Japanese government tells citizens that having children is not a “duty”

Once again, some people have complained after a member of the Japanese government has made statements implying that citizens should feel an obligation to have children. This time, it was Prime Minister Taro Aso, who said he had done his “duty” [義務] to Japan by having two children. He quickly withdrew the remark, saying that it was improper to use the word “duty.”

Yuko Obuchi, Minister of State in charge of the Declining Birthrate, has made some additional statements to clarify the government’s position:

“It’s absolutely not a question of national duty. It’s a free decision,” she told reporters.

[...]

“We tend to hear a lot of stories about how tough it is, but we have to get the message across that bringing up children is something that’s full of fun and joy,” Obuchi, 35, said.

Fun indeed: just look at our new parenting role models!

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14 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - May 11, 2009 at 4:17 pm

Categories: General Japan Tags:

http://www.feitclub.com feitclub

It’s certainly not a national duty, but I’ve always felt it is our duty as humans to make more humans.

http://www.joesblog.jp Joe

I think we’ve made enough tbh
http://victorymanual.com/ Alex

The world is already overpopulated. Countries like Japan and Korea need more children, but perhaps they might look into adoption programs from overpopulated countries. Then again Japan never held adoption in high regard, even adoption of Japanese babies.

Marco Polo

What exactly are people complaining about? That the government is suggesting that having children is a duty to the nation? Or that there is such a thing as a national duty? If having children is NOT a national duty, would the government please clarify what ARE our national duties? I want to know, so I can be a good citizen. Please! The suspense is killing me!

returner

actually since japan is a civil law country, citizens do have duties. check chapter III of the constitution
stereo

This is what he said.
麻生太郎首相は７日の衆院予算委員会で、少子化問題に関する見解を述べた際「４３で結婚してちゃんと子どもは２人産んだから義務は果たしたことになる」と答弁し、その後「義務」との表現は「不適切」と発言を撤回した。
http://www.nikkansports.com/general/news/f-gn-tp3-20090507-491712.html

“PM Aso stated on May 7th at the budget committee of the House of representatives, regarding the fewer children problem, “I got married at 43 and had 2 children, so I fulfilled by duty.” Later he said the word “duty” was inappropriate and withdrew his statement.”

The problem is that this kind of statement is considered discrimination against women with pregnancy disability and politically incorrect.

penguinlord

screw your nation live your life like you want to you dont owe anything to them
http://www.hormel.com Vonskippy

@Penguinlord – that is the dumbest thing I’ve read this week. Without a national infrastructure there would be NO civilization.

George

The issue here obviously isn’t a total breakdown of reproduction. It’s that current economics require a nation’s population to grow in order to support that nation. This isn’t happening in Japan, which means that the aging population doesn’t have a support net of younger workers.

It sounds like you’re suggesting that this means that the issue is that people need to keep having children and positively increase the population. However, the issue can just as easily be stated as an economic one–if there were 0 population growth, or even declining population, the economics could change without the frankly untenable situation of forcing/shaming people into reproducing in contravention of their desires.

http://www.hormel.com Vonskippy

Wrong. Irregardless of the economics, no Japanese people = no Japan. And since no Japanese babies lead to no Japanese people it surely is a national problem. It’s either have way more babies, or open up immigration and naturalize foreigners. Unfortunately, the younger generation doesn’t want to do the first, and the older generation doesn’t want to do the second – so there’s a real problem brewing.

stereo

It is not a problem.
Japan is not the only country where women have fewer children.
http://www.ipss.go.jp/syoushika/tohkei/Popular/P_Detail2009.asp?fname=T04-06.htm&title1=%87W%81D%8Fo%90%B6%81E%89%C6%91%B0%8Cv%89%E6&title2=%95%5C%82S%81%7C%82U%81%40%8E%E5%97v%8D%91%8F%97%90%AB%82%CC%94N%97%EE%81i%82T%8D%CE%8AK%8B%89%81j%95%CA%8Fo%90%B6%97%A6%82%A8%82%E6%82%D1%8D%87%8Cv%93%C1%8E%EA%8Fo%90%B6%97%A6%81F%8D%C5%90V%94N%8E%9F

Average number of children a woman have for her life
Korea 1.14
Russia 1.31
Italy 1.32
Germany 1.32
Japan 1.34
Spain 1.35
Canada 1.54
UK 1.76
Australia 1.77
France 1.91
US 2.04
If the number is less than 2, the population is likely to decline.

The US has high reproduction ratio thanks to teenage mothers.
Teenage childbirth per year per 1000 women between 15 and 19
US 41.2, Russia 28.5, UK 26.7, Australia 16.3, Canada 13.3, Spain 11.5, Germany 10.1, France 7.8, Italy 7.0, Japan 5.1, Korea 2.1
That 41.2 for US counts as 0.21(=41.2*5years/1000) in average childbirths for life, which is significant.

Immigration? That caused a lot of trouble in France, Germany, UK and US. Why should Japan join the club?

With fewer people, the economy is more environmentally sustainable. What is the problem?
http://www.zdwonline.de Haf

Those numbers seem a bit odd.
Last time I read birth statistics, Japan was much lower than Germany.

I wouldn’t say that immigration caused a lot of trouble in Germany. Of course, there are problems when it comes to integration of people from other countries, but it’s not a general problem. Some people integrate better than others and in some cities this is managed better than in others.

Especially in places where employment and the education are both good in general, integration also seems to be more successful. I guess the reson for that is that there are better opportunites and that the communities have more money to spend for integration and intercultural relation programs.

RMilner

It is okay for the population to decline gradually but a very rapid decline, say over one to two generations, is likely to lead to serious dislocation because of the large burden of retired people compared to the active workforce. This is the situation that Japan faces.

There are four ways out of this.

1. Improve technology so that productivity of the remaining workforce matches requirements. Japan is trying to do this with the invention of nursing robots.

2. Force women to have more babies, by making abortion illegal for example. This seems to be a popular right wing option but realistically will never fly due to human rights issues and practicality. It also has the disadvantage that young women are removed from the workforce when they are needed as workers.

3. Make it attractive to have more children by a combination of factors such as increased maternity and paternity leave, decreased education costs, increased child benefits and female pensions, and so on. Japan is trying to do this but as with other countries such as the UK, there is a basic problem that it costs a lot of money. Only high-tax, socialist countries like Sweden have made a success of this approach.

4. Allow increased immigration. This is working for France, the UK and other EU countries since there is a pool of fairly compatible immigrants in the eastern EU and in former colonies. Japan is so mono-cultural that immigration is a big problem for them.

stereo

“a pool of fairly compatible immigrants in the eastern EU”

They have their own low birth rate problem in Eastern Europe.
Slovakia 1.25
Poland 1.27
Slovenia 1.32
Rumania 1.32
Czech Republic 1.34
Hungary 1.35
Bulgaria 1.37

They are all far below 2.0 and not far from Japan’s 1.34.
Declining population is a worldwide phenomenon, not peculiar to Japan. People are choosing that course so as not to deplete natural resources.

Japanese government tells citizens that having children is not a “duty”

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