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| Older Asian Couple |
The Chinese government supports a policy of prohibiting their
urban citizens to limit child production to no more than one child. Parents
with multiple children are not given the same benefits as parents of one child.
Moreover, in some cases, wealthy families pay a fee to the government in order
to have a second child or more. The policy is designed to tackle the problems
which result from uncontrolled population growth like
epidemics, slums, overwhelmed social services namely health, education, and law
enforcement.
This is a strike contrast to the Japanese government. During my recent trip to Japan, I realized
many Japanese are aging but due to population trends resources to support this
aging populace may become scarce. For example, my wife’s parents had three
children from which they had two grandchildren. Over time if most families bear
fewer grandchildren than children then in the long-term the population will
decrease. Another example is my wife’s elementary school will be closing after
being open since after the Second World War as a result of decreased enrollment
of student in her area.
It was even mentioned at some point in the future Japan may
cease to exist as result of this birth rate decline. This to me seems extreme;
however, it is clear in the long-term something needs to done. How the Japanese
government incentivizing its young people to create offspring in the same way
that the Chinese in a roundabout way pays its residents to limit births?
I have a hard time
believing I am typing this on a blog that anyone can read via the Internet. The
concept of getting a stipend to grow families is not quite the “normal” idea of
childrearing. Most people given the correct circumstances would happily produce
offspring.
Typically the younger generation looks after the older one.
With the risk of there not being enough younger folks to address the needs of
the older age group what is the alternative?
Should the Japanese at least consider finding some way to incentivize their
populace to produce children?
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