People aged 80 and over top 10% of Japan's population for 1st time

alphacyberranger@sh.itjust.works to World News@lemmy.world – 217 points –
english.kyodonews.net
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Yeah well maybe give people some incentive to want a family like maybe some mother fucking downtime from work and maybe some fucking guarantees that the world isnt going to turn into Venus in one goddamn generation.

The Japanese are just being smart.

This is really it. My wife and I are in our mid 30s and are finally at a financial place to have kids. But we work so much, we would not have time to really raise them. If we did have time, then we wouldn’t have the money.

I’m not going to have a kid that we can’t raise properly.

As someone who didn't see their parents throughout the school year: Kinda sucked.

I'm in EU and I don't want to have kids here. Couldn't imagine having kids in Japan.

It’s not just the Japanese either. All developed economies see their birth rates slow. The simplest way I ever heard it explained is that when your society is agrarian, more children means more labor for the farm, and therefore more wealth. Once your economy moves on to manufacturing or services, and children stop being labor, they begin to cost money. And people slow down. These advanced societies also tend to be larger and more populous and therefore more competitive, which deepens the cycle. Add in the longer lifespans in affluent modern societies and you have this demographic crisis. Especially in Japan where they have standout longevity for genetic and dietary reasons.