Birth Rates In Japan Falling
Published December 27, 2005
Forbes has reported that Japan's population has fallen for the first time in 2005. The Japanese government is calling the falling population "a 'turning point' that will force the economy to adapt to a rapidly aging society." Health, Labor and Welfare Minister Jiro Kawasaki said that counter-measures must be taken to counter the falling birth rate, along with "measures to support and foster our future generations."
This falling birth rate should come as no surprise to anyone who has been following the issue in Japan for the past year. This article from Foreign Policy [Author's note: You need to be a subscriber of Foreign Policy to read the article. It's also available at this link. Scroll down to read it.] described the growing dissatisfaction Japanese women have about their second-class status and dreadful treatment when it comes to marriage — dissatisfaction so pronounced that many of them have chosen to forgo marriage and childbearing. Japanese wives are expected to shoulder the household chores, wait on their husbands (including peeling his apples for him), and raise the kids. Japanese men poo-pooed their complaints, calling them "the twittering of birds."
This portion of the article caught my attention:
[Author Yoko] Haruka, a witty, 30-something essayist and television personality from Osaka, describes with clarity and biting humor the exasperation of Japanese womanhood in two recent books - collections of eminently readable essays called Kekkon Shimasen! (I Won't Get Married!) and Hybrid Woman .
Haruka begins I Won't Get Married! by describing her treatment at her own father's funeral: She was told to sit and to walk behind her five brothers - younger as well as older - and made to understand that she wasn't wanted on the receiving line to greet relatives and family friends.
Haruka warmly admires her sister-in-law, who must put up with endless verbal abuse from her eldest brother, and her mother, who lives with them. The sister-in-law manages to smile self-effacingly even as she scurries to provide for their material needs, right down to putting a cold beer in her husband's hand as he steps out of his nightly bath. Haruka is exasperated by a favorite aunt who talks about her search for an "ordinary woman" to be her daughter-in-law. What the aunt means is a woman who will gladly make do with the 200,000 yen (less than $1,800) a month her son brings home, and who has no aspirations of her own.
Shortly before finding this article, I read a plea from an Indian wife who was at her wit's end dealing with her husband's family. She had been married for six years. Two years ago, her brother-in-law moved in . Her in-laws "visited" for six months last year. Compare what she wrote to Haruka's comments.
- Birth Rates In Japan Falling
- Published: December 27, 2005
- Type: Opinion
- Section: Politics
- Filed Under: Culture: Society, Politics: International, Culture: Family and Relationships
- Writer: Trish Wilson
- Trish Wilson's BC Writer page
- Trish Wilson's personal site
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Comments on this articleComments
lumpy sez...
*If you were about to be born would you want to be born japanese?
neither would I.*
true colors revealed: the contents of that Comment indicate a certain bigotry and racism in their Opinion...
don't they?
Excelsior!
We can expect great things from this one - Archie Bunker with a vocabulary.
Might want to look within yourself as to why u saw an innocent remark like that which follows directly from the theme of the post as racist.
oh ko? so desu
wakari mas na?
Excelsior!
That wasn't racist. Racist is assuming that Japanese people are worse than others. They aren't.
lumpy just said that they wouldn't want to be born Japanese, and because Japanese culture is in such a huge transition period right now, the comment makes a lot of sense.
And gonzo? Don't pretend to speak Japanese, it doesn't give you greater standing, it just makes you look silly to actual Japanese speakers.
Why in the world would you be concerned that the Japanese increase their birth rate? Japan is already suffering the effects of overpopulation, just as many countries are. Where are all those extra people supposed to go? Japanese women are reacting to their low status, but at least it will have good consequences. The problem is, that if their status actually improves, they'll go back to marrying and having kids, with all the short-sightedness that humans habitually display.
to Farker...
i don't speak ANY language well...but i do screw around with them all
it's a Joke....a Jest....except to ask if he understood, the first bit was just something random i remembered
now, if i cared how silly i looked to anyone, i would probably not ever make it out of the house
but, weirdo that i am... i keep going
Excelsior!
Well I'm Glad I was Born in the Christian nation of America and not Japan. However I am learning to speak Japanese and I'm deeply immersing myself in the Japanese culture. I realy like Japan and the Japanese people. Here is my 2 cents. I think that treating ANY ONE like a slave is wrong! I think a man should pull his weight around the work place and at home. But, I do think that Household chores should mostly be done by women. I also think that women who try and be the head of the household I.E. women who think they are better than all men or that they don't need men in the world, they are just disgusting terrible people who need to be shot into space where they belong. I love women with all my heart and I would spend my life trying to make my wife's life happy. I'm not saying that women aren't important I'm just saying that Men SHOULD have their place and women SHOULD have their place in the home and in society. Not that either side should be mistreated but Men ARE the head of the household as it should be. But men should never look down on women. Men love your wife's and make them happy and they will do the same for you.
i cudnt b arsed 2 read this. =p
The problem is that women have rights. If girls were married off right at menarche and were not given the option to refuse marraige there would be no problem.
Death To women's Rights.
--MikeeUSA--
As usual, any form of criticism is labeled racist. and how did this dicusion turn into a platform for right-wing christian retoric? men have their place and women should too? well i hope you find the emotionless robot-like wife you`ll need to complete the sterile vision of society you seem to be dreaming about.
women in japan ARE dirt. men in japan act like kindergarteners demanding snack time. the most shocking thing is that so few people have acutally said anything about this.
i think ppl should move 2 japan
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If you were about to be born would you want to be born japanese?
neither would I.