The issue is money.
Plain and simple. Money.
It`s not an issue of men working too long, and not having time for intimacy - as western men LOVE to point out as if Japanese men are sexually inferior in some way. The average working hours were longer in the past, and apparently peaked in the 1960s and 70s when the birthrate was so high there were efforts to slow it.
It`s expensive to have a kid. Housing to accommodate a child is expensive. Birth itself is expensive. School is expensive.
Companies used to offer pay raises, bonuses, etc based on the number of children you had. Now they make the assumption that both parents are working, so they don`t need to do anything like that. The biggest problem is, pay has been dropping so that it`s hard to get by without two incomes... But there is no support structure in place for the two incomes to continue once a baby comes along. Maternity leave most certainly DOES exist, but it doesn`t last until the kid goes off to school. Daycare - even the government run ones - are incredibly expensive for under 3s... Plus they tend to give priority based on income. Literally being unable to survive without mom working receives priority for the limited number of spots over those who may be able to just scrape by on one...
People tend to be financially responsible when it comes to children, so simply don`t have them until they feel they can afford them.
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ETA: Wow, that article. What possessed that politician to think it was appropriate to refer to women as 'birth machines'? And 'devices'? Is that... men? Wonder what the original Japanese was...
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I hate hate HATE how this has been turned into a soundbyte by the media, completely removed from context, and made into something it was NOT.
To quote myself from back when it was first attacked by feminine groups and the guy basically lynched - and all the GOOD plans he had in place discarded...
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I recall his speech being that no matter how hard men in the government may sit around talking about how the population should increase, and coming up with grand schemes... It all comes down to women - There is a limited number of women, and in that population there is a limited number of "baby producing units" ie. functional wombs with willing owners - so the best we can do is to ask them to do their best for the population.
In other words, instead of old men sitting around trading theories, why not ask those who really do have the power to increase the population to do their best.
If you ignore his wording, I think what he said is very accurate, and is in fact empowering to women as he refers to them as the ones with the power, and refers to asking/begging them to do their best.
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And a post I made elsewhere about the issue;
For those who don`t know, the "baby making machines" comment was not calling women machines, was not considering them less than human, etc etc... But was saying that instead of a bunch of old men deciding what is "best" for increasing population, as there are only a limited number of people out there with wombs (said with a hopefully more PC term of "baby making mechanisms" as "womb" is sort of off limits - but then correcting himself as the self coined term probably wasn`t a good one) it would be a MUCH better idea to actually listen to THEIR opinions and cater to them, as they are the ones - the only ones - who really have the power to raise the future population. But congratulations to all the groups who took it out of context and got the guy taken out of office! All the plans he had in place to actually listen to the potential mothers and make things easier have been scrapped, the team he gathered to make Japan a better place for having children has been split up... and replaced with old men who couldn`t care less what women think because they don`t bother talking to have their comments taken out of context - and only have a plan that doesn`t have anything to do with reality. Good job on the kneejerk, I say! *insert eyeroll here*