This isn't a crisis. It's a strike. When the birthrate tanks, it's because people have decided that the society they live in is not only not worth trying to fix

This isn't a crisis. It's a strike. When the birthrate tanks, it's because people have decided that the society they live in is not only not worth trying to fix, but not worth perpetuating. And it's no wonder this is the case in Japan: 1. Mothers seem to be expected to raise the kids on their own. 2. Fathers seem to expected to work all day into the night, and not spend time with their spouses and children. 3. Children seem to not get to be kids, but instead are expected to spend all day in school and then go to cram school. 4. There's no meaningful support from society or government, and extended families aren't around to help with the load. 5. Raising kids is hard, and expensive, and while nobody will praise you for doing it well you'll get plenty of blame if your kid doesn't turn out exactly the way others think they should. 6. Thanks to climate change and environmental collapse, Ragnarok seems just around the corner. Given these premises, there seems to be zero upside to having children, and an endless downside. Why bother? That's the question Japanese adults seem to be asking themselves. It's also the question many Americans and Europeans are asking themselves for similar reasons, but the low birthrate in the US is masked by immigration so the "threat" of population decline doesn't seem as imminent. Once there's an actual upside to having kids, and parents aren't expected to do everything on their own while also working to "earn a living", we might see this "crisis" reverse itself. But that would require fundamental social and economic changes that probably won't happen because the powers that be profit from the way things are.