You are not logged in.
Japan was already in a population decline
The Italian birth rate has now dropped to its lowest ever, a 160 year low.
Now you got inflation, relief and stimulus and bailout spending. Lock people down put masks everywhere and they stop making babies....
https://www.wlwt.com/article/us-populat … w/38584592
https://www.fox10tv.com/news/coronaviru … efbdf.html
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news … ories/391/
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/japa … 79331.html
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl … downs.html
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/13612540
Japan might be an example of the worst, the stock market busting in the 90s, a recession was expected but they got something worse long decades long stagnation. Before they were the single exporting power house in Asia, there was no South Korea, there was no manufacturing in Eastern Europe, now they have economic competition from other Western industrial economies or Asian Eastern economies of China, S.Korea etc Japan’s economic stagnation, deflation, probably cost jobs, raising a kid was expensive, vacation towns would close and you had a growing stock of empty homes getting reclaimed by nature. However inside major cities like Tokyo there is still a flood of people and elderly arriving putting more pressure on servces and inside systems already pushed and stretched you see extremes of growth, rather than open Japan to foreigners they would rather use robotics than ever dare change the demogrpahics or alter the culture of Japanese. If people in Europe or the USA or Asia expect the economy to decline, they would expect prices to decline, and this would lead to deflation. The original tv broadcast games of the 1960s the 1964 Games a marked Tokyo’s explosive growth but the latest delayed Games with the Corona virus seems to have marked Japan's slow motion fall and a collapse that will continue to fall at some kind of glacial pace. The Lost Decades term was originally a term used before the US terrorist events and wars, before 911 Attacks a Lost Decades was an event that referred to the Japanese years from 1991 to 2001, but the decade from 2001 to 2011 became another Lost 20 Years once again and the decade from 2011 to 2021 so it now becomes a Lost 30 Years which have been included by commentators. It's possible the Japanese might have recovered if not for the 2011 Tohoku earthquake, the Fukushima disaster and Tsunami that followed that would cost the nation Billions in damages. Decline today is a result of rapid aging, the Bank of Japan’s target are not always fully met, it now has massive internal Debt of Quadrillions and falling numbers of births, a process known in Japanese as shoshi-koreika, moderate recovery is possible while Japan faces more setbacks and a declining population. Lost Decades might not just be for Asia or Japan it may come as a distinct economic possibility for Western stagnating developed nations, for the West we can mark Corona lockdowns or Covid is the event that started it all?
Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2021-12-22 11:04:39)
Offline
The population of US and European countries is actually increasing, even though white birthrates are declining. The reason is very high levels of immigration and high birthrates amongst immigrant populations. Whether you consider that a good or bad thing is a personal point of view.
However, more and more countries are heading over a demographic cliff, with populations ageing and total birth rates declining. At some point, we may expect this to become deflationary because aggregate demand for goods and services will fall. However, with shrinking working age population, production will face pressures that will tend to reduce supply of many goods. If economies of scale decline and too few workers are available, then prices increase. This is on top of the effects of energy shortages, which will probably be inflationary.
On balance, I think demographic ageing is likely to be inflationary. As populations age, the tax base shrinks as total wage base declines. But the liabilities of the government, in terms of maintaining infrastructure, health care and state pensions, will not decrease proportionately. People stop earning when they get old, but they don't stop needing the things that keep them alive. This means that governments are likely to deal with the problem by inflating currency supply. Which is obviously inflationary. Declining demand with shrinking population, is inflationary because: (1) Working age population shrinks faster than total population (which places pressure on production); (2) People don't stop needing things when they are old; (3) Prices depend on scale economies. If demand declines, the cost of producing a unit of X actually increases. Energy resource depletion is obviously inflationary and is a big inflationary driver right now.
Last edited by Calliban (2021-12-22 10:07:38)
"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."
Offline
In simple terms a declining nations population requires less demand for goods but that is not holding true as the aging are requiring different goods to stay happy with life's conditions. These are service oriented low paying so these are offsetting that demand as they lack the money to make the purchases. Since the types of jobs are shifting and the goods to the lower base we begin to loss the higher paying jobs unless we have a change in population or in wages. We have begun to export those goods but on the flip side we have done it to our selves in the need for cheaper one's.
Online
They could allow in immigration but what is immigration if it becomes a cultural invasion with no assimilation, no respect for the mother culture or father language and customs.
Estimated births in 2021 drop to level predicted for 2028
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/14509875
Number of babies born in Japan in 2021 is estimated to have declined to around 805,000, a figure not expected until 2028
Real Life Lore: Japan's Population Is Aging And Shrinking Fast
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video … lapse.html
Can Policy Turn Around Demographic Collapse?
The reason is very high levels of immigration and high birthrates amongst immigrant populations. Whether you consider that a good or bad thing is a personal point of view.
I traveled the East for a while, I knew of some languages from education but Japanese was very very new to me. The languages does comeback and sometimes if I see a foreign Asian movie I remember Japanese. Sometimes I remember how to speak basic forms of it or how to write...I wasn't very good but I started late and was better than most, I could read some few hundred characters, never made it to the thousand mark but you need to know at least 3,000 Kanji or 'Hanzi' pictograms to have any sort of proficiency or fluency in the language. It is a very very interesting langauge to know of and their language has many links to pictures, history, the art of calligraphy brush stroke and compound idea-gram concepts. To learn it takes effort and time, it is not something even a lingusit easily does unless you are already inside a similar Asian culture, you can try hard but you will still only read and write at the level of some kid, school students are expected to know 2,000 + kanji. The Vietnamese, S.Koreans sometimes use similar writing and Mandarain Chinese using simplifed characters sometimes use the same words but it is often pronounced differently. A good thing about knowing their language is you can kinda get the jist or vague meaning or quintessence of something because you know the characters, I guess its like the way you might understand something Spanish or Latin or English or French or Italian because they have a similar Romance language or Vulgar Latin root or maybe how Poles and Russians and Czech people and Ukraine and Slovakian can kind of understand each other from their Balto-Slavic roots or how Danish and German and English and Yiddish also have this Germanic root. but with Chinese characters not all the characters have the same meaning, they will be pronouced different and in each culture and it is easy to mistake some for others that look very similar. Long before this I tried Cantonese one time long long before when I was very young, just repeating sounds or trying to draw out characters from a JackieChan movie or Magazine or something but I didnt get far, this was way before the days of downloads and internet, I found out years later this Cantonese is not easy even for skilled linguists it is perhaps one of the most difficult languages to ever learn because Cantonese has this nightmare bending tonal system that a lot of people are first unaware of so you need good skills to be aware of those tones in notes. Japanese is different, it is an easier langauge to speak and to listen and speak Japanese is very easy but there are a lot of mannerism and honorifics to be aware of. To really know Japanese you would have to know its writing systems, 4 alphabets katakana, romajia, hiragana and kanji think the Japan problem is a complex one but could be easily solved with people wanting to become aprt of the culture or people or culture that could assimilate more easily.
One issue is that even without immigration the Japanese themselves sometimes have extreme prejudice and discrimination even against their own people, almost a caste system but not as bad as say the Hindu caste of India. HongKong is different to Japan, it was a port city of thousands of years, it links perhpas even back to the old times of Egypt and Greece and Mesopotamia and India and Rome, its possible way way back some trinket or foreign pot came along some silk road or arrived by boat in HongKong during the Qin dynasty and the people of HongKong were open for business for many many centuries of trade and cultural links. During the eras of European expansion, imperalism and British Invasion came the Royal Opium Wars, the UK English a perpetual lease over the Kowloon Peninsula, an imperial Japan Empire allied with the Axis teaming up withy Hitler and poor HongKong its under occupation again, after the war its back under British contriol and finally the handover 1997–present with Communist China making 'promises'. The Japanese always did things their own way, they are different because they have never really been occupied by a foreign King or truly conquered by outside forces, the Chinese culture did arrive a long time ago bringing them reading and writing, it gave them temples and Buddhism and you could say that American culture arrives with 'Baseball' and 'McDonalds' but Japan is very much Japanese, Commodore Matthew Perry of the United States Navy had to force them out of isolation and made them open up and trade by two sailing vessels, sailed into Tokyo harbor and threatened to 'Open Fire' and blow up their cities if they did not sell him something. Most of the time when Japan did open up it opened up on its own terms that were uniquely Japanese, although a Liberal party is said to be in political power in Japan their immigration policy is not Liberal.
I guess in a way it could be compared to the Nationalism Poland or Hungary or of Eastern Europe or Trump-ism and 'Building-A-Wall'. In Japan its easier to control your borders when your nation is a set of islands, in Europe less easy to control border. In the East of Europe in Poland they famously got bashed by the world media as nationalistic, during the Presidency of Obama and Trump, with the Collpase of Libya, War in Syria they took in almost zero jihadi islamics the so-called refugees from muslim countries, the Polish did however take in millions upon millions of people from Ukraine who easily assimilated into their population and started to become part of their culture. Even recently with an outcry to help those on the Belarusian-Polish border the country of Poland refused to move with Germany shouting let them in, I guess maybe they knew of the Boston Bombings, the attacks of San Bernardino with Obama trying to pass it off as 'work place violence' the Shoe Bomber attempt on Airlines, the shouts for halal food, the London bombings, the islamic culture request and legal stealth jihad, the Madrid attacks, the demands to mutilate the genitals of girls in the name of some demonic Moongod al-Lah, the Paris shootings, the Florida nightclub attacks in Orlando, perhaps in Poland they thought if people were going to come and not assimilate and respect the culture they were not immigrants. In a ways maybe the world did change after 911, he was hiding in Pakistan all this time, Iraq was hit for the wrong resons and the USA gets duped into a near endless 20+ year war because of a few mohammedan bearded guys in a cave, funded by so called jihadi islamic allies hiding out in some cave, the Japanese standing back from it all probably wonder what the heck is all this globalism madness for? Why the heck would they want a mohammedan people to come into Japan when one of those islamics might behave like a kamikaze do something terror attack 911-style and jihad himself into one of those Fukushima reactors?
The original global plan for 2020 was maybe a big advert at J-Olympics and an opening up, it was supposed to mark the new sales pitch for Japan when it could bounce back from long recession, the Japanese would once again open up, but maybe Japan looked to the West and the rest of the world outside, covid everywhere, more and more regions and provinces slowly falling to the Taliban in Afghanistan and Japan decided they didn't want a part of it. Japan had its Bubble popped decades ago, it's managed to deal with its own loss and know it declined in slow motion, so slowly that nobody noticed, its not as if Japan anime and weird music was ever of major global cultural importance like say the Beatles or Vodka or Italian Opera or B.B. King or Walt Disney or BruceLee or Elvis Presley or John Williams. They in Japan would rather robots take care of their old people and they will however continue to be happy to sell their Toyotas or Playstations or whatever to whichever foreign nation wants to buy their product....strange thing however is Anime, Sony Games and Asian film is all selling really big with these 'Lockdowns' and with Hollywood selling box office flops the demand for Asian entertainment is higher than ever.
Maybe this 'closed' Japan plan always keeps Japan secure in its own way, keeps culture alive and its business methods working in their own unique way or maybe it also makes Japanese "small" in a different sense of "closed-mindedness". As different as Japanese are they seem to have been great partners for NASA to work with on the ISS, paying funding and commercial tourist flights to the station and the $1 billion Kibo Laboratory.
Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2022-01-03 16:46:28)
Offline
Groups like Toyota and Japan’s space agency have plans to probe on the Moon and Mars, but will Japan have a future of kids to watch these events? Seems 90.7% of the total Japanese population live in cities, the cities too expensive to have kids. Metropolitan Tokyo-Yokohama a combined city, with its population of 35 million residents, is perhaps truly the world's most populous city. people taking Japanese citizenship must take a name using one or more of the Japanese character sets (hiragana, katakana, kanji). Names written in the Western alphabet, Korean alphabet, Arabic characters, etc., are not acceptable as legal names. The old traditional Chinese characters are usually legally acceptable as nearly all Chinese characters are recognized as valid by the Japanese government, the term for characters or pictograms itself Kanji 漢字 in Japanese translates as traditional Chinese 漢字 Hanzi. Transliterations of non-Japanese names using katakana (e.g. スミス "Sumisu" for "Smith") are also legally acceptable. Japanese often will outright refuse to taken in refugees from war zones or immigrant nations or troublesome third world nations and instead opt for an almost racist nationalist type policy if you don't try to fit in youre not coming in, although Japan has low crime Japan's population is aging faster than that of any other nation. Japan's total fertility rate was estimated at 1.41 children per woman, increasing slightly from 1.32 in the 2001–2005 period.
Japanese have a high rate of suicide and depression, because of long work hours within Japan, a very workaholic life is practiced where there are very few opportunities to socialize. Japanese people average relatively low levels of life satisfaction and happiness when compared with most of the highly developed world, Vietnamese made the largest proportion of these new foreign residents, whilst Nepalese, Filipino, Chinese and Taiwanese are also significant in numbers.
Japan's population down 640,000 in 2021, biggest drop on record
https://english.kyodonews.net/news/2022 … -data.html
First year of Covid pandemic did not lead to baby boom in England and Wales
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ … land-wales
Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2022-04-15 09:14:40)
Offline
US Birth Rates seem to be holding or rising slowly
Taiwan depopulation
https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/depop … -of-taiwan
The Long Term of COVID in Victoria - Part (C) SocioDemographics
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/long-ter … -davenport
Five things you should know about this year’s census
https://www.smh.com.au/national/five-th … 5awg6.html
Sydney Morning Herald
This data will give us a snapshot of how many people there are in Australia, where we live and who we are. It will tell us the most common religions, countries of birth, how many people rent, have a mortgage or own their own home, and lots more.
“A sad soul can kill you quicker than a germ.” On the costs and consequences of lockdowns.
https://euphoricrecall.substack.com/p/a … than?sd=pf
Elon Musk Sees Extinction of Italians on Persisting Low Birth-Rate
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles … birth-rate
Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2022-06-28 06:41:11)
Offline
Elon Musk is 'banging the baby drum' and warns Japan could 'disappear' after 600,000 population drop
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech … -drop.html
The fertility crisis started in Japan, but it will not stay there
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editor … 2003780512
Offline
There are indications that COVID vaccinations may be damaging human fertility.
https://naturalnews.com/2022-06-22-covi … ounts.html
Birthrate has fallen by 23% in Taiwan.
https://newstarget.com/2022-07-03-birth … ation.html
These poorly tested vaccines were practically forced upon populations by arrogant governments all over the world. If the vaccines reduce fertility even slightly, then nothing that they might do to protect the older population from mortality is worth it. A 23% drop in the number of babies being born is a catastrophe in a country with an already ageing demographic. Without the vaccines, some of Taiwan's pensioners may have died a little sooner than they otherwise would. But a serious drop in fertility could result in an outright societal collapse when there are insufficient young people to keep the country's economy going in twenty years time. Is this an entirely Taiwaneese problem? Or is it a problem that is sliwly unfolding across the world? The lockdowns will have done damage all by themselves. Whilst young people were forcably confined to their homes, they weren't out meeting other young people. Those things need to happen before babies can be made. European governments copied China's police state policies for controlling COVID. Totalitarian solutions seem to come naturally to these people.
"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."
Offline
Birthrate has fallen by 23% in Taiwan.
https://newstarget.com/2022-07-03-birth … ation.html
They now say almost 28%
Taiwan: Birth Rate CRATERED -27.66% in June 2022!
https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/taiwa … ed-2766-in
Compared to June 2021, birth rate in Jun 2022 is down by -27.66%. This is far worse than the previous month (May) drop of -23.34% and indicates a worsening birth rate trend
Offline
More declines in Demographics
Germany: Number of young people falls to record low - People aged 15 to 24 have never made such a small share of Germany's population.
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-number-of … a-62584549
Offline
Cities face crisis as fewer kids enroll and schools shrink
Offline
Demographics
Aging Populations: A Comparison between Japan and Germany
https://www.asianstudies.org/publicatio … d-germany/
From 1880 to the mid 1910s over millions of people immigrated to Argentina.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyQUR2MDrVc
and festival, carnivals go crazy
'I’ve always supported the Notting Hill carnival and I respect its street tradition … but here’s a powerful argument for moving the event to Hyde Park , NottingHill'
https://twitter.com/paddington_pat/stat … 3347280898
Birth rates keep sliding in pandemic-battered Italy
https://www.politico.eu/article/italy-b … -pandemic/
Japan population falls by record 726K in 2021 amid Covid
https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1180961
Sweden birth rate hits lowest in two decades
https://www.ummid.com/news/2022/august/ … cades.html
Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2022-09-04 06:24:23)
Offline
South Korea risks a major population crash as the country marks its second consecutive year with the world's lowest fertility rate
https://fortune.com/2022/08/24/south-ko … lity-rate/
Visual data S Korea
https://www.populationpyramid.net/repub … orea/2026/
While the United States if America Aborts itself all Sub-Saharan African countries population explosions are insane, they also believe in this thing called 'witch-children' Witch-children are primarily a phenomena in West Africa, the Afro Children who scream or make noise at night, a thing that can happen naturally is pretty normal for very young children when they have say nightmares, is considered demonic possession in West Africa?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchcraf … ca#Nigeria
Kuwait and Qatar massively skewed towards males, they have a muslim upper class in some nations, they can ban race mixing but import the impoverished Lower Caste Hindu Indians to do the work and make roads and buildings while denying them citizenship rights? It would seem only 30% of the people living in Kuwait have Kuwaiti citizenship, the Roayl families of Arab states keep expanding, they can inbreed and follow the example of a so-called prophet and have multiple wives, up to 4 wives are allowed legally they might also have a girlfriend or concubine? In Japan the MegaCorps working their people to death in 'Karoshi' in SKorea 'chaebols' multiple elite family dynasty have been at the center of South Korea’s most significant grand corruption cases, and they are routinely implicated in scandal after scandal after scandal.
Offline
South Korea to triple baby payments in bid to tackle fertility crisis
Offline
Fears raised after report looks to Japan over depopulation
https://www.thenational.scot/news/23033 … opulation/
Record number of young people in Japan rejecting marriage, survey shows
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ … rvey-shows
Giorgia Meloni's Italian election win renews spotlight on Europe's continued migrant woes
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/giorgi … grant-woes
Offline
Russia’s population is in historic decline from emigration, war and plunging birth rate
Offline
Russia’s population is in historic decline from emigration, war and plunging birth rate
It gets worse when you consider that actual Russians are only one of the ethnic groups living in Russia. The Muslim populations have healthy demographics. But the White European Rus population is dwindling away to nothing. They just stopped having children.
"Plan and prepare for every possibility, and you will never act. It is nobler to have courage as we stumble into half the things we fear than to analyse every possible obstacle and begin nothing. Great things are achieved by embracing great dangers."
Offline
French President Macron vows to raise retirement age to 65, up from 62
Offline
How events happen, Neo 'Manosphere' political movements. Is new Feminism Bad? Fourth-wave feminism is a feminist movement that news media and writers say began around 2012. In Canada, after the #MeToo hashtag started trending in October 2017, hundreds of people began to credit fourth-wave feminists with the movement. Jennifer Simpkins of The Huffington Post argued in 2014 that fourth-wave feminism had created a hostile, Mean Girls–like atmosphere, in which women are more likely to tear each other down.
Where do movements like MGTOW, Red Pill and Mens Rights come from, the collapse of a Family Court System?
Young men reveal why so many of them are single: ‘Dates feel more like job interviews’
https://nypost.com/2023/03/01/rate-of-s … -declined/
Ohio locals claim their red pill state means less aid for toxic trainwreck
https://www.townsvillebulletin.com.au/n … dd76f0fb02
The Red Pill was a 2016 American documentary film directed by Cassie Jaye
The Australian premiere at the Palace Kino cinema in Melbourne cancelled their planned November 6 screening after a petition circulated that called the film "misogynistic propaganda". The Mayfair Theatre in Ottawa cancelled a private screening of the film. Lee Demarbre, co-owner and programmer of the theater, said long-time patrons and a sponsor threatened to stop doing business with the venue if the film screening went ahead.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3686998/
Last edited by Mars_B4_Moon (2023-03-02 11:38:28)
Offline
Sweden joins other European countries in birth rate decline, hits lowest births in 17 years
https://cne.news/article/2655-sweden-jo … te-decline
Fertility rates in Europe and worldwide have been on a constant decline, but Northern Europe, with stronger social safety nets, has been felt to be more resistant to anti-natal pressures than countries with more competitive environments.
It seems the resistance was however only temporary, as the latest stats show that in 2022 childbearing declined across almost the entire country. In 20 out of 21 counties and 215 out of 290 municipalities, the number of newborns decreased last year. In Sweden as a whole, numbers are the lowest since 2005, 17 years ago.
But at the county and municipal level, you have to go even further back in time to find similar figures. In Leksand, there have not been as few children born as last year since 1972, in Robertsfors not since 1969.
Detailed records only extend to 1968, and in a number of municipalities, the number of newborns in 2022 is the lowest on record since then. Those municipalities are spread across the country, with everything from Sollefteå, Hudiksvall and Ånge to Västervik, Gislaved and Sölvesborg.
"It is difficult to say exactly which factors are behind the reduced childbearing in 2022. But we see that the number of children born per woman is decreasing among both Swedish-born and foreign-born women. The pattern of reduced number of children born is the same also in Norway and Denmark," says Lena Lundkvist, demographer at Statistics Sweden in a press release.
In 2021, childbearing increased slightly. But the long-term trend has been downward since 2010.
Only in Västmanland County did the number of children born increase compared to 2021, and only by six children.
Despite fewer children being born, there were more residents in Sweden in 2022 than the year before. The population at the end of December was 10,521,556 people. That is an increase of 69,230 people – or 0.7 percent – since 2021.
"The population increase is partly explained by the fact that more people were actually born than died, but above all by more people immigrating than emigrating," says Ann-Marie Persson, population statistician at Statistics Sweden.
Dr. Leo Pomar, an underwriter of the study and midwife sonographer at Lausanne University Hospital said the drop could carry “long-term consequences” on Western European demographics, especially in countries with “aging populations.”
Offline
‘No babies, no Japan’: PM Kishida's aide says country ‘will disappear’ if people don’t have more children
Offline
Half of unmarried people under 30 in Japan do not want kids: Report
Offline
This post by RobertDyck first appeared in a Chat topic ...
During this year's Mars Society convention, one impromptu discussion in the hallway raised fertility rate. One individual mentioned a trip to Iceland. He saw a woman with a baby carriage for 4 children: 2 side-by-side in front, another 2 behind. He said he never saw anything like that in America. But checking statistics, they don't have a positive population growth. Iceland has the same problem as every developed country in the world: birth rate, what geographers call fertility rate, is below sustainability.
Again you might think the average for a couple must be 2 children just to replace themselves. But due to child deaths and other technical factors it's 2.1. Since families can be quite different today, that's presented as babies per woman. The United States had 1.665 in 2022. Iceland had 1.59 in 2022, the lowest since they started collecting statistics.
Source: Statistics Iceland
US source: Centers for Disease Control
It seems a good fit for this topic as well.
There are three topics that contain the word "birth" in the title ... one was/is a nice long series wishing Happy Birthday to JoshNH4H, which Josh explained is a name with the meaning of Ammonia Nitrate, which (it appears) would work well as a rocket fuel.
Terraformer wrote about her then studies in England, and JoshNH4H compared notes with Rune, who appears to be about the same age.
(th)
Offline
Young Europeans more likely to quit driving and have fewer children to save planet
Offline
There are four topics that contain the word "population" in the title .... this one seemed a good fit for this item:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/xi-says-chin … 56042.html
Reuters
Xi says China's women must start 'new trend of family'
Reuters
Mon, October 30, 2023 at 10:18 AM EDT·1 min read
227FILE PHOTO: Wang Dan, poses for her 5-month-old baby in Shanghai
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping said women have a critical role and must establish a "new trend of family", as the nation grapples with an ageing population and record decline in the birth rate.
Xi in comments, published on state news agency Xinhua on Monday, said the role of women had been part of a discussion with the new leadership team of the All China Women's Federation, which operates under the Communist Party.
Doing a good job in women's work is not only related to women's own development, he said but also related to "family harmony, social harmony, national development and national progress".
It is necessary to "actively cultivate a new culture of marriage and childbearing and strengthen guidance on young people's view on marriage, childbirth and family," he said.
Factors including high childcare costs, career hindrance, gender discrimination and not wanting to get married have deterred many young Chinese women from having children.
The number of births is closely tied to marriage rates because official policies make it hard for single women to have children.
China's National Bureau of Statistics in January reported the first population drop in six decades and the country's population is rapidly ageing.
In the last two years, authorities across China have unveiled measures to lift the country's birth rate including financial incentives and boosting childcare facilities.
The state media has often linked population development to the strength and "rejuvenation" of the country.
(Reporting by Farah Master and the Beijing newsroom; editing by Barbara Lewis)
View comments (227)
It seems to me that family friendly, and specifically "woman friendly" policies would be a "good idea" on Mars.
(th)
Offline