Is Japan even doing anything about this? The japanese people are going to disappear if this goes on for long enough. I always assumed the 98% ethnically homogeneous nation would want to prevent such an outcome.
It’s a really weird experience to go to the emergency ward of one of the most famous childrens hospitals in Japan and have the guy say ‘your bill comes to $0’ after.
Both parents can take up to 1 year of combined childcare leave after a birth (part of that at 60% salary).
There’s “Children’s hall” s scattered across the neighborhoods that are basically a free playroom, toy repository and library for kids up to high school age.
Kindergardens have been sprouting up like trees all over the country. I think the last time I read any stats about it there were like 6000 kids on a waiting list in the entire country. And again, free or mostly free.
Housing is relatively small, but also affordable, even in the 23 wards of Tokyo. If you go outside Tokyo you can find really nice houses for dirt cheap.
At least it’s not for lack of facilities/benefits that Japan isn’t having children.
As an American, that delivery is comparatively cheap and extravagant, but it's hardly free.
Having lived in US and in a few countries with completely free healthcare, I'd have to correct you that the really weird experience is going to a hospital and getting a 6 figure bill.
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/health-insurance.htm
https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/out-of-pocket-maximum-li...
I didn't mean only going to hospital for labor and birth.
I would guess that’s only weird if you live in a country with only private medical care.
In a LOT of countries free, at the point of service, medical care is the norm.
I mean, I understand on one level that in lots of places medical professionals would refuse to treat a pregnant woman or a child without a source of funds. On another though it’s seems very alien to me.
I’ve tried to state that in plain, unemotional language but it is a “weird” concept here. I guess it’s just what you’re used to.
You can't be turned away for lifesaving or critical procedures.
If you go to the hospital in labor, or with a gunshot wound, or an infected abscess, etc; they'll treat you (they're legally bound to). You get your bill after services rendered.
At least in California, you can also go to a myriad of clinics for free-cheap preventative services so your toothache doesn't turn into an abscess.
This was more to illustrate that it’s not for lack of governmental intervention.
Also improving the whole idea of what a family is: Want to be unmarried and have a child? Go for it. But have the supports available to make it work.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/21/france-populat...
The article states the opposite of your claims:
> The fertility rate is high in European countries where family norms are flexible, women feel free to work, pro-child policies are generous and childcare is well organised – in short, in countries that have come to terms with gender equality.
The United States has had a higher fertility rate than France and Europe for many years despite having a notoriously porous social safety net.
The stats may change but whereas Europe has been below 2 for a long time, that's a more recent development in the United States.
"High" is very relative, France is still well below replacement fertility despite all their efforts.
Meanwhile very religious groups like the Amish have much higher fertility rates without any of those interventions.
Maybe a deep belief that god wants you to have kids is just much more effective than any policy?
From the article I quoted:
> Since the early 2000s France has consistently topped European rankings. After two decades of decline, in the 1970s-80s, the fertility rate started picking up again in the late 1990s. Since then the country has registered scores just short of the mythical threshold of 2.1 children per woman, which would secure a steady population. Its fertility rate in 2014 was 2.01.
It seems like being more religious is more effective at changing minds than any of those policies.
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php...
The recovery for c-section is way longer than natural child birth. They are literally cutting open your abdominal muscles to access the baby.
We did elective C-section for both our kids. Recovery was fine. Wife up and walking at the end of the first day.
So, exactly like a vaginal birth (speaking from my own experience) ;-) I don't understand the big fuss - sure it hurts, but it's endurable. And for the child there are benefits to being born vaginally.
Of course, everyone is free to do as they see fit, but I am very happy and proud of my Klingon birth experience :D
For my wife she was scared of natural birth so we elected for C-section and that was far less scary for her and she smashed through it without complaint. But her friend living in France was forced to do natural. If they have a second she’s flying back to Taiwan for the 2nd because the whole experience of natural and the horrible experience of staff at the hospital put her off wanting to do it there again.
In asia, woman are doled on from the moment they enter the hospital. Natural or surgery they stay for 3-5 days in the hospital. Unlike a lot of the west where people are sent home the next day.
These demographic crises arguments are no better than the population bomb arguments of the 1960s. You can project forward and get all kinds of results but over the decades things change.
Had a nice population bulge initially.
A country of 100M people will change its birth patterns long long long before it "disappears".