/ot/ - off-topic

>>186051
Why is having a low birthrate a bad thing? From what I hear a lot of kids over there in the past few years are getting ill through radiation, until that gets sorted (if it ever does) maybe its a good thing they are not having as many children.

>>186061

Low birthrates=stagnating economy.

Get rid of dating sims and such

>>186061
A negative affect of the low birthrate is that there is a large elderly population and there are not enough people to take care of them.

A great way to start would be to create more places were people can meet. Fixing the loneliness problem might lead to more people fucking and thus increasing the birthrate

Japan is having a homeless issue too. They're pretty fucked.

>>186051
My understanding of this is that there's also a huge amount of suicide in Japan, correct? Particularly among youth, and the information I'm seeing suggests it correlates massively with when school actually starts up again(source http://wilsonquarterly.com/stories/the-mystery-behind-japans-high-suicide-rates-among-kids/ )

I think the birthrate is the least of Japans issues, and unless you try to reform the cultural attitudes surrounding young people, you can't really do much to fix it.

I think these quotes are pretty interesting too
>That helps to explain the overall society’s high suicide rate. But even as the suicide rate for Japan’s general population has declined, it has still increased among Japan’s school-aged population. According to research by Hokkaido University professor Kenzo Denda, 1 in 12 Japanese elementary school-aged children, and 1 in 4 junior high school students suffer from clinical depression.

>Other overarching cultural trends, like hikikomori, a form of social withdrawal, augment the problem further. Hikikomori causes some to feel isolated and as though they lack access to resources to vent. Lacking an outlet, students believe that they are not allowed to complain, and instead internalize their problems rather than seek help. Consequently, they have difficulty expressing emotions like anger and depression, which prevents those emotions from being processed in a healthy way, while concealing mental health issues from the outside world.

People not having many kids seems like less of an issue than the sheer amount of youth killing themselves each year.

>>186137
>Particularly among youth, and the information I'm seeing suggests it correlates massively with when school actually starts up again
Not surprising. A lot of Asian kids get treated like an investment instead of a human being, and I'm saying this as an Asian. If you don't get into a good university and study something useful, you're fucked. If you don't get into a university at all, good fucking luck. I'm going to be graduating a year late from a good university, and my mom already treats me like I'm the family shame. Nobody's happy, nobody wins.

1) Look into their work culture
2) Look into their shame culture
3) Look how undeveloped psycology/psychiatry is there

If you had to suppress so much of your emotions because its shameful to do otherwise, while having to work in the office 12h every day and not having proper support to deal with shit in life…
You wouldnt think of having children either.

>>186149
>>having to work in the office 12h every day and not having proper support to deal with shit in life…

Likewise, there is little room to advance. Basically, raises are given based on seniority rather than hard work and there is little discrepancy between the rich and the poor so it's not like working hard even matters much (although you still have to sit in the office doodling your thumbs for hours after you are supposed to already be home).

>>186147
Yeah, it's definitely a much larger reaching cultural issue I think, and one that's likely a huge element for why birth rates are down.

People who suffer from clinical depression generally aren't out looking for a relationship, and the culture placing such huge value on academic and career achievements in my opinion takes emphasis off of the things that actually keep society running, namely people being alive and breeding.

It's not something you can just fix like that though, the mental health system could be addressed within a generation for sure, but cultural values take a long time to change, regardless of how much effort the government makes to de-emphasise those things.


I think it's worrying that western society seems to follow a similar path in some ways though. When I was in high school, it wasn't about "if" you go to uni, it was "when" you go to uni, and a heap of people end up going and then dropping out with a bunch of debt and lose direction, because they don't really belong there or want to be there. Not as severe of course, but it's defintely a concern I have for the future.

>>186066

the point is an eternal stable growth of economy is not possible. even if you argue it to be economically possible (which is isnt as well) the ressources of earth or not endless. society should focus on different things than stability through economic growth. like e.g. unconditional basic income for every citizen, jobs that work through cooperation rather than competition, rebuilding society into more social connections for each and every one, focussing on jobs that are beneficial for society rather than for economy (support for children, elderly, mentally ill, physically ill, handicapped, education ..) and so on…

Obviously I have no idea how stuff actually works but I think gender roles and income need to be un-fucked for family life to be worthwhile
Culturally, after marriage the woman is meant to the leave her job and become a babymachine housemaid. With the current economic climate and issues of a aging workforce most men can't afford to support a family on their income anymore even if they wanted to. If women stay at work, they're still expected to do all of these wife duties themselves, so obviously independent women are preferring to just live their own lives. With the way that Japanese films never depict women and men as capable of being friends I can't blame them for not wanting to marry.
I think more needs to be done to make household duties a fairly shared responsibility and to give people more support to leave dysfunctional marriages. The unpaid overtime culture, required latenight company drinking and workplace gender inequality aren't helpful either.

Alternatively I always advocate for better sex education in schools. I don't have a source but I once read that chlamydia is a big problem with young people that actually ARE sexually active. Young people don't really understand the risks of STDs and so use the pull out or 'planning' methods and as a result are risking infertility. I think a focus on consent, respect and understanding in relationships in Sex Ed can lead to young people having more positive relationships in future rather than being put off at an early age.
This might all be bullshit though idk

>>186258
I think what you said would all definitely be positive changes, but I think they're not really the most pressing concerns.

The insane amount of pressure on people to succeed in school and work, to the point that one quarter of students are classified as clinically depressed, and suicide is the leading cause of death for them seem like a lot bigger issue than women not being given enough respect for housekeeping, to me at least. That's still important of course, but kind of a second priority to a huge amount of kids killing themselves due to being dehumanised by the system, and not having anywhere to turn for help.

I am legit curious to know if the anons discussing the solutions to Japan's problems do the same when it comes to their respective countries. Not joking or being a smart ass, just simply curious to know how far weeb love can go

>>186266
iirc suicide is the leading cause of death for youths in every developed country. the main reason is health insurance which mainly decreases the likelihood of death by any other cause.
it's possible "accidents" (as in car/motorcycle accidents and so on) outranks suicide from around 18 to 25.

I think they need to fix the fixation on extreme youth.

I know a lot of anons who haven't lived in Japan probably think it is an exaggeration, but it's not just weeby stuff like idols or anime characters. Yes, they sell milf and office-lady related items too, but the media focuses a lot on child-based youth (mothers dressing like teenagers, I remember having to leave one sex/"video" store because there were giant photos of kids that couldn't have been older than 8 or 9 in lingerie hanging from the walls). Likewise, there is a ridiculous amount of overgrown man-children there (which, again, I blame on the obsession with youth).

I had a friend in Japan who out of the blue started complaining how much she hated Japanese men because they want to date young girls and not women (we were in our early twenties and my friend is quite attractive). Instead of a fixation on 20-something youth, there seems to be this childlike-youth obsession in Japan (which isn't exactly conducive to sex or breeding).

I don't care for Japanese men myself, but I notice a lot of weebs who do like them become obsessed with acting and looking childish (just look at the aging thread here on lolcow and the skewed views some have on what looks "old" or "ancient").

>>186281
I do, actually. It's interesting to think about no matter what country it's about.
Japan, however, is kind of unique in its specific set of problems. Especially the culturally different view they have of suicide, shame and expressing negative emotions is morbidly interesting.

>>186297
>unique
Most of the problems japanese society has, south korea has them worse.

>>186291
Nah, it's up there, but accidents and homicides are both before suicide in the US at least.

Here's a source
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db37.htm

Japan has a much, much bigger issue with teen suicide than almost any country in the world.

>>186266
I agree with the issues you have highlighted too, but I wanted to add that my focus was less about respect and more just encouraging people to actually WANT to have families. Just from my personal western views, I would rather be single forever with 2D husbandos than be a house slave. But I agree, the kids can't grow up and have families if they kill themselves either.

>>186281
It's more fun to talk about fixing Japan than my own country, because my government are currently doing the opposite to everything I believe in so it's just too depressing to think about it. It's better to imagine fixing a place that I have no real ties to, and that my understanding of is so limited and flattened that I can have more clear-cut opinions.

>>186296
ngl, this was depressing and awful to read. i wonder what started this problem.

>>186336
Yeah, don't get me wrong, I think that's massively important too, and something that would need to change (though I do think that attitudes towards women in general have changed drastically in city areas, not sure about rural), I just think that it's a prioritizsation sort of thing. More important to get the kids to stop killing themselves, then get them to be able to live okay social lives and want to sleep with other kids and people around them and develop relationships, then move towards getting them to want to start families.

All vitally important, I just think that there's an order that they'd need to be addressed in. I could be wrong though.

I agree entirely though with your second point. I like talking about how my country could be fixed, but it's more enjoyable to talk about foreign nations than it is to talk about how our countries failures aren't getting addressed because our politicians don't give enough of a shit about them, or want the opposite to happen. Plus, you can be a little more objective about a country you aren't connected to I think.