Work hours are long and grueling. Childcare is phenomenally expensive, and that’s assuming you can even find childcare, which is near impossible. Children are expensive. Cost of living is high. Cheating and domestic violence are rates are high. Women have no confidence that they will be supported or be able to provide support if they decide to have a child, and they are very right to think that.
Scarce resources avaliable for women who have children is the reason for the decline. You could never pay me enough to ever have a child in Japan.
Not mention, plenty of Japanese adults grew up being abused and/or neglected by their own parents while growing up in a pressure-cooker society. Maybe they’re thinking twice about bringing another human into the world because of that, as well?
They also have this fucked up idea that pain is an important part of becoming a mother so they don’t really offer things like epidurals. Yeah, no thanks.
Epidurals are very rare. They exist but they are not popular at all. Some is the belief that a “natural” birth is better. In some cases it is just availability of an anesthiaologist that is equipped to do one. Some people just don’t even realise it is an option. The only people I know here who have had one were non-Japanese residents.
I don’t think people necessarily look down on a mother who has one, it’s rare enough that nobody would even ask probably, but it’s just not a common procedure.
Human reproduction is an astoundingly bad deal reserved for the richest and most powerful who can outsources the endless source of problems briefs and complications that it is.
The only reason this continued for so long is that we were too stupid to realize not doing it was an option.
I think this needs an ‘affordable’ thrown in. The free and cheap stuff is really hard to get into, but there are other, more expensive options (though out of reach of most).
plenty of Japanese adults grew up being abused and/or neglected by their own parents
Yeah, it was definitely up during corona. All domestic abuse was up then (and in a lot of the world).
For your first link, it states that the abuse found is more extreme, but the source they link to doesn’t work. I do remember the horrible story of that poor child from the news here. It then goes on to just give numbers with no citations or sources whatsoever. The whole publication also seems a bit weird.
Abandonment of infants is definitely a thing that happens and I’m glad that a baby hatch solution now exists.
I do agree that often abuse goes unreported and/or un-prosecuted (as do rapes and many other crimes in Japan). I just don’t see anything here stating that it’s on the scale I seemed to think you were saying.
Things for single mothers does need to get a lot better; making women more equal in society and actually enforcing the protections on their jobs and family leave could go a long way to this.
I’ve been living in Japan the better part of a decade. I’ve had friends from all walks of life. Some did open up to me about abuse (I was also an abused child for a good chunk of my childhood and have sometimes talked about it), but I’ve really heard no more here than in the US. There are two problems with this. (1) it’s anecdotal based on the experience of one guy in Tokyo and (2) what some people would call abuse, others would not making things even more sticky.
I do think that, whatever the scale of abuse, non-zero is too much and that should be addressed, but I also don’t think it’s some super-regular thing which is what I think you were intending to write,
Work hours are long and grueling. Childcare is phenomenally expensive, and that’s assuming you can even find childcare, which is near impossible. Children are expensive. Cost of living is high. Cheating and domestic violence are rates are high. Women have no confidence that they will be supported or be able to provide support if they decide to have a child, and they are very right to think that.
Scarce resources avaliable for women who have children is the reason for the decline. You could never pay me enough to ever have a child in Japan.
Not mention, plenty of Japanese adults grew up being abused and/or neglected by their own parents while growing up in a pressure-cooker society. Maybe they’re thinking twice about bringing another human into the world because of that, as well?
They also have this fucked up idea that pain is an important part of becoming a mother so they don’t really offer things like epidurals. Yeah, no thanks.
I am not personally familiar with the Japanese medical system, but I would not be shocked if that were the case.
Add “treating women really shitty and unfairly” to the checklist.
Japanese permanent resident here.
Epidurals are very rare. They exist but they are not popular at all. Some is the belief that a “natural” birth is better. In some cases it is just availability of an anesthiaologist that is equipped to do one. Some people just don’t even realise it is an option. The only people I know here who have had one were non-Japanese residents.
I don’t think people necessarily look down on a mother who has one, it’s rare enough that nobody would even ask probably, but it’s just not a common procedure.
Human reproduction is an astoundingly bad deal reserved for the richest and most powerful who can outsources the endless source of problems briefs and complications that it is.
The only reason this continued for so long is that we were too stupid to realize not doing it was an option.
Idk man I really love my kid.
I think this needs an ‘affordable’ thrown in. The free and cheap stuff is really hard to get into, but there are other, more expensive options (though out of reach of most).
Do what now? Source?
These links are not for the faint of heart.
http://www.japansubculture.com/child-abuse-in-japan-why-japan-keeps-returning-abused-kids-to-their-parents-until-they-are-killed/
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/02/03/national/social-issues/japan-record-child-abuse-cases-2021/
https://metropolisjapan.com/the-controversy-of-japans-baby-hatch/
And this is only what gets reported. Rest assured, a majority of abuse is never reported.
Poverty is so much more prevalent for single mothers, as well.
https://rijag.org/en/child-poverty-in-japan/
Yeah, it was definitely up during corona. All domestic abuse was up then (and in a lot of the world).
For your first link, it states that the abuse found is more extreme, but the source they link to doesn’t work. I do remember the horrible story of that poor child from the news here. It then goes on to just give numbers with no citations or sources whatsoever. The whole publication also seems a bit weird.
Abandonment of infants is definitely a thing that happens and I’m glad that a baby hatch solution now exists.
I do agree that often abuse goes unreported and/or un-prosecuted (as do rapes and many other crimes in Japan). I just don’t see anything here stating that it’s on the scale I seemed to think you were saying.
Things for single mothers does need to get a lot better; making women more equal in society and actually enforcing the protections on their jobs and family leave could go a long way to this.
I’ve been living in Japan the better part of a decade. I’ve had friends from all walks of life. Some did open up to me about abuse (I was also an abused child for a good chunk of my childhood and have sometimes talked about it), but I’ve really heard no more here than in the US. There are two problems with this. (1) it’s anecdotal based on the experience of one guy in Tokyo and (2) what some people would call abuse, others would not making things even more sticky.
I do think that, whatever the scale of abuse, non-zero is too much and that should be addressed, but I also don’t think it’s some super-regular thing which is what I think you were intending to write,