• Addfwyn@lemmygrad.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        4
        ·
        1 year ago

        Technically the work week is the same, not factoring in commutes. Folks who work in Tokyo often live in neighboring cities like Saitama and commute in.

        There’s typically a lot of unpaid overtime though. There is the concept of “black companies” that force employees to work up to 100 hours a week. To some degree the government has been trying to crack down on it, and has met with some success, especially with the bigger international. My company is the Japanese branch of a US company, so we are a little better than most, but some of that still happens. I probably work about 45-50 hours a week on the clock on average, plus maybe 2-3 off the clock. I don’t live or work in Tokyo anymore, so my commute is fairly insignificant.

        Thankfully the “you have to go out drinking with all of your coworkers after work” thing has mostly fallen by the wayside. Those events still happen, but it is way more acceptable to just…not go.

        Source: I have worked in Japan my entire adult life

      • red@feddit.de
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        21
        ·
        1 year ago

        The official work hours, sure. All the unpaid, unreported overtime they have to do, nope.

    • NoneOfUrBusiness@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      1 year ago

      I mean that’s definitely the best move in the short term, but they still need to cultivate an environment that encourages having children.

    • CIWS-30@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      21
      ·
      1 year ago

      That only works for 1 or 2 generations, when the immigrants’ descendants find out what the pre-existing citizenry already has found out: that it’s too expensive and difficult to have children, particularly when you’re overworked all the time.

      Plus, immigrants are usually only brought in for jobs that are shittier, harder, lower-paying, and with fewer benefits than the current population of native born citizens already have.

      I’m a children of immigrants in the USA who is childless (hell, most of my cousins are too) and I live around immigrants of every nationality, and most either want to wait until 30 to have kids (and generally only like 1 kid at that) or want to have no kids.

      It’s like that in a lot of western nations with birthrate problems. It doesn’t take long for new people to start acting like the old people if the conditions are bad enough, and they are.

      • thisisnotgoingwell@programming.dev
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        I don’t think that people having children in their 30s is a bad thing. In fact, there’s a lot of misconceptions about when a woman should have a child, and it’s safe to have children even into your 40s. I think young women don’t want to start birthing kids in early adulthood when there isn’t a strong family support system in their life. Also, to be honest, most people are still trying to figure out so much about who they are and what they want in their 20s, I’d rather see more people waiting to have kids than people having kids without a thought of how they’re going to provide

      • Titan@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        That’s why you take a steady stream. Also, the culture changes, hopefully for the good, as immigrants bring in new perspectives

      • worfamerryman@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        1 year ago

        My wife and I are just kinda sorta getting to a place where we could consider having a kid. But we are getting a little old to have a kid.

        Also, a kid at this point would tank out ability to save and slow down our career progress.

        So by the time people get to a financial place to have a kid, they are too old to do it. Or they have to sacrifice too much.

        • thisisnotgoingwell@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          I don’t know if this will change your mind, but I think people exaggerate how difficult it is to have a kid. It’s pretty hard for the first year, but it gets easier. I had my son when I was 19. I haven’t thought about having another until recently, my son is 9 now, so it’s been 10 years or so. It’s a pretty big sacrifice at first but it does get easier with time… Then they got school and after school activities. I spend a lot of time with my son and enjoy spending time with him, so it’s not like it’s a drain. I also managed to get a solid career without a college degree by wit and effort. People who weren’t going to accomplish anything with their lives love to blame their children for their own shortcomings. I’m not saying it wasn’t without sacrifice, but don’t listen to naysayers. A child is not the end of the world.

          • worfamerryman@beehaw.org
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            1 year ago

            My sister-in-law want her first child to be adopted and if she decides for a second one she will possibly have her own.

            I think my wife and I decided to stay kid free, but we will be a big part of our niece and nephews life.

        • Kaped@lemmy.mlOP
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          1
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          You’ll be old when you’re dead. Go have a kids and teach them everything you know

    • Carlos Solís@communities.azkware.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      1 year ago

      Abe’s push for native births over integration of foreigners always struck me as deeply racist. Especially knowing the background reasons why birth rates are so low.

      • Titan@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        6
        ·
        1 year ago

        Yeah he is right wing afterall.

        What are the background reasons for low birthrate?

        • Carlos Solís@communities.azkware.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          1 year ago

          Low salaries and culturally long working hours, plus the cultural tradition for women to abandon their jobs to take care of their children (which they can’t afford to do in this economy, so most just postpone child rearing)

  • traveler01@lemdro.id
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    109
    arrow-down
    9
    ·
    1 year ago

    For what I’ve heard japanese spend a lot of time working and their economy isn’t that great. People mostly avoid having children under these conditions for good reasons.

    • Tankiedesantski [he/him]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 year ago

      For what I’ve heard japanese spend a lot of time working

      According to the OECD, the average Japanese worker works just about the same number of hours per year as the average EU worker. It’s actually pretty surprising because the average Japanese worker seems to work less than workers in countries that most people do not think of as being overworked (e.g. Canada, Spain, Italy).

      Of course, averages don’t account for distribution, so there absolutely are workers who are chronically overworked. There’s also more part-time workers in Japan, which kind of explains things. On the other hand, you then have to ask how/why it’s financially feasible for so many people to sustain their livelihoods with only part time work.

    • SlopppyEngineer@discuss.tchncs.de
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      92
      ·
      1 year ago

      It’s not much better in the rest of the West too. Turns out that building a society where money and career determines your social status and doing unpaid work like taking care of a family and raising children is not valued at all and even very expensive makes people choose to have less or no children.

      People of course do want children, but those that do very often will choose one or two children, below replacement rate.

      • JillyB@beehaw.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        23
        ·
        1 year ago

        I lived and worked in Japan before returning to the US. It’s much worse in Japan. When you leave college, you’re basically employed for life by one company. Your place in society is determined by your work in that company. My company was one of the more progressive ones. Salaried personnel still had to clock in and out to prevent people from working too much overtime. People put in great effort to cheat the time clock and put in more overtime than would be acceptable. People would get to work an hour early and leave at 10pm. There was little effort to make work more efficient because the employees can just work more. The company had an employee discount deal with customer products and employees were pressured into buying their products. It’s much better in America where the common tactic is to switch jobs every few years. America has a long way to go when it comes to work, but saying it’s almost as bad as Japan is just not true.

      • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        edit-2
        1 year ago

        People of course do want children

        Do they? I mean, even if first-world people aren’t as well-off as they could theoretically be, they’re still much better off than people in poor counties (or their own ancestors a hundred years ago). But those people in poor countries and those ancestors have/had a lot more children. Meanwhile people in Sweden have fewer children than people in the USA.

        I think that many people in first-world countries do not in fact want children.

        (And within a country, poor people have more children than rich people, so actually making more people poor would increase fertility.)

        • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          11
          ·
          1 year ago

          I am not sure if it’s really “I don’t want children” or more “I want a career (too)”. In Sweden 76 % of women are employed versus 57 % of women in USA. There are also more women with higher education in Sweden than in the USA.

          You have to decide whether you want a career or a child. And when a good career is a viable and achievable option, you decide to have a career instead.

          I wanted children, but I wanted to be independent and not poor when I am older, more. I know so many women who are poor and lonely because they did not focus on their jobs. While I am often sad to not have children, I’d never give up my independence and safety cushion just for that biological urge. I know of many women who think the same way.

        • R0cket_M00se@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          13
          arrow-down
          5
          ·
          1 year ago

          Sure, and people in the south are popping them out like crazy even though they definitely can’t fucking afford them and need constant welfare support (that they’ll turn around and rail against politically) so it’s clear that things like education are also involved.

          If people understood the scarcity of resources and their own earning potential they’d be fucking TERRIFIED of having children. Since they’re all dumbass hicks, they just fuck and don’t think about it. I’m sure Uncle Sam will show up with a other WIC check to help their poor decisions.

          • Jakeroxs@sh.itjust.works
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            8
            ·
            1 year ago

            Not to mention most are psuedochristian so they won’t even think about an abortion (not that it’s legal in the south anymore…)

      • traveler01@lemdro.id
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        35
        ·
        1 year ago

        Turns out that building a society where money and career determines your social status and doing unpaid work like taking care of a family and raising children is not valued at all and even very expensive makes people choose to have less or no children.

        In my country the state taxes the shit out of us while pays for the children of non-working people (there’s a shitload of subsidies going into their pockets), so that doesn’t help at all. What people need is money in their pockets, so having a children doesn’t bankrupt a family.

        • I Cast Fist@programming.dev
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          35
          ·
          1 year ago

          When you work 8 hours a day, have 1 hour lunch break, waste 2 hours commuting, to earn barely enough of what Adam Smith considers ideal (twice the cost of living), it’s hard to sustain a second person, much less a third that requires near constant monitoring for over 7 years.

          From a pure economic perspective, a child is a total money sink for at least 18 years. In many places (mostly urban), it’s simply not viable to have one.

            • Duamerthrax@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              33
              arrow-down
              1
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              Short term, raise the minimum wage. Force walmart to fill the gaps between what they pay and what their workers need to live. Right now, it’s the government is subsidizing that gap.

                • Duamerthrax@lemmy.ml
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  8
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Socialism for the rich, rugged individualism for the poor.

                  The rich can pay lobbyists to pay politicians.

                • I Cast Fist@programming.dev
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  23
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Because rich assholes need to feel speshul, so they waste money on lobbying to ensure those below them never get anywhere

                • BelieveRevolt [he/him]@hexbear.net
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  4
                  ·
                  edit-2
                  1 year ago

                  The US government already subsidizes companies like Wal-Mart and Amazon because they force their lowest-paid employees to apply for food stamps even though they work.

              • Asafum@feddit.nl
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                16
                ·
                1 year ago

                Gigantic mothefucking emphasis on short term.

                Our piece of shit, bought and paid for politicians LOVE to pull the “we’re fighting to raise the minimum wage from X to Y!” but only over such a long timeline that the value of Y equals what X was… God forbid the Job Creators™©® have to ever actually pay more.

                • Duamerthrax@lemmy.ml
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  2
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Agreed, but getting an increase in minimum wage would get the ball rolling on other worker right reforms.

          • traveler01@lemdro.id
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            arrow-down
            8
            ·
            1 year ago

            In my country, some get a minimum wage from just being at home, plus they get a subsidy for each kid they have.

            While the working class gets only a small subsidy for each kid (the higher your income the less you get).

            • FreeLunch@feddit.de
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              4
              ·
              1 year ago

              But how high is the rate of unemployment in your country? In Germany it is really low, so it probably costs a working person only a few euros per month to support all children of unemployed persons. Not sure if it is worth it to not help these children as they are already severely disadvantaged. Not to mention it can be seen as an investment in these children.

              • traveler01@lemdro.id
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                arrow-down
                7
                ·
                1 year ago

                Now much, but people get basically a minimum wage from the state without any effort, so why work at all?

                • candybrie@lemmy.world
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Incentivizing people to have children is pretty important for a society to continue on. Most societies are based around there being more young people than old people. When you reverse that, you historically don’t have enough people working to keep the country chugging along.

                • ParsnipWitch@feddit.de
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  You would be surprised how many people actually cost the state money instead of bringing in money via tax in some countries. The problem isn’t the few unemployed people who could potentially work, the problem is that wages between high earners and low earners are out of proportion.

        • WittyProfileName2 [she/her]@hexbear.net
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          39
          ·
          1 year ago

          pays for the children of non-working people (there’s a shitload of subsidies going into their pockets),

          Do children deserve to starve because their parents aren’t employed?

          • traveler01@lemdro.id
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            arrow-down
            19
            ·
            1 year ago

            Do children deserve to starve because their parents aren’t employed?

            Because they don’t want to work. There’s enough jobs.

            • SuperNovaCouchGuy2 [any]@hexbear.net
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              33
              arrow-down
              10
              ·
              1 year ago

              people deserve to starve in an age of plenty

              this pigbrained subhuman cruelty betrays you as an american citizen, thank god your shithole is in decline lol you should all rot and die there for the good of the world

              • pinkdrunkenelephants@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                2
                ·
                1 year ago

                America falling apart would be horrifyingly destructive for the rest of the world, for it will allow other corrupt capitalist powers that are, let’s be honest, not as humane, take over the rest of the world.

                Then again, the destabilization of the U.S. is well under way and our collapse is inevitable so I guess disputing it is a moot point.

                • BeamBrain [he/him]@hexbear.net
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  16
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  America falling apart would be horrifyingly destructive for the rest of the world, for it will allow other corrupt capitalist powers that are, let’s be honest, not as humane, take over the rest of the world.

                  This is what every imperial power says about itself

                • SuperNovaCouchGuy2 [any]@hexbear.net
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  27
                  arrow-down
                  2
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  America falling apart would be horrifyingly destructive for the rest of the world, for it will allow other corrupt capitalist powers that are, let’s be honest, not as humane, take over the rest of the world.

                  Well technically the continuation of america is more destructive than its inevitable decline, since america has a very awful pattern of killing millions of people for the enrichment of its elite, via means such as invasions, installing genocidal puppet leaders, and corporate extraction. The worst part is that america often destroys countries just as their people are on the brink of greater liberation.

                  Notable examples include:

                  Installing the Taliban in Afghanistan to oppose a Socialist government then destroying it

                  Destroying Iraq for Oil

                  Helping quash the Protocommunist Taiping Rebellion in China

                  The current blockade of Cuba

                  The current blockade of North Korea

                  The murder of socialist president Salvador Allende in Chile and the installation of Pinochet, a neoliberal dictator

                  The Contras

                  Sending $3 billion a year to isntreal for the mass killing of Palestinians

                  The genocide of first nations peoples on the North American continent itself

                  Assassinating Fred Hampton and the political killings of the Black Panther Party

                  Meddling in the affairs of practically every single third world country on Earth

                  Fucking Monsanto and their land grabbing bullshit

                  It is also probably the most inhumane of the corrupt capitalist powers as revealed in the details of these genocidal ventures either by using its own weapons or by proxy.

                  As such, the death of america would enable the possibility of a flourishing of socialist nations without the threat of the worlds most powerful military brought to full bear against their people for daring to pursue life, liberty, and happiness.

              • Asafum@feddit.nl
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                13
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                1 year ago

                Can you maybe not see entire groups as the same?

                There are Americans that routinely get sent to jail protesting/fighting to change America for the better every day. There are those of us in this very thread that agree with you calling the other commentor a pigbrained subhuman. The strict adherence to an absolutely shit narrative given to them by Reich Wing Media disgusts a large portion of our population.

                It’s not entirely our fault that propaganda is so effective at keeping the absolute worst possible people in office and rotting the brains of our neighbors. The blame rests on the oligarchs and ultra wealthy assholes looking to divide and conquer, turning all of us against each other while they laugh all the way to their 3rd private island…

                • SuperNovaCouchGuy2 [any]@hexbear.net
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  14
                  arrow-down
                  2
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  I agree, some of you are alright, it is the elite of america and the very notion of “america” as a nation itself which must ultimately face justice for this situation. I hope you have a good day.

              • Archlinuxforever@lemmy.3cm.us
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                arrow-down
                1
                ·
                1 year ago

                I only had to read this one comment to know that you’re a tankie who probably worships every little thing the Kremlin and the CCP say.

              • traveler01@lemdro.id
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                arrow-down
                11
                ·
                1 year ago

                Why the American flag. How do you know I’m speaking about US?

                Get a grip.

                • ElHexo [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
                  link
                  fedilink
                  English
                  arrow-up
                  19
                  arrow-down
                  2
                  ·
                  1 year ago

                  Because the US is one of the best examples of your desire to see the children of poor and unemployed people starve?

                  “G-g-g-get a grip, I don’t like my shitty views being challenged and I can’t actually defend them”

                  Mate if you’re going to post dumb shit you probably should have a better response than that.

                  I’m assuming you’re not actually very dedicated to the idea of starving children, that’s just something you’ve heard and parroted because your own economic status is precarious

            • BeamBrain [he/him]@hexbear.net
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              20
              ·
              edit-2
              1 year ago

              Capitalism by its nature has an interest in keeping part of the working class unemployed. Look up “reserve army of labor”.

        • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          36
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          the children of non-working people

          Your wording alone demonstrates exactly what SloppyEngineer said about unpaid work not being valued at all.

    • Duamerthrax@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      54
      ·
      1 year ago

      It’s crazy how much doesn’t even get done. No one wants to leave before their boss, so they space out their work and give the appearance of being busy.

  • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    53
    arrow-down
    16
    ·
    1 year ago

    Bear children to feed into the soulless machine of neoliberal international capital ? No thanks Abe, I choose extinction. Humanity would have been gone long ago, we just didn’t realise we had the choice to not continue existing. Thank you inventor of abortion and contraceptive pill finally we can escape this horrible planet and cease to exist.

  • VikingHippie@lemmy.wtf
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    38
    arrow-down
    4
    ·
    1 year ago

    Nah, don’t think I’m going to be taking advice from a holocaust-denying nationalist piece of shit about anything. May he rest in piss.

  • SharkEatingBreakfast@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    72
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Work hours are long and grueling. Childcare is phenomenally expensive, and that’s assuming you can even find childcare, which is near impossible. Children are expensive. Cost of living is high. Cheating and domestic violence are rates are high. Women have no confidence that they will be supported or be able to provide support if they decide to have a child, and they are very right to think that.

    Scarce resources avaliable for women who have children is the reason for the decline. You could never pay me enough to ever have a child in Japan.

    Not mention, plenty of Japanese adults grew up being abused and/or neglected by their own parents while growing up in a pressure-cooker society. Maybe they’re thinking twice about bringing another human into the world because of that, as well?

    • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      13
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Human reproduction is an astoundingly bad deal reserved for the richest and most powerful who can outsources the endless source of problems briefs and complications that it is.

      The only reason this continued for so long is that we were too stupid to realize not doing it was an option.

    • candybrie@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      24
      ·
      1 year ago

      They also have this fucked up idea that pain is an important part of becoming a mother so they don’t really offer things like epidurals. Yeah, no thanks.

      • SharkEatingBreakfast@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        17
        ·
        1 year ago

        I am not personally familiar with the Japanese medical system, but I would not be shocked if that were the case.

        Add “treating women really shitty and unfairly” to the checklist.

        • Addfwyn@lemmygrad.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          7
          arrow-down
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          Japanese permanent resident here.

          Epidurals are very rare. They exist but they are not popular at all. Some is the belief that a “natural” birth is better. In some cases it is just availability of an anesthiaologist that is equipped to do one. Some people just don’t even realise it is an option. The only people I know here who have had one were non-Japanese residents.

          I don’t think people necessarily look down on a mother who has one, it’s rare enough that nobody would even ask probably, but it’s just not a common procedure.

    • tiredofsametab@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      assuming you can even find childcare

      I think this needs an ‘affordable’ thrown in. The free and cheap stuff is really hard to get into, but there are other, more expensive options (though out of reach of most).

      plenty of Japanese adults grew up being abused and/or neglected by their own parents

      Do what now? Source?

        • tiredofsametab@kbin.social
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          1 year ago

          Yeah, it was definitely up during corona. All domestic abuse was up then (and in a lot of the world).

          For your first link, it states that the abuse found is more extreme, but the source they link to doesn’t work. I do remember the horrible story of that poor child from the news here. It then goes on to just give numbers with no citations or sources whatsoever. The whole publication also seems a bit weird.

          Abandonment of infants is definitely a thing that happens and I’m glad that a baby hatch solution now exists.

          I do agree that often abuse goes unreported and/or un-prosecuted (as do rapes and many other crimes in Japan). I just don’t see anything here stating that it’s on the scale I seemed to think you were saying.

          Things for single mothers does need to get a lot better; making women more equal in society and actually enforcing the protections on their jobs and family leave could go a long way to this.

          I’ve been living in Japan the better part of a decade. I’ve had friends from all walks of life. Some did open up to me about abuse (I was also an abused child for a good chunk of my childhood and have sometimes talked about it), but I’ve really heard no more here than in the US. There are two problems with this. (1) it’s anecdotal based on the experience of one guy in Tokyo and (2) what some people would call abuse, others would not making things even more sticky.

          I do think that, whatever the scale of abuse, non-zero is too much and that should be addressed, but I also don’t think it’s some super-regular thing which is what I think you were intending to write,

  • ArbitraryValue@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    54
    ·
    1 year ago

    From the moment I understood the weakness of my flesh, it disgusted me. I craved the strength and certainty of steel. I aspired to the purity of the Blessed Machine.