Our current resources can't actually sustain the current gross birthrate, so a declining birthrate is really something to celebrate. It's not as if Japanese people--or anyone else, for that matter--is on the verge of extinction.
The Guardian article isn't actually about birthrate, but about intimacy, and the two topics really ought not to be conflated (people in relationships can be intimate and have lots of sex without needing to have babies, and should be encouraged to do so).
However, there is something here that's very relevant for us as VGM fans:
Quote:
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Around 70% of Japanese women leave their jobs after their first child. The World Economic Forum consistently ranks Japan as one of the world's worst nations for gender equality at work. Social attitudes don't help. Married working women are sometimes demonised as oniyome, or "devil wives".
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This is a helpful and elucidating statistic that I didn't know. In this way, Japan is still in the 50s (much like the redder half of the United States). It's a serious problem that can't
not have serious longterm consequences. I wonder what initiatives Japan has that specifically work to address these issues, such as active recruiting strategies in schools/universities and important, essential services like the U.S.' Planned Parenthood.