Society You're poor! You shouldn't marry!

[Dark-san]

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, who is also the same guy that invited many controversies into the current Japanese government, throw in another outrageous comment yet again. This time round pinpointing the fact of their low-birth rate with the way their youths live their lives.

Spoiler

Quoted from 47news on 23 August 2009,

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has told the nation’s youth that they shouldn’t marry if they have no money, and that they can’t expect any respect from their partner if they have no money.

In remarks to a gathering of students, he had this to say about marriage at a (relatively) young age, in response to the question “Many young people can’t afford to get married, isn’t this contributing to the low birth rate?”:

“If you have no money it is best not to marry. I feel it’d be pretty hard to get any respect as a marriage partner if you have no income.”

Japanese demographers predict a population collapse if another generation puts off having children.

Aso is famous for putting his foot in his mouth unusually often even for one of Japan’s worthless politicians, but in this case his comments appear quite deliberate.

For a man who is supposed to be tackling the issue of Japan’s ongoing demographic collapse, his words certainly seem ill considered…

It has nothing to do with the wealth. Or even if it does, it only has minimal effect on the birth rate. It is true but bringing out a child would need money. Education, insurances and higher living cost are just one of those factors that needs money. What about other factors like their way of life?

Singaporeans are generally affluent. The younger generation have the money but our birth rate are not as desirable as those by the Japanese. It is because of our way of life that simply dictates on how many offsprings we should have.

In order for the Japanese society, they will need to look into tackling other issues other than making lame remarks, these issues include,

- Hectic working schedule.
- Whether if their society is willing to embrace immigrants and call them as their own people.
- Extraordinary high inflation compared to the rest of us in the region.

Maybe a more practical approach, will be working on these issues first?

 

[redcometfm]

Itd be a shame if the Japanese populace started to dwindle.

 

[thsv]

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, who is also the same guy that invited many controversies into the current Japanese government, throw in another outrageous comment yet again. This time round pinpointing the fact of their low-birth rate with the way their youths live their lives.

Spoiler

Quoted from 47news on 23 August 2009,

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso has told the nation’s youth that they shouldn’t marry if they have no money, and that they can’t expect any respect from their partner if they have no money.

In remarks to a gathering of students, he had this to say about marriage at a (relatively) young age, in response to the question “Many young people can’t afford to get married, isn’t this contributing to the low birth rate?”:

“If you have no money it is best not to marry. I feel it’d be pretty hard to get any respect as a marriage partner if you have no income.”

Japanese demographers predict a population collapse if another generation puts off having children.

Aso is famous for putting his foot in his mouth unusually often even for one of Japan’s worthless politicians, but in this case his comments appear quite deliberate.

For a man who is supposed to be tackling the issue of Japan’s ongoing demographic collapse, his words certainly seem ill considered…

It has nothing to do with the wealth. Or even if it does, it only has minimal effect on the birth rate. It is true but bringing out a child would need money. Education, insurances and higher living cost are just one of those factors that needs money. What about other factors like their way of life?

Singaporeans are generally affluent. The younger generation have the money but our birth rate are not as desirable as those by the Japanese. It is because of our way of life that simply dictates on how many offsprings we should have.

In order for the Japanese society, they will need to look into tackling other issues other than making lame remarks, these issues include,

- Hectic working schedule.
- Whether if their society is willing to embrace immigrants and call them as their own people.
- Extraordinary high inflation compared to the rest of us in the region.

Maybe a more practical approach, will be working on these issues first?

Well he does have a point even if he went about it the wrong way. It's expensive to raise a family. Japan isn't the only country facing this problem. I know Italy's birth rate has dropped below 2 children (being the family size needed to maintain population size) in the last decade. The UK's is barely above that at the last census. I know this is an unpopular suggestion but immigration might be the only viable option for Japan. It would fill gaps in the labour market which will start to open up in the next couple of decades. There's the taxes these immigrants will pay to the national coffers. And if you get them onboard their pension contributions will fund those who qualify before them. (Pensions are a massive legalised pyramid scheme but this is neither the time or the place)

 

[terrance007]

Well, this is a reason why Yukio Hatoyama take it as a new prime minister.

 

[kamina]

It's not an easy problem to solve even with appointing a new prime minister who is willing to put his money where his mouth is.

In my country the government has been pushing for solutions to prevent a future shortage of employees to fill in all jobs when the majority of the working population is mass-retiring for years now to the point of a minister actually (controversially) calling for people to get more children to combat the problem, and the fact that taxes are only getting higher right now and everything is getting more expensive here doesn't exactly help the birthrate to get higher either.

By the way, whose job was it again to make sure inflation doesn't get out of hand and to make sure there are places where they can get to work in the first place?

... Oh, wait. I remember, it was Aso's job.

What a coincidence.
Why the hell is he spouting this nonsense now when the fault lies with him. He didn't do anything about it when he had the power to do it himself, after all.

 

[AnkorSVK]

What a jrk. Another good piece of evidence that politics and politicians have no reasonable application. They show problems when its to late additionaly making them worse instead of solving them.

Its regretful that dying out isnt only a matter of japan but all developed nations also those postkomunistic.

LOL dont marry and have children until you are rich = only the rich are alowed to have children. However he forgot one who will work on those richs children when the poorer ones get old and die LOL.

I would give him and all those penguins suits a good advice start to squezze the oligarchs and give money to young family so that they have a posibility to ensure them some education so that wont stay only brainless slaves for the rich.

 

[Reminiscence]

This reminds me of a certain discussion I had on another forum about who should be allowed to have children... heh.

Although, yeah, it's sort of stupid. Japan needs to do all it can to increase birthrate, no matter what the cost (okay, so maybe not some costs, but frankly, Japan's debt has bigger things to worry about than some more children who need benefits). Unless they want to start relaxing their immigration laws and xenophobic attitudes a lot more.

Itd be a shame if the Japanese populace started to dwindle.

Too late.