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Japan rolls out plans to combat critical falling birthrate

Xinhua, March 20, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Japanese government on Friday laid out a series of strategies aimed at tackling the nation's plummeting birthrate over the next five years.

The phenomenon threatens to hollow out the nation's workforce in the future if not comprehensively addressed.

In a Cabinet meeting on Friday an outline was approved that included, among a host of provisos, granting greater financial assistance to families with 3 or more children, assisting with matchmaking events and setting quantifiable targets for men to be involved in childcare.

The outline stated that Japan's declining birthrate had become "critical" and could lead to the undermining of the nation's economy and society.

The Cabinet of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will through the guidelines, be aiming to have 80 percent of men take paternity leave as soon as their partners give birth, and wants those opting to become househusbands hit 13 percent by 2020. In addition, the plan calls for men to spend at least 150 minutes with their children who are aged 6 or under, from a current 67 minutes, as logged in 2011.

The sweeping measures also traverse upping the percentage of women continuing work after childbirth, reducing the nation's notoriously long working hours and methods to reduce the amount of bullying of those who take maternity or paternity leave, as they are legally within their rights to do.

Larger families will be offered more support, with the guidelines stating that the fees for nursery school for a family's third child will be waived.

Japan's population decline has been attribute to a comparatively low fertility rate here, as well as socio-economic phenomena that has seen more women become financially independent and choose their careers over marriage and motherhood, while studies have also shown that a relatively large proportion of males in their late teens and twenties have no interest in pursuing females and would rather spend their time and money on themselves.

Statistics here have also revealed that, compared to other developed countries, men and women in their twenties and thirties, in particular, are disproportionally uninterested in sexual activities involving a partner. Endi