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Your comment made sense up until the last paragraph. I honestly see no connection between giving things to women and solving any of the problems we're discussin

Your comment made sense up until the last paragraph. I honestly see no connection between giving things to women and solving any of the problems we're discussing here. In fact it could make things worse by further saturating the job market, increasing living costs (e.g. restaurants replace home-cooked meals), and so on. Japan's biggest issue is simple demographics and capital saturation, not conservative views on women in the workplace. In the past, when the economy was roaring, their views on women were even more conservative than now, and it clear didn't hold them back at that time.

mc32 9y ago
You can't have an apathetic population get involved (in society) when they have lots to lose but little to gain. Partners coming home at 11pm and leaving at 5am isn't a "partner". Why would any one want to raise a family and ensure the continuation of the society when you're in that situation. Basically what they did and continue to do is forgo roughly half their potential workforce and half their overall potential because they could not bother to make things even semi-attractive for women to stay employed beyond 30.