1,195,000 die in Japan !

[Dutch Baka]

So, it's the government's job to get women out of the workplace and back into the home, churning out babies like a takoyaki stand?

The government should support women to get a baby, so they should take care that they can get financial support when they don't have a job, and that they can come back to their old working place after 1.5.-2 years! (read the last article below)

They should reward women (families) with more than 2 babies with financial help!

This will make the step for the WORKING women a lot easier IMO!

Japan has a serious problem, and they know it for a long time!! But what do they do about it?

Here is btw an Article from the BCC about the Birth rate in Japan:

Japan sounds alarm on birth rate
The Japanese government says urgent policy changes are needed to persuade women to have more children.

Japan currently has one of the lowest birth rates in the world. Discrimination in the workplace and poor government policies have been blamed for deterring many Japanese women from having children.
But the government says that unless the trend is reversed quickly, the shortage of children risks doing damage to the economy.



The decline in Japan's birth rate is so severe they have invented a word for it - 'shoshika', meaning a society without children...


Read the whole article

The Angel plan, and the NEW angel plan:

Prior to the revision of the Child Welfare Law, a 10-year agenda, officially named Basic Orientations to Assist Child-Raising and colloquially known as the Angel Plan, was jointly put together in 1995 by the Education, Health and Welfare, Labor, and Construction ministries. Since one of the reasons for the trend toward smaller families is the growing presence of women in the workplace, this plan aims to build an environment that makes it possible for women to feel confident that they can raise children while holding jobs. Among the various measures promoted were the expansion of the capacity of day nurseries, a lengthening of the hours during which day nurseries are open, and a large increase in the number of child-rearing support centers (kosodate shien senta) throughout Japan.


In 1999 this plan was revised to create the New Angel Plan, which covers the 2000 to 2004 period. The new plan expands numerical targets for various types of care facilities, and includes provisions promoting improvements in the corporate work environment.
Source

And than the last part, and this is Japans recent plan on the Birth rate:

Plus One Proposal

Although many Japanese are legally entitled to take up to a year's Childcare Leave with guaranteed re-employment and financial compensation of 40% of the salary during the leave (10% is paid when the employee returns to work), relatively few take it. There is increasing concern that informal pressure in the work place encourages women to resign after childbirth rather than depend on others to do "her work" while she is on childcare leave and it is particularly difficult for men (less than 1% currently take this leave) to take advantage of this without worrying about their future careers. As part of a new government policy to combat the declining birthrate, the Japanese Government has enacted new legislation that requires local governments and large companies (over 300 employees) to draft concrete measures for attaining the target of 80% of women and 10% of men taking Childcare Leave. This new policy is entitled the Plus One Proposal to End the Low Birthrate.
source

[mujou]

another problem lies in value changes toward lifestyles among the young and
less people want kids regardless of expenditures.

[CBT1979]

another problem lies in value changes toward lifestyles among the young and
less people want kids regardless of expenditures.

That's what I meant, most younger generations in the modern societies often think selfishly and fun orientated. Many don't want to be responsible for taking care of a family. Althugh it was seen as a modern trend, many criticizers consider this as a threat of human way of life. Maybe it is the counterpart of the Babyboom generation after WW2.

[mujou]

That's what I meant,

Oops

Maybe it is the counterpart of the Babyboom generation after WW2.

I wonder what factor can cause the Babyboom nowadays.

[nurizeko]

We have to face facts.

Nearly all westernised developed nations have birth rate problems.

I hate to sound mean or anything because I'm not, and I wouldnt take it back for all the gold in China, but perhaps equal rights as we know it and a sustainable birthrate arent complimentary.

When women filled out their biological role as reproducers and carriers of the species, we never had a problem.

The only problme now is that the modern concept of freedom and equal rights means that women, and men, seem less interested/capable of having children.

Many people dont want children for their own comfort (i'm not innocent, I'm 21 and I have no interest in them for a while yet) and many of those that do find modern life and attitudes incompatible with the responsibilties and requirements for raising a family.

Its not just simply a case of maternity leave, if it was, Britain would be having a second baby-boom.

Its just society as a whole in general, it doesnt seem to lend itself to the family type of enviroment.

Work used to merely be a means to an end, and the family was the most important acheivement in life.

Now peoples work becomes their life and family is just an after-thought if considored at all, its not a big deal anymore if you have a family anymore, you can have a string of failed marriages and no kids and living single, and it wont dent your reputation and standing, if you have a high paying high respect job.

It could just be modern civilization is incompatible with the heavy needs of species propagation.


We arent like some species that lay eggs and forget, we have this cripplingly long detrimental "childhood", few species has to pamper their offspring for over a decade after birth.

I wouldnt take back progress, but we need to find a way to make having family more vital to people, more important.