Japan’s demographic crisis is deepening faster than expected, with the number of births this year on track to fall below even the government’s most pessimistic projections. According to analysis reported...

Japan’s demographic crisis is deepening faster than expected, with the number of births this year on track to fall below even the government’s most pessimistic projections.

Archived version: https://archive.is/20251228215131/https://slguardian.org/japans-birth-rate-set-to-break-even-the-bleakest-forecasts/

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      • Wildmimic@anarchist.nexusEnglish
        4·
        3 days ago

        The lower averaging one is the female one, but one must remember that japan is deeply conservative and that means household and caring for kids/elders are womens duties - additional to the working hours. I couldn’t find data for the amount of unpaid work done, but i found participation surveys, which show the difference in what percentage of men/women are involved in unpaid work on any given day in the working populace (data from 2021):
        hxt9ONT8LblsHvG.png

        source: https://www.e-stat.go.jp/en/stat-search/files?stat_infid=000032224111

    • Kefla [she/her, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      7·
      4 days ago

      40 hours a week is 160 hours in a month, which the male average seems to dip below regularly and the female average is always below. That doesn’t seem worse than my situation in the US.

      • Wildmimic@anarchist.nexusEnglish
        18·
        3 days ago
        1. This is the official working time, which does not include the obligatory overtime where bosses require their employees to accompany them going drinking and stuff
        2. They want japanese babies, and no immigrants - so their working time MUST get below other western countries (which keep their population at a stable level by immigration) or it will never happen.
          Edit: 3) I forgot to mention that stuff like household chores, shopping and caring for the eldery is a womens domain, with embarrassingly low engagement by men. Everyone knows how much work that is - i postulate that the women work on average MORE than the men.
        • lefthandeddude@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          7·
          4 days ago

          I completely agree. This is all about people not enjoying life because they work too much. Regulate the problem as an externality and this problem would go away. But government leaders in Japan would never have the guts to radically regulate the problem, such as requiring double the pay for overtime after 28 hours of work per person in a week (and this would need to be per person, not per job, to avoid people then just doubling up on jobs to get more hours; the externality could only be brought under control by having it apply to everyone with no way to circumvent it).