Compared to who? Parenting is a struggle for all parents I've seen, but in Japan it's more common I think for grandparents to live close enough to help out som

Compared to who? Parenting is a struggle for all parents I've seen, but in Japan it's more common I think for grandparents to live close enough to help out sometimes. It's also more common for women to be stay-at-home mothers. When you compare the birthrate of Japanese people (in Japan) to westerners, after subtracting immigration in the western countries, Japan actually looks pretty normal, or even a little better.