Gender Equality and Birth Rate in Japan
I think I have to clarify some of the nuance in my claims.
This statement is becoming less and less valid. A large percentage of women do work, and there are a lot of single men and women who have to support themselves.
My intention was not to suggest that all women are home. We can look at this in more detail. From various articles I have read in the past, I dug up one here, it seems clear that while Japanese women work while single or after marriage. They seldom do so after having children. Low levels of gender equality and poor work-life balance in the work place means:
- The man is not available to share the burden at home. Traditional gender roles are expected, meaning he is expected by employers to be fully devoted to his work.
- A Japanese women simply does not have time available in the day to both work, do house work and child care.
- With worse gender equality, the pay of women may be so much lower than for men, that it is more optimal for a family that the women stays home and the may works, rather than sharing the burden.
It is rather odd that if the views that you mention are the cause that the problem is getting worse even as trends shift.
Quite the contrary, that is to be expected. As Japan is getting more modern. Women increasingly want to realize themselves, have independence, earn their own money etc. They are less tolerant of having a macho husband bossing them around, and hence less interested in marriage and children.
Thus every year as more women get these attitudes while Japanese society at large doesn’t really begin to accommodate the needs of women, children and families in the workplace, then you end up with a growing problem.
There’s also a much larger leap from such attitudes to why these attitudes would reduce birth rates and make modern Japanese people less interested in reproduction.
The connection seems straight forward to me, so I must not have articulated my point very well. The choice of having a child competes with many other concerns. E.g. in Norway I don’t think the interest in having children has really dropped. However birth rate has been dropping somewhat (still much better than Japan). It is easy for me to see why. How prices have skyrocketed. Young people are finding it ever harder to have sufficient apartment size to have a child. There is also a factor in the educational expectations are rising and people begin earning money and settling later. May also be a factor in Japan.
Immigration dynamics (a direct factor involved in net population growth) makes far more sense
I don’t follow. Yes immigration can raise population. But why would it affect the birth rate of the native population. That does not compute.
especially given that arranged marriage attitudes are changing to being more liberal without much importing of dating culture.
Not quite sure what that means either. You speak of a western dating culture, but in my experience it works quite different in each country. Not entirely sure whether we can even claim to have a dating culture in much of Northern Europe. Certainly not in the American sense of meeting a girl you like and then explicitly asking her on a date, like going to the movies or a dinner.
Regarding the economy, GDP is a terrible measure of economic prosperity. Economists rarely end up relying on it because gross domestic product can come from a variety of sources, including wasted government spending.
I am fully aware that GDP is flawed, but I made that comment because you yourself used GDP to make the case that Japan was in decline. I just remarked that with a declining population that is not necessarily odd. It does not need to mean that the average prosperity of citizens is declining.
And waste is equally possible in the private sector as in the public sector. Frankly I think there is probably more waste in the private sector. Ads, tobacco, excessive consumption of pills etc are just some examples of stuff added to GDP which has no positive impact on people lives.
Moreover, PPP often isn’t really accurate.
Agree, but do you get a different story without it?
To say that the Japanese economy is fairing well, just because GDP per capita has gone up, is to ignore everything else that is going on in Japan.
Obviously when total GDP falls or stagnates, businesses operating in Japan will face hardship because sales are stagnating or falling. However in terms of what life is for the average Japanese, it is not necessarily a bad development.
The population decline lead to labor shortage, which typically causes increased salaries. That is good for the average Japanese. Although it looks as if workers for the time being have preferred taking out “salary increase” in the form of shorter work hours rather than higher wages. But more spare time for workers in a country with tradition for excessively long work days, is probably a good thing.
I am not saying it is all rosy. I just find that the common portrayal of Japan over the last two decade has been far too bleak and does not seem quite reflect the reality of life in Japan today.
