Author Topic: Japan mulls matchmaking ads to boost birth rate (Read 1999 times)

Foxy Brown · « **on:** May 02, 2006, 05:33:04 PM »

Alarmed by a falling birth rate and rapidly aging population, Japanese policymakers are thinking about allowing TV ads for matchmaking agencies in the hope that an increase in couples will result in more kids.

yurinachan · « **Reply #1 on:** May 02, 2006, 05:47:02 PM »

Japan should speed up its production of human-looking robots. That will solve the problem of aging population.

Happosai · « **Reply #2 on:** May 02, 2006, 06:38:54 PM »

All they need over there to boost up the birth rate is a couple of red blooded well endowed men...

Daigong ??? are you up for a tour in Japan with me ???

Tyler_Wood_2005 · « **Reply #3 on:** May 02, 2006, 06:47:27 PM »

They actually want MORE people in Japan...After being in Japan last summer, I think there's more then enough

, only time I wasn't shoulder to shoulder with people was when I was in the privacy of my hotel room.

JFC · « **Reply #4 on:** May 02, 2006, 07:18:48 PM »

^ Well, sure there are a lot of people, but most of them are getting on in years. They'll soon be gone and there won't be as many younger people there to take their place. At any rate, what they need to do is make it so that Japanese salarymen don't have to work themselves to death doing the 12-14 hour workdays to earn enough to be able to support their family. Shorter work days would mean the men wouldn't be so exhausted so much of the time, which is apparently the main reason why married couples in Japan aren't having sex as often as when they were dating. Can't have babies if you're not having sex first.

Dronak · « **Reply #5 on:** May 04, 2006, 01:59:21 PM »

Not like I follow this very closely, but I suspect JFC is right. The idea of increasing the birth rate now is probably to make sure it doesn't drop below the death rate and create an overall decrease in population. My guess is that because the population is relatively old (assuming what's been said above is correct), the death rate will be relatively high soon. They probably want more children now in order to offset that.

JFC · « **Reply #6 on:** May 04, 2006, 06:08:18 PM »

Actually, I think I remember reading an article that said the birth rate fell below the death rate in Japan for the first time last year (2005). :-o

aedon · « **Reply #7 on:** May 04, 2006, 06:17:09 PM »

They said in the news here (hence no approval), that Japan has 1 million people older than 90, and I guess they don't want immigrants either, so yeah, I see a point to try match-making (although goukon existed for a while, hasn't it?).

suki* · « **Reply #8 on:** May 04, 2006, 07:06:10 PM »

It's true though that even if you allow matchmaking agencies to sell their services on television and assuming more people get married coz of it... If people don't want kids coz they want more time to themselves without having to dedicate the rest of their lives to minding children, there won't be any. It's a mindset thing.

yurinachan · « **Reply #9 on:** May 05, 2006, 05:34:40 PM »

Japanese men should take more of this:

That should help them out.