There are few Japanese, and many people are reluctant to have children. Why?

There are few Japanese, and many people are reluctant to have children. Why?

Why are Japanese unwilling to have children? This sentence simply asks the voice of the Japanese government: the government has built public welfare, raised childcare subsidies, and even stipulated parental leave for fathers, calling on men to return to their families to do housework. The government is working so hard, why don't you give birth? Why not? Why not?

Faced with such a problem, the simplest answer for Japanese who don't want to have children should be two words: "Face down."

"Face down" means "troublesome, troublesome and intractable".

"Japanese people have been taught since childhood: don't give others trouble." -this sentence, many people in China have long known. Because this sentence is usually repeatedly quoted as an important basis when introducing why Japan's public security is so good. In fact, there is a sentence behind this sentence. That is: "Don't make trouble for yourself."

Based on my personal life experience in Japan for many years, I can safely say that a Japanese who abides by the creed of "don't give others trouble" usually doesn't like to give himself trouble.

"Don't make trouble for others" and "Don't make trouble for yourself" are a complete life creed of a Japanese who is afraid of trouble.

Giving birth to a child is a particularly troublesome thing: it not only brings trouble to yourself, but also brings trouble to others. So, I must not be born. In this way, there will be no trouble.

However, the above answer is a bit rude and obviously unsatisfactory. Then, let's talk about my humble opinion in detail.

First of all, it originated from a highly educated society.

Japan is a country with higher education. As long as the economy can afford it, almost everyone can go to college regardless of whether they can study or not. There is an exaggerated saying, which goes like this: "Japan has reached the era when it can go to college as long as it can write its own name." Of course, such a highly educated society is a bit fishy, but it also means two very realistic things: the first is the increase in education expenses; The second is that the age of entering the society and starting to stand on its own feet has been postponed. The result of this reality is that the Japanese marry late.

The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has provided a data of Japanese marriage rate from 201February 6 1950 to 20 15: the average age of first marriage in modern Japan is 3 1. 1 for men and 29.4 for women. The average age of a woman giving birth to her first child is 30.6 years old. In other words, many Japanese women are faced with the reality of having children over 30. The older you get, the greater the risk of childbirth. Because of all kinds of concerns about maternal and child health, you will naturally choose not to have children or have fewer children.

Being a parent is a kind of enjoyment in spirit, but in reality it means all kinds of expenses that must be paid. For example, in 20 14, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology published the data of "Children's Learning Expenses Survey": 15, from kindergarten to high school, if all children are sent to private schools, it will cost17.7 million yen; All public ones need 5.23 million yen. This does not include the daily living expenses, university tuition fees, private school fees and other special interest education expenses. In recent years, the average annual income of Japanese announced by the Japan State Taxation Bureau has been hovering between 4 million and 4.2 million yen.

Therefore, although the Japanese government provides a one-time subsidy of 420,000 yen for each child born, and provides various benefits such as child subsidies and free medical care, if both husband and wife are uneasy about their financial resources or their economic situation is not optimistic, they will naturally choose not to have children or have fewer children.

Secondly, it is the change of values brought about by post-war education.

The "political correctness" of Japan's pre-war education is nationalism based on national morality; The "political correctness" of post-war Japanese education emphasizes democracy and freedom, advocates individualism and respects pluralistic values. The famous Japanese scholar Taiichi Horitani once commented on the Japanese who grew up after the war:

"They don't worship the emperor, nor do they believe in the traditional Bushido spirit of old Japan. They worship individualism that is divorced from paternalism. They believe that security is justice, violence is absolute evil, courage and courage are past tense, timidity is praised as' caution', and gentleness has evolved into a virtue of men. "

The Japanese who grew up under this kind of education, the totalitarian thought based on the "state" was completely weakened, while the individualism based on the "individual" was enlarged. In other words, people are generally more concerned about the freedom and dignity of "individuals" than "countries". Young people generally lack a sense of national hardship, and will not worry about the worries of the government because of Japan's declining birthrate, and strive to have children for the country.

Fukuyama Masaharu, the most handsome Japanese god, got married two years ago. At that time, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide was doing a program on Fuji TV. When he heard the news, he said, "Great! I think it's good to get married and have more children and contribute to the country in this way. " As a result, this sentence was regarded as a typical "politically incorrect" speech, which was widely spread on the Japanese network, attracting bursts of group fights from the media to netizens. Some netizens even collected 10,000 signatures, asking Suga Yoshihide to apologize publicly. Even the bureaucratic colleagues in the Cabinet Office frowned and said, "This Suga Yoshihide, why are you so careless this time!"

Furthermore, it stems from the diversified values of modern Japan.

Once upon a time, Japan's economy was in a high growth stage, and the ideal model of a happy family was: a husband who went out early and went home late to work hard, a virtuous and considerate wife who took care of the family and raised children, and two smart and lovely children, a man and a woman. They should live in a small Japanese-style building with a yard. The yard is clean and tidy, with flowers and delicious food in the morning and evening, and tinkling piano at dusk. As soon as the weekend holiday arrives, take a private car and take the whole family out ... what a wonderful modern family!

But once upon a time, this single happiness value was broken. A loving couple, even if they love each other, may not have children, but just want to live with their cats or dogs: who stipulates that happiness is only when children's laughter is necessary at home? Don't you feel happy when you hear the cat barking and see the puppy rolling on the ground? Happiness is not necessarily the traditional harmony of bearing children. Only by enjoying the sweetness of two people's world can we be happy, and only by one person's arrogance can we be happy.

When the values of a happy life are interpreted and put into practice by different individuals according to their different wishes, the overall values of happiness that once covered the whole society will be fragmented-therefore, modern Japanese usually think that their society is "unhappy" because "happiness" has become a very fragmented and very personal thing, and people can no longer see the single and huge happiness model they once had.

Kenichi Ohmae, a famous Japanese management scientist, once wrote a book lamenting that Japanese young people are unwilling to get married and have children, and even have no interest in buying a house, a car or luxury goods. He believes that the DNA of Japanese young people has changed, and Japan has fallen into a "low-desire society." Compared with their predecessors, today's Japanese young people have no strong material desires, but they are not without desires. It's just that young people's desires and goals have shifted: they are no longer old-fashioned things such as buying a house, buying a car and luxury goods.

For example, an anime fan will spend all his time, money and energy on his favorite anime and have no other desires; A railway fan, who has no interest in luxury goods, is willing to spend all his savings to collect a complete set of railway models; Another example is a roller coaster fan, who would rather save the money for buying luxury cars, go to places with roller coasters all over the world, and ride roller coasters all over the world-this kind of person, you can't think that they have no desire just because they don't buy a house, a car or luxury goods, just watching cartoons, collecting railway models and riding roller coasters. They have desires: a brand-new desire, a brand-new consumption pattern. It's just that the older generation can't understand it.

Of course, there is another kind of people who are unwilling to get married and have children because of their low income and fall into low desires. The reason for the low income is that the "clubs" in modern Japanese society are weakening.

As a gregarious species, human beings need to be the same. China's androgyny is "home" and modern Japanese androgyny is "club". Club is a Japanese company. There is a word in Japan called "clubhouse", which translates into "company person" in Chinese. It refers to the "work poisoning" people who take the company as their home and have no other hobbies and personal space except the company and work in their own lives. This word appeared in the period of high economic growth in Japan. Born in the first batch of baby boomers after the war in Japan, the "Tuozi generation" is the main force of "corporate humanity".

The "Tuozi generation" has become a corporate human being, and it is also the most popular period for Japanese companies to engage in lifelong employment and annual merit series. In order to emphasize equality and team consciousness, with the growth of employees' own age and enterprise length of service, enterprises will gradually raise employees' wages and positions in their own order every year. It is tied to the lifelong employment system of Japanese companies, so that those who are not so sharp, or those with poor ability, can also have a lifelong guarantee under this personnel system that emphasizes grades. In other words, this is a Japanese one-pot meal.

When the economy is good, there is no problem with pot rice. However, when the economy deteriorates, it is difficult to maintain this big pot model. Therefore, since the 1990s, the annual performance sequence system of Japanese companies has been challenged, and the achievement principle of performance-based assessment of work ability has begun to appear. Many people with insufficient ability and a certain length of service have been transferred to subordinate companies or dispensable positions and suffered from "disguised layoffs". Then, after entering the 265,438+0 century, Japanese enterprises, especially many famous Japanese enterprises, had to start to lay off employees substantially because of the persistent operating deficit.

At one time, the Japanese were full of trust in the "club", thinking that as long as they became full members of the club, they would be guaranteed for life. As long as they worked hard, their sweat would always be recognized, so they had "enterprise people". Now, this understanding is gradually changing. In the eyes of the younger generation in Japan, the social image of "she" is not as solid and reliable as that of her parents. Diversified values also make many young people no longer willing to make sacrifices for the "club" like "company people".

At this spring's job fair for large enterprises, Japanese media interviewed the fresh college students who came to apply and asked them what kind of enterprises they wanted to work in. Most of the answers are "less overtime" and "I can go home on time" on the grounds that "I can't just work" and "I have my own hobbies and life outside of work".

On the other hand, in order to reduce labor costs as much as possible, enterprises also employ a large number of dispatchers. The so-called "sending members" is equivalent to "contract workers" in Chinese. There is almost no difference between "contract workers" and "temporary workers", and neither of them belongs to regular employees. Informal employees can't have a sense of belonging to the company. Without a sense of belonging, there is no social identity on which to live.

Urban humans who have lost their social identity are thin individuals isolated by society, and their anxiety and hopelessness for the future can be imagined. How can young people in this situation expect them to be full of consumption desires? How can we expect them to get married and have children? They can't even guarantee their lives.

Therefore, after the publication of Kenichi Ohmae's book "A Society with Low Desire", a young man who has no fixed place and works everywhere wrote this sentence in his space: "It's not low desire! But the fear of the future exceeds the desire. "

Hope to adopt