Why does Japan still have a declining/low birth rate, even though the Japanese goverment has enacted several nation-wide policies to tackle the problem?
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I lived in Japan for a few years. Female friends knew that as soon as they were married, there would be intense pressure to have a child and drop their careers. Women who continue to work while having a child are judged harshly by other mothers as not being devoted enough, meanwhile many companies will not hire married women/mothers due to the expectation that they will not be devoted enough to their jobs, due to their many obligations at home. Add on the fact that the average single income from the husband isn’t enough to rear a child these days, and women are in a really difficult position. My female friends were almost all on the same page, single life was the only way they could make enough money to live while still having some freedoms.
On top of that, Japanese companies are so demanding of their workforce that men will be expected to spend nearly their entire day there. I heard of families where husbands and wives saw each other only a few hours a week, creating really lonely existences for women stuck alone in the home.
Basically, married life is extremely unattractive for women due to social attitudes, and being single with a child is even worse. It’s frustrating, the government is not focusing on the right issues to solve these problems. I’m sure that’s only a piece of the whole puzzle but that’s one of the most common reasons I heard for why women were not having kids.
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