Article from The Week
Notice that the article points out two ways to reverse the baby decline in Japan:
1. Change the Birthrate
2. Loosen the restrictive immigration policies.
Number one is not actually proposing any solution. It's like saying "we need to rescue the survivors of a sinking ship," and when you ask "How are we going to rescue them" the response is "by rescuing the survivors. Duh."
Number two is progressive boilerplate. How does adding foreigners to the population save the Japanese people? Maybe if this is a proposal to import Thai hookers to marry off with the men, i get it.
A better solution would be: "Reverse the policies that lead to a declining birth rate." Of course, that is such a huge can of worms, no journalist dare touch it. Pussies.
Sounds like this is a problem. But that would require a serious reevaluation of feminism. Nope.
Sounds like wages might be a problem.
To quote Captain Capitalism,
If you are a single dude, going to work with no visible proof you are profiting from it, either hard cash or pussy, is not only stupid, it just isn't done.
Fuck me. Oh I forgot: 'it's for the baby.' Looking at the reality mentioned earlier in the article,
So the prime minister looks at factors that are engrained in Japanese culture/market and says "Gosh, we got to change all that." So much for saving Japanese culture. Unless saving really means, "take a huge shit on it."
Progressive boilerplate cop-out.
As a foreigner, I observe a few things about Japanese culture, which are more likely the true avenues to pursue real change:
1. Hypergamy unleashed. Japanese women are desperate to snag a big exec husband at the cost of being lifelong spinsters. The larger the social differential pre-feminism, the more impact hypergamy has on the intersex relationship. Figuratively speaking, Japan used to be a culture of male big-businessmen and women servants. As a woman, you were #1 servant to the husband and children, and #2 mother, and #3 (if at all) career woman. No problem with the population then.
Read it and weep, feminists.
2. Big business and automation. Men cannot get decent wages because their jobs are automated out of existence. In fact, they are probably expected to consume the very products/content that they could be creating. Automation frees up more men to be consumers.
This isn't a policy problem per se, but it is causality of technology. Still, it's finger pointing that technology is fucking up society. In the war of profit versus human survival...well, business is damn sure going to choose profit.
3. Real Estate. The second you allow foreigners to buy land, you immediately homogenize the value of real estate. A Japanese guy isn't buying land at the Japan rate. He is buying land at the international rate.
Again, this isn't a policy problem; rather, causality of technology. I can research real estate in a foreign country online, fly there in a matter of hours, wire up my property with security to protect it when I'm gone, take comfort in local police protecting my property, etc. All while earning my dollars elsewhere. Is that fair to the Japanese guy? No. Is it profitable to the real estate company? Yes.
If you notice the larger trend here, Japan's problems are not Japan-specific. They apply to any technologically advanced country. Is there a correlation between Japan embracing technology faster than any other country and it suffering a demographic decline worse than any other country? I think the anecdotal evidence is there.
These problems are soon to be our (the western world) problems.
Looking at some earlier quotes,
Half of the population, a good chunk of voting majority, is damn certain to vote in favor of holding on to resources, protecting retirement money, and protecting the elderly standard of living. So while the author uses the term 'demographic death spiral' to appeal to older readers, seems like we need this to allow younger people to thrive.
Quote:Quote:
The Japanese now have one of the lowest fertility rates in the world, and at the same time, one of the highest longevity rates. As a result, the population is dropping rapidly, and becoming increasingly weighted toward older people.
Quote:Quote:
Without a dramatic change in either the birthrate or its restrictive immigration policies, Japan simply won't have enough workers to support its retirees, and will enter a demographic death spiral.
Notice that the article points out two ways to reverse the baby decline in Japan:
1. Change the Birthrate
2. Loosen the restrictive immigration policies.
Number one is not actually proposing any solution. It's like saying "we need to rescue the survivors of a sinking ship," and when you ask "How are we going to rescue them" the response is "by rescuing the survivors. Duh."
Number two is progressive boilerplate. How does adding foreigners to the population save the Japanese people? Maybe if this is a proposal to import Thai hookers to marry off with the men, i get it.
A better solution would be: "Reverse the policies that lead to a declining birth rate." Of course, that is such a huge can of worms, no journalist dare touch it. Pussies.
Quote:Quote:
In reality, more Japanese singles are having sex than in past decades. In 1990, 65 percent of unmarried women and 45 percent of unmarried men had never had sex; today, the figures are 50 percent and 40 percent, respectively.
Quote:Quote:
The marriage rate has plummeted, and with it the birthrate, since out-of-wedlock births are rare in Japan. In 1975, just 21 percent of women and 49 percent of men under 30 had never been married; by 2005, the figures were 60 percent of women and 72 percent of men.
Sounds like this is a problem. But that would require a serious reevaluation of feminism. Nope.
Quote:Quote:
Japanese men ... simply can't afford it. Wages have stagnated since the 1990s, while housing prices have shot up. A young Japanese man has good reason to believe that his standard of living would drop immensely if he had to house and support a wife and children — especially considering that his wife likely wouldn't be working.
Sounds like wages might be a problem.
To quote Captain Capitalism,
Quote:Quote:
Say an individual has an option to stay at home on Saturday day. He isn't going to go to work without having some kind of incentive to work. So in order for him to get off his butt and work you are going to have to pay him. You are going to have to pay him an amount of money that is more valuable to him than his leisure. i.e. - you are going to have to make it profitable for him.
If you are a single dude, going to work with no visible proof you are profiting from it, either hard cash or pussy, is not only stupid, it just isn't done.
Quote:Quote:
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ... renamed his economic plan from Abenomics to Womenomics. "Creating an environment in which women find it comfortable to work," he told the U.N. General Assembly, "is no longer a matter of choice for Japan. It is instead a matter of the greatest urgency."
Quote:Quote:
He promised to expand day care offerings and promote flexible work arrangements so that women would no longer have to choose between work and childbearing, and he challenged businesses to promote women to senior management.
Fuck me. Oh I forgot: 'it's for the baby.' Looking at the reality mentioned earlier in the article,
Quote:Quote:
In Japan, marriage usually ends a woman's working career, even though most women are well educated.
Quote:Quote:
Once they have a child, women face strong social pressure to quit their jobs and assume very traditional roles, serving both the husband and the child.
Quote:Quote:
Mothers who want to keep working are stigmatized and usually find that employers won't hire them.
Quote:Quote:
Child care is scarce and expensive,
Quote:Quote:
Japan's brutal work culture often demands that employees work more than 50 hours a week.
So the prime minister looks at factors that are engrained in Japanese culture/market and says "Gosh, we got to change all that." So much for saving Japanese culture. Unless saving really means, "take a huge shit on it."
Quote:Quote:
"Sooner or later," said economics professor Heizo Takenaka, "Japan will have to face the necessity of immigration."
Progressive boilerplate cop-out.
As a foreigner, I observe a few things about Japanese culture, which are more likely the true avenues to pursue real change:
1. Hypergamy unleashed. Japanese women are desperate to snag a big exec husband at the cost of being lifelong spinsters. The larger the social differential pre-feminism, the more impact hypergamy has on the intersex relationship. Figuratively speaking, Japan used to be a culture of male big-businessmen and women servants. As a woman, you were #1 servant to the husband and children, and #2 mother, and #3 (if at all) career woman. No problem with the population then.
Read it and weep, feminists.
2. Big business and automation. Men cannot get decent wages because their jobs are automated out of existence. In fact, they are probably expected to consume the very products/content that they could be creating. Automation frees up more men to be consumers.
This isn't a policy problem per se, but it is causality of technology. Still, it's finger pointing that technology is fucking up society. In the war of profit versus human survival...well, business is damn sure going to choose profit.
3. Real Estate. The second you allow foreigners to buy land, you immediately homogenize the value of real estate. A Japanese guy isn't buying land at the Japan rate. He is buying land at the international rate.
Again, this isn't a policy problem; rather, causality of technology. I can research real estate in a foreign country online, fly there in a matter of hours, wire up my property with security to protect it when I'm gone, take comfort in local police protecting my property, etc. All while earning my dollars elsewhere. Is that fair to the Japanese guy? No. Is it profitable to the real estate company? Yes.
If you notice the larger trend here, Japan's problems are not Japan-specific. They apply to any technologically advanced country. Is there a correlation between Japan embracing technology faster than any other country and it suffering a demographic decline worse than any other country? I think the anecdotal evidence is there.
These problems are soon to be our (the western world) problems.
Looking at some earlier quotes,
Quote:Quote:
By 2060, the government estimates, there will be just 87 million people in Japan; nearly half of them will be over 65.
Quote:Quote:
Japan simply won't have enough workers to support its retirees, and will enter a demographic death spiral.
Half of the population, a good chunk of voting majority, is damn certain to vote in favor of holding on to resources, protecting retirement money, and protecting the elderly standard of living. So while the author uses the term 'demographic death spiral' to appeal to older readers, seems like we need this to allow younger people to thrive.
