Tokyo long weekend plan won’t end population woes
https://www.ft.com/content/00b1a955-e0b4-4995-a447-f6984e2ab61c
Tokyo long weekend plan won’t end population woes
https://www.ft.com/content/00b1a955-e0b4-4995-a447-f6984e2ab61c
6 Comments
ss: The strategy might work outside Japan, but everything depends upon how that extra day is used by a couple. The same study showed that the women generally had a veto on extra children.
The worst-case scenario in Tokyo is that only women take the extra day. They use the time to “catch up” on child caring duties. Their partner carries on as before.
Without the change in underlying child rearing behaviour, within a family, a three-day weekend is no use.
3-day weekend with an unwritten rule that you work on one of those days :p
I remember a language audio course i took that had the sentence “i only have to work five days out of the week”
This might surprise most people, but kids won’t let you turn them off during the week. That extra day off from work will be nice, but it’s a pretty bad proposition.
“Hey, you only have to work 4 days out of the week. Can you please build a human that will be a 24 hour concern for at least the next 18 years of your life?”
“Oh, also, the planet seems to be nosediving in health for some reason and automation is going to send most the world into poverty, but please think of the country and our birth rate issues. We need meat sacks up until we don’t. So, please find the motivation to do your part”
Japan has long been the poster child for global demographers keen to compile data on socio/economic effects of aging first world societies. They’re getting their wish now.
Shortened work weeks promote societal health but aren’t necessarily conducive to more babies. Birthrates continue to decline globally. You can choose from any host of theories about why that’s happening.
There is some inverse relationship (not yet clearly defined) in society between technological advancement and natalism. The more technologically sophisticated societies become, the less they seem favourable to producing babies.
Which is an obvious existential problem for everyone.
Tokyo has pretty good housing prices tbh, especially compared to other cities like New York… but it’s also filled with tiny apartments with people living with multiple generations together. Not everyone has the motivation to impregnate their wife while the father in law watches. I think they gotta find a way to spread the population back out to the countryside, embrace remote working, and give people space to have happy kids with their own rooms.
I mean, you can’t tell a child to wait until friday to have needs. A child is an every day thing, getting an extra weekend might help with some things sure, but it’s not going to help care for a child at all.