
Better yet, encourage the Japanese 🗾 to marry from abroad. That won't cause culture clash issues long term.
Plus, it is a lot easier to marry foreigners if the nation 🏛 works towards simplifying the procedure.
Tired of this outdated stereotype that hasn't been true for 10-15 years now, there's intense competition to hire and retain workers due to the low birthrate so companies have undergone a major cultural shift. Most workplaces will send you home on time and even pressure you to use all your vacation days. It's not an overwork issue, it's more that everyone wants to live and play in the big cities, so they end up prioritizing spending on rent, hobbies, and vacation rather than having a kid.
@@UniDocs_Mahapushpa_Cyavana : In case of the Japanese, "culture-clash" has done them almost always, good...
the main reason for that is of course, that they were able to digest these "foreign things" at their own pace and adapt it for their own people.
@@bikkiikun That's only because Japan 🗾 had incredibly low interaction with any foreign nation.
That meant the interaction it did have was more useful as there was a lot more to learn .
People don't want to move to japan for work when there are better options
I spent a few months in Chiba as an English teacher, a very common career for foreigners to take on while in Japan. A lot of this is due to the way Japanese culture itself is structured. Traditions are valued to a fault, and the homogeneity in Japan is a serious problem. Forget ethnic homogeneity, but ideological. Even if you want to scrutinize the systems at work, you can't in good conscience, because "the nail that sticks out is the first hammered in". Another disturbing trend I saw was how Tokyo is getting more expensive, more crowded, and of course, less sustainable. In the meantime, the countryside is full of abandoned and dilapidated housing.
Japan has to open immigration, be more dovish towards foreign investment, increase incentives for rural living, subsidize childcare even more, and of course, stop treating its old ideas as divine law.
Not to mention the abusive and toxic work culture in japan
@@btaxis678 facts, Japanese people seem to strongly dislike any change to the norm. But whether they like it or not they’ll have to bite the bullet at some point and allow more people to settle there
@@spritemon98 oh god, I got off easy, as a foreigner. I'd ask some kids about what their parents did, I'd talk to other teachers about work life in different sectors, and I thought it was bad, but hearing it firsthand is something else. Sometimes when walking around, I'd see these men in suits just passed out from what seemed was either intoxication or exhaustion. Also, when your superiors ask you to go out for drinks, take an extra task, literally anything, you never say no. Hierarchies are very strict, and you are not allowed to stand up for yourself, not unless you're at the same or higher level than the person bothering you.
From that point, I decided I don't want to work permanently in Japan, not until the work culture radically reforms.
I don't disagree but I just want to say:
You gotta do change (especially needed) to things, gotta do things as they are still, or have some things make a comeback.
For example, how they used to celebrate birthdays should make a comeback in my opinion. Hopefully I'm not alone...
@BTAxis I'm not so sure. I think individual people, especially the younger kids, do. I saw a lot of bright kids who would thrive in any other environment. They were smart, creative, and very curious. It's about the culture and society they are growing up in. I'm no psychologist, but I've heard people who are refer to this as societal trauma.
throwing money at the issue is never going to work. No-one has time to start relationships or have kids because they are literally working all day. Money helps alleviate the cost of living factor. But if people actually want kids they will have them. Time and culture is key the issue.
Ayo, hes got Volo's guide to Monsters in the back
Meanwhile South korea : we are waging Gender wars to solve it 😅
There's a gender war in the US and the UK as well along with Australia to a certain extent
Yoon is a Us puppet, destroying S.Korea which is now hated across Asia. Rumor is that Saudi and the GCC Arabs will cut-off all oil & gas to Korea soon. This will be OPEC+ rule so Russia will cut-off Korea and Japan too of ALL oil & gas & enriched uranium. Korea will literally freeze & stop. It's coming!
It’s amazing, they are doing the same thing again and expecting it to work.
A good work life balance would help increase births, if you’re always at work or stress about work your never going to have time to have a child let alone raise one, and good quality of life is also important. And japan notoriously has a terrible work life balance. So I’m surprised there was nothing about that mentioned.
Also, more controversially, relaxing immigration laws would help. But I doubt that will happen until it’s the last option left.
I mean, Europe have definitely a better work culture balance and still get stupidly low birth rate, if it wasn’t for inmigration, they would fade out many years ago.
Very participating in behavioral science to achieve that
The issue should be given to corporations. I'm sure they'd have some interesting ideas.
its mindblowing how behind japan, south korea and china starting to have the same problems
yeah. Heck the birthrate in Korea is already lower than Japan’s even right now
And Europe?
It is not a problem at all. Japan has had a smaller population before and did just fine. It is still doing fine. Its older people can get jobs if they want them. They are not on the scrap heap at 50.