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Completely anecdotal but I was in Japan (mostly Tokyo but some surrounding cities as well) last week, and I saw so many young Japanese families with babies and

by clpm4j 3y ago

Completely anecdotal but I was in Japan (mostly Tokyo but some surrounding cities as well) last week, and I saw so many young Japanese families with babies and toddlers I was thinking to myself "are those population headlines for real!?" I do believe the data, but I was a bit surprised by the number of babies I saw due to all the headlines I had read beforehand.

version_five 3y ago
I was in japan recently and saw a ton of babies too. I don't really have a good baseline for how visible babies are though. Declining population just means birth rate < 2.1 Btw, are you a new parent? That tends to color things imo, you notice a lot more babies than otherwise.
shagie 3y ago
When you're a tourist in the city, you're missing out on the rest of the country. I'll also note the "seeing children" part... anecdotally I recall one time I had the day off and went to a mall for something during a week day. The majority of the people I encountered were young mothers with a child not old enough to go to school. It's not that I don't see them other places, but it was a lot more concentration there and then... and that was memorable. If you are a tourist, you're likely to be in the more aesthetically pleasing areas or commercial areas and during the work week. The counter example would be if you were in a small town an hour beyond the outskirts of the larger cities and went to a local restaurant for dinner - the age demographics would be quite different.
drunkenmagician 3y ago
I was in Tokyo / Kyoto last week, and while I did not notice any difference in the number of families with young children from where I’m based (Singapore), what I did notice was the larger number of older workers in all kinds of jobs. One of my taxi drivers look so elderly I dared not let him even touch any of my bags …
midoridensha 3y ago
Yes, there's tons of children and young families here in Tokyo. The thing you're missing is that: all the children and young families are here in Tokyo, or one of the other major cities. Everyone's been abandoning the small towns and even smaller cities. Of course, this isn't really that unusual in developed nations, but it's more pronounced here. On the plus side, Tokyo is a really great place to raise a family unlike American cities, because it's safe and walkable. Your kids can ride a bike, or take a subway, by themselves if you want, and not have to worry much about safety.
xboxnolifes 3y ago
How many of the parents had more than 1 child though?

by clpm4j 3y ago

version_five 3y ago

I was in japan recently and saw a ton of babies too. I don't really have a good baseline for how visible babies are though. Declining population just means birth rate < 2.1 Btw, are you a new parent? That tends to color things imo, you notice a lot more babies than otherwise.

shagie 3y ago

When you're a tourist in the city, you're missing out on the rest of the country. I'll also note the "seeing children" part... anecdotally I recall one time I had the day off and went to a mall for something during a week day. The majority of the people I encountered were young mothers with a child not old enough to go to school. It's not that I don't see them other places, but it was a lot more concentration there and then... and that was memorable. If you are a tourist, you're likely to be in the more aesthetically pleasing areas or commercial areas and during the work week. The counter example would be if you were in a small town an hour beyond the outskirts of the larger cities and went to a local restaurant for dinner - the age demographics would be quite different.

drunkenmagician 3y ago

I was in Tokyo / Kyoto last week, and while I did not notice any difference in the number of families with young children from where I’m based (Singapore), what I did notice was the larger number of older workers in all kinds of jobs. One of my taxi drivers look so elderly I dared not let him even touch any of my bags …

midoridensha 3y ago

Yes, there's tons of children and young families here in Tokyo. The thing you're missing is that: all the children and young families are here in Tokyo, or one of the other major cities. Everyone's been abandoning the small towns and even smaller cities. Of course, this isn't really that unusual in developed nations, but it's more pronounced here. On the plus side, Tokyo is a really great place to raise a family unlike American cities, because it's safe and walkable. Your kids can ride a bike, or take a subway, by themselves if you want, and not have to worry much about safety.

xboxnolifes 3y ago

How many of the parents had more than 1 child though?