Why is it framed like it's something extreme?
this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2024
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Daycare/Kindergarten is already free across the country for all children starting at 3 years old.
All child healthcare is also free after a prefecture-set monthly premium (usually about 1000 yen).
This policy announcement is specifically about making the 0-3 year old gap free.
Honestly I'd rather just see the government pay more into the shakai hoken (the national insurance that pays for mother/father leave) so people can take more time off from work early on in the kids' lives.
Making it easier for parents to go back to work instead of focusing what's good for children and parents seems par for the course.
The only solution is to make childcare paid i.e. every single person that has a child gets a stipend worth a full time job.
Because it is a full time job.
Daycare/Kindergarten is already free across the country for all children starting at 3 years old.
My information might be biased towards the greater Kanto area (Tokyo/Yokohama), but I'm not aware of anybody paying less then 20000 Yen (a little over $100 USD I guess) per month per child for a place in a public daycare (can be more than double, depending on the area/daycare, and much more for private ones).
It's much more complicated, though. You can receive various support money from the state/prefecture/city, but it's usually less than what you have to pay. And you're not guaranteed a place, and the waiting list cam be long (especially in highly populated areas in Tokyo).
I'm not sure why your friends are paying that... Most cities in Saitama, Chiba, and the 23 wards at least I know that the 学費 was set as 無償化.
There are some instances where you don't qualify for free school if you make too much money. (Or it could just be they didn't have a good guide at the city office to walk them through the maze of beaurocracy)
Also 23 wards and most of the cities in Saitama and Chiba have daycare and kindergarten entry that's points based(the larger cities have more kids than daycare spots, which is my favorite bit of irony about the Japanese birthrate problems), the more points you have (points based on need, like are you a single mother, both parents working full time etc.)
Wait until they will discover affordable housing thing.
Wait until you find out it is normal to tip your landlord there
Usually the newer buildings owned by larger real estate groups don't do they kept money thing anymore.
I've only really seen it in buildings owned by small real estate concerns and old dudes.
It's luckily getting kind of pushed out as a normal thing, just slowly.
Housing in Tokyo is known for being relatively affordable, actually.
ya it's funny when you watch some videos about "small apartments" in tokyo and only to realize they are still more cheaper and spacious than some NA options in big cities.
Not in Tokyo, but farther out in Tokyo's residential cities (outside the 23 wards like Chiba and Saitama)
It's even cheaper the farther you get from train stations. There's a 30 minute walk "cliff" where residential land prices plummet when you're more than 30 minutes walk away from a train station.
What governments and corporations never understand and will never want to understand is that ....
... it isn't about the quantity of life ... or even the quantity of people who are alive or are born
... it's about the quality of life
If everyone lives a comfortable, safe and fulfilling life without risk of poverty or losing everything they have, then they are more likely to have children and raise them to become productive people who will contribute to society.
Otherwise if you don't take care of people, they will either have no children or a bunch of children that will all grow up to become a burden to society.
"Life without risk of poverty"?! That desperation and fear is the only way I can staff my sweatshops!
There's a climate catastrophe caused by human overpopulation. How did you miss that?
The climate catastrophe is caused by a hyper-reliance on fossil fuels & deliberately shitty transport infrastructure (i.e. the private automobile & it's consequences), entirely for financial reasons; not just raw numbers of people.
They... they could've done this the entire time?
Fuck this narrative. Decreased birth rates is a major success
Why are you of that opinion? Something like 30% of Japan's population is over 65. Low birth rates are obviously not sustainable for them and will have extreme issues for their country if it continues.
Infinite growth is unsustainable. A decreasing population will accelerate the collapse of capitalism, when the capitalists run out of cogs.
I just disagree on the infinite growth being unsustainable thing. Humanity, in my opinion, is destined to expand to the stars where we will continue to grow Indefinitely on a time scale that actually matters to you and me.
Obviously, that could not happen if we somehow all die, but despite all the doom and gloom, I really don't think that's likely.
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four-day workweek
/me franticly googling rents in Japan
The way I've heard it said is "if you live in a developed country, you could probably afford to move to Japan right now. If you get a job in Japan, you'll never afford to move back."
Japan's cost of living is low compared to developed nations, but their average income is also low for a developed nation.
When you move from the US you lose like half your salary for an equivalent position (more now cause of the relative power of the dollar to the yen).
The people that live like kings are the ones that are in Japan at the behest of American companies on American salaries living at like a third of their American costs.
This is true in Europe too. Salaries in the US are just stupid high in general. They need to be because the US has shit for social services, which must be paid out of pocket.
Case and point: childcare.
rent is cheapish, it's everything else that will get you. if you're fine with crushing and all-permeating conformism, ridiculous degree of nationalism and misogyny, how you won't be ever accepted as one of their own as foreigner and famously toxic work culture, feel free to give it a shot
Housing in Japan is cheap. Smaller than you're used to but still cheap.
Housing in Japan is treated the same as a car, it depreciates as soon as you move in.
Affordable housing, better working conditions, less working hours, efficient healthcare and better pay. It's not hard goddamn it.
Nice! really good direction. If this good results I hope more places follow suit.
Childcare is outrageous. Daycare for my two kids was more than my mortgage every month. Ive been counting down until they were eligible for public schools
Basically doubles income if it is free.
Considering the situation they should mave life care, no one wants to have babies there. Raise by social entities
Considering the situation in this country, the government should have gone a step further and implemented a live care system (LIVE care), where children are raised by specialized care organizations.