Originally Posted by
Biomega
This isn't exactly a startling revelation, as the precarious demographic situation in Japan has been a subject of study for many, many years now. Indeed, you can go back as far as the post-Bubble times to see the first worries.
What makes things so tricky is that the problem extends into so many areas of life, and is rooted in so many base paradigms of history and society. It's not as easy as some people would like to suggest when they reduce it to "Japanese are just too obedient and industrious" or notions like that. It's a multi-level issue with a myriad facets, and consequently it's incredibly difficult to actively combat. Government interventions are one thing, but you can't exactly mandate people have more sex - you need to start pushing gently in some key areas and hope that the ball gets rolling. But what areas and how hard to push, that is a tricky question indeed.
One example is the "Premium Friday" campaign earlier this year, through which the government gave workers the option to end work early at 3pm one Friday each month, so they had some time to relax and go out and do what people do when they have free time. But instead of leaping at some leisure time, the entire campaign folded spectacularly because workers just DIDN'T MAKE USE OF IT. They had the option to go home early, and didn't - for various different reasons, including of course (but not limited to) not wanting to look like a slacker in front of coworkers.
It's difficult to understand such a mentality from an outside perspective, but it's also difficult to tackle it from the inside. I've spoken to a number of sociologists in Japan about this problem, and while the root causes are fairly well researched (and extensive) nobody really has any revolutionary ideas on how to change things. It's a deeply entrenched socialization that can't simply be switched off over night, and so far most forceful measures (like literally locking people out of their workplace if they have too much overtime) were largely met with resentment. Unsurprisingly so, as this is one of sociology's oldest dilemmas - you want people to be free to make their own choices, but you also want them to please go and make the RIGHT choices.
While solutions are elusive and difficult to pin down, there's more luck with pointing fingers at problem areas. One big one is Japanese politics. While the country is thoroughly democratic, the political system is plagued with widespread apathy and clique mentality that is slowly developing into a neo-aristocratic closed system. No prime minister in decades has NOT had a family member somewhere down the line that was also prime minister. Some political posts are in 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th generation occupancy now - all elected, of course. What's even more mind-boggling to (Western) outsiders is that while corruption is by no means unknown in Japanese politics, it's not usually the cause of these nepotisms; rather, the voting public subscribes to a family-centered mentality that finds value in familial succession, giving candidates who run for the same office their father (or whichever other relative) once held an advantage. That a disproportionate number of voters are older generations only serves to exacerbate the problem, as young Japanese tend to just not vote, a dangerous trend that's been continuing for decades.
A calcified political system concerned only with its own incumbency of power, however, is ill-suited to pushing for radical reform. Careers within the secluded political circle become the prime concern for many politicians, and stirring up trouble with bold and controversial proposals is seen as an entirely unnecessary risk to one's own career - which, in turn, is another reflection of socialized behavior originally aimed at a harmonic society but now trapped in an antiquated loop of apathy and stagnation.
The Japanese economy is another problem. While it is at its core a modern capitalist machine like in any other first-world nation, work and workplace ethics and practices very much still follow in the vein of societal models. This includes a lot of overtime (often unpaid; there was an interesting case a few years back where McDonald's store managers went on a riot because their accumulated unpaid overtime resulted in them actually having a lower hourly wage than their clock-punching fry cooks), few holidays and sick days, and a very hierarchical and patriarchal work environment, among other things. Similarly to the examples above, though, many of these systems are carried by the actual workers themselves to a striking degree. Companies don't force people to stay at the office until their superior leaves first, but it's what people do; and companies don't make their workers go out for a drink after work with colleagues and superiors, but people feel like they can't exactly refuse. The list goes on. Now, that's not to say there AREN'T despicable and downright exploitative practices at the corporate level (any foreigner who's ever worked as an English teacher in Japan can attest to that), but a great number of problems are so diffuse they cannot be altered by simply changing some corporate policy. And to all that, add the usual capitalist disregard for people as people, and the willingness to exploit anyone and everyone to the full extent of the law (same as in most capitalist nations).
Connected with the economy is another key problem: the living situation in big Japanese cities. Japan is highly urbanized and centralized - 90% of the population live in cities, and 28% of the entire country lives in the larger Tokyo-Yokohama-Chiba metropolitan area. This makes space a limited commodity, driving up property prices and shrinking individual residences considerably. While some simply cope by living in cramped quarters, a good number of people instead solve the problem by moving out of the inner core of cities and into the periphery (which isn't really suburban as the West would understand it). The result: commutes become longer and longer. If your way to work takes less than an hour in Tokyo, you are fortunate. Taking two hours isn't rare, and even longer commutes are not unheard of. While that might sound like an inconvenience more than anything else, it has the added unpleasant effect of DRASTICALLY cutting into the time available each day, and the long commute is a chief contributor to the stereotypical image of Japanese workers being trapped in the sleep-work-sleep loop. What it also does is shift leisure activities away from the home and into the public sphere. Since your acquaintances are often coworkers, you meet up near work, where everyone is anyway - you go out for drinks, a bar, maybe some karaoke. Then everyone goes back to their own commute, in all the cardinal directions (the whole capsule hotel thing is a peculiarity, and actually very rare). But if most of your social interaction takes place in the public sphere, you behave very differently. Affection and intimacy are a private matter, and best kept out of sight - while it no longer goes as far as "omg we can't hold hands" (that's very 1980s-90s), everyone is very aware of the necessary reservations and keeps themselves guarded accordingly. And even if you do find someone, having a partner that lives 3-4 hours away (if you happen to live at opposite ends of the metropolis) doesn't exactly help the dating process.
It's often said that "the Japanese don't like sex", or similar notions. Which is ridiculous, obviously, since both Japanese men and women are still human beings with all the urges and desires that come with it. The problem is, they've learned to compromise a little too well. So well, it's turning into apathy in many areas, and sex is ultimately one of them. While the instant gratification of porn and virtual relationships is often a showcase example, it's still a very niche phenomenon, all things considered; not to be ignored or not concerned about, to be sure, but far from the mainstream mentality people like to picture when they imagine a Japanese nerd rushing from his lolicon manga porn to the nearest used panty vending machine.
If your life is laden with hoops to jump through, you'll be loath to add another. And that's how many people view relationships and families here - not because they have a problem with the concept or are socially inept, but because it's just the latest in a line of neverending compromises they make, and tediums they accept. The key point, however, is that many of the problems are effectively (and: collectively) self-imposed. While economic realities of urbanization and land scarcity are a bit more stubborn, social pressure is largely self-perpetuated through collective actions. In other words, if everyone just went and did it differently, it wouldn't be there - but in that also lies the problem, because you need EVERYONE on board (or at least a critical mass of people). This means you cannot simply change policy or the law, and see things unfold. It goes deeper, stretches farther, reaches wider than that. I don't have a good solution, and I'm not alone in that (there's "solutions" aplenty, just not good ones). But time is running out, that much is clear. Soon there will be over a MILLION people over the age of 100 in the country, and with a birthrate already below 1.5 (let alone 2+) it doesn't take a genius to realize what's fast approaching.
I'm doing my best to observe and reflect, and at least I can confidently say that it's a problem increasingly on people's minds. Of course, the examples I mentioned here are just the tip of the iceberg (as so often) and there's many more areas to explore. I'd point to women's issues, for example, which are a fascinating treasure trove of sociological material (and, perhaps, ultimately also a workable solution), or to the immigration situation that has been attracting more and more interest of late. But there's more, and I invite anyone with scholarly ambitions and an interest in Japan to come pick a field to study more in-depth. You won't run out of material, I promise you.
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