Bereft of love: Japanese people have lost 'romantic ability' leading to low birth, marriage rates, says politician

Tokyo: Japan’s plummeting birth and marriage rate is not a result of the high cost of maintaining a family, but owing to people’s lack of “romantic ability”, claimed a Japanese politician.

Narise Ishida, a member of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) from Mie Prefectural Assembly, suggested that the government should conduct a survey to determine people’s “romantic ability”, at a local government meeting.

He, however, did not elaborate on how this data might help people to have more babies, according to Mainichi newspaper.

“The birth rate is not declining because it costs money to have children. The problem is that romance has become a taboo subject before marriage,” said Ishida.

Japan has been witnessing a drastic drop in birth rates following which Prime Minister Fumio Kishida ordered ramp-up measures to encourage people to have more children.

‘Ishida’s comment correct in some ways’

Makoto Watanabe, professor of media and communications at Hokkaido Bunkyo University in Sapporo said, “He is correct in perhaps one way, that young people today lack traditional communication skills, but this is a generation that communicates very well online and through social media.”

According to SCMP, he added, “Among my students I see them constantly showing ‘romantic abilities’ through modern technology, which may be why Ishida cannot see it happening.”

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However, Watanabe “strongly disagrees” with Ishida’s view that financial conditions have no role to play in people’s decision to reproduce.

“Young people still want to marry, to have a family, to have more children, but when buying a car or a house is so hard because of economic concerns, it’s very difficult to have children,” he said.

‘Embarrassing to be romantic in public’

Ishida’s comments may find some support in the fact that Japan is still largely a conservative country.

A 20-year-old student from Yokohama, Emi, said, “I think it is embarrassing to be romantic in a public place because other people will see you and some people don’t like to see that.”

“We see people in other countries holding hands, hugging or kissing in public on films or on television, but I would be very uncomfortable if my boyfriend did that to me in public,” she added.

Japanese women reluctant to get married

Not many Japanese women see marriage as a life goal now. Owing to the rapid improvement in gender roles in Japan, young women are more likely to get employed than to get married and having children.

Since the late-1980s, enrolment of women in four-year-degree colleges has seen an increase. In 2020, the rate reached a whopping 51 per cent.

Meanwhile, the labour participation of women aged between 25-29 rose from 45 per cent in 1970 to 87 per cent in 2020.

Kishida pledges mega budget to support couples

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced plans to spend twice the country’s defence budget to support young couples who wish to have babies in a bid to tackle Japan’s dramatic population decline.

Kishida said that he will spend 20 trillion Yen on ‘baby boom’ measures, including “marriage support concierges” – a service where people are tasked with offering help and counselling to couples, according to Telegraph.

The measures would account for four per cent of Japan’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as compared to the country’s defence budget which is set to reach only two per cent of Japan’s GDP by 2027.

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