Tohoku
University has installed a doomsday clock to constantly alarm the
Japanese nation about its extinction date, a date Japan's population will dwindle to one due to consistent decay in childbirth. While most of the industrial countries are facing this demographic challenge, the researchers have found a direct relationship between population decline and economic stagnation. Tazeen Hasan highlights the catalyst factors behind this childbirth shrinkage which is leading the developed world
towards extinction.
Contrary
to the third world where sex before marriage is considered taboo,
extra-marital sex is legal and culturally acceptable and even highly
appreciable in the developed world. As a consequence, the industrialized world is facing a terrible demographic challenge in the form of
birth-rate shrinkage which is threatening their national survival in
near future.
As
a leading industrialized country with one of the highest GDPs in the world, Japan is no exception. I do not want to use rash words, but the Japanese nation is also enjoying the fruits of extra-marital sex i.e population collapse. For the last 25 years, the country has witnessed declining birth rates,
along with widespread aging. And although they are not as threatening
as Germany which has the lowest birthrates in the world, Japanese think
tanks are alarming the nation that if this trend does not reverse,
Japanese race will be extinct. Japanese women are having so few children that the country's population could drop by half in 24 years.
The Tohoku University has installed a doomsday clock to constantly
update the nation about the extinction date, a date Japan's population
will dwindle to one.
Akin
to European and North American societies, the overwhelming majority of
Japanese citizenry does not believe in marital bonds. According to a a survey by Japan's National Institute of Population and Social Security
Research about 48.6 percent of men and 39.5 percent of women are found
to be unmarried.
The
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has announced that the government
wants to raise the nation's fertility rate from 1.4 to 1.8 by 2025.
The government is offering better child-care services and tax incentives
for married couples, though such programs have yet to bear statistical
fruit.
As
a caveat, another obstacle to the growth infertility rate is society's increased pressure on women to join the labor market. No doubt, when it comes to the professional obligations outside the home, a
woman's performance is no less than her male counterpart. Yet, whether it is an industrialized society like Germany or Japan or a conservative society like Pakistan or India, most of the burden of home-building and childrearing has to be borne by her. As a consequence, a working woman in industrialized society simply avoids childbirth. Even if she chooses
to balance between work and family, she is called an evil mother in
Japanese culture.
Things become worse when the dwindling population is found to be directly linked to economic decline. There has been scarcely any nominal GDP growth over the past 20 years in the Japanese economy," according to the recent data and the most commonly cited catalyst for this economic stagnation is the decaying population.
A
family is a basic building block of a nation. Yet, it demands huge
sacrifices from both partners and the marriage is a glue that keeps a
man and woman together to carry out the responsibilities of rearing a
child. Nonetheless, despite billions of dollars spent on demographic
research, the industrialized world is unable to find the answer to a
simple question; why would couples be interested in childbirth when sex
is freely available without the complex set of liabilities and
obligations as a result of wedlock and childbirth?
Media Bites Editorial - Tazeen Hasan
Published on September 19, 2016
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