Japan's Rising Birthrate?

I have a few things to say about the Japanese government's dealing with families and pregnancy and children. In our neighborhood the local kindergarten has declined in attendance so rapidly, it's hard for me to grasp. When Janina entered the kindy 8 years ago there were close to 160 children total. This year we were shocked to hear there were only 18 children in attendance! That's close to a 90% decline in 8 years! It could be because more children are attending other private kindys, but once they graduate into 1st grade, all the children in our neighborhood will attend the same public school, at that time we'll have a true measure of the decline.

The 1st grade attendance has declines rapidly as well. When Janina started 1st grade there were 2 classes with close to 40 kids in each. This year there is one class with just above 20 children, which reflects a definite decline.

Japan does not deal well with maternity and helping mothers. There are very few government benefits, so far this is what they help with during maternity:

* 2 free checkups and the funds to cover the delivery

Each check up is around $30, and you are expected to go every month to 2 weeks. From now on my doctor expects me there every 2 weeks, which I definitely cannot afford, not with 3 other children.

As for government benefits for children--there really are none. A child typically can get free medical until they are 6, and if you qualify, you receive a monthly stipend of 5,000 yen per child for your first 2, and 10,000 yen per child after that, until they reach Jr. High school. In comparison to what it takes to raise a child, not to mention 4, this is nothing at all. This is money we can use to pay our car taxes once a year, but it is a drop in the bucket compared to what it takes to raise a kid.

I am still working now, I travel the trains twice a week, and unless the train is not crowded, I don't get a seat, although I'm obviously pregnant, which is really a bummer. It's hard to stand for more than 10 minutes or so, on a crowded train with people pressing in on me, jolting around. I would stop working if I could, but I can't, we have to make ends meet, so I'll need to keep going until December, when I'll take 3 months off for Jordan. There's so many things I could talk about that the government could do to make it easier for people to have children in Japan, to create an atmosphere that helps and supports mothers and children, to give them an allowance for buying necessities such as milk, supplements, vegetables and fruits, to ensure that mothers and the elderly will get seats on trains, or to supplement incomes while a mother is in her prenatal and after-delivery stages. Why would anyone in their right mind in this country want to have children? It's too damned expensive! And hard.

And that's not even touching on the whole school system!

So, I don't think the government should be complaining about any declining population, I think they should be looking at the situation and doing more to create an environment where women will feel that having a child is not going to add stress to her family and their already tight budgets, that women will feel supported during that time of their life, and not see it as the 'end' for the next 20 years.

And to top it all off, we are now experiencing exposes in many government run city offices of embezzling of funds by officials and city workers slacking off and using our taxes to pay for it. The gall!

Anyway, all that to say, I'm definitely doing my part to contribute to the population here, and raise good children who will be an asset to any society they are part of.

From Yahoo.com

TOKYO - The number of babies born in Japan rose for the seventh straight month in August, the government said Friday, raising hopes for an upturn in the country's plunging annual birthrate and declining population.

A falling birthrate and an expanding elderly population pose serious concerns for Japan as it struggles to tackle a labor shortage and eroding tax base. Japan's birthrate in 2005 stood at a record low of 1.25 babies per woman in her lifetime, far below the 2.1 rate needed to keep the population steady.

In August, a total of 98,276 births were registered, up 3,001 from the same month in 2005, or a rise of about 3 percent, according to Health Ministry statistics released Friday.

That's the seventh straight monthly gain in the number of births. But Reiji Murayama, an official of the Health Ministry's vital and health statistics division, said it was too early to say that the latest data meant a turnaround in the country's annual birthrate.

"We cannot predict if the falling birthrate may hit the bottom this year yet, until we will see the remaining four months," Murayama said.

The nation's population last year declined for the first time on record, shocking officials and spurring a spate of measures to encourage women to have more babies.

To encourage women to have more babies, the government started a project to build more day care centers, while encouraging men to take paternity leave. Amid changing lifestyles, many single women are delaying or forgoing marriage to pursue careers.