This is why people aren't having babies

[canman]

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200508120397.html
First off I agree with the higher costs of rasining children in this country. To age 21 13 million seems cheap. If the gov't is serious about increasing the birthrate they have to bring these costs down. Especially when it comes to education. The other day my son comes home with this paper that all the players on his soccer club team are buying new warm up clothes. Not uniforms, but warm ups to wear to and from the school for club. Cost 18 000 for a damn Mizuno pair of track pants and a jacket. If you went to any sports store you could pick it up for half that. But since its through the school, they rip you off.

[Mulboyne]

Well, the UK estimates range from 140,000 pounds to 300,000 pounds (28 million yen to 60 millionyen) which is almost exactly the range the private insurance company estimates for Japan.

[canman]

Mulboyne the costs you quoted are they for British children or for Japanese children. Is it as expensive in the UK to raise children, I really have no idea. I know that in Canada the costs while cheaper than Japan have been rising steadily, especially since university education has been going up quite a lot in the past few years. But it is nothing like the costs invovled here.

[homesweethome]

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200508120397.html
First off I agree with the higher costs of rasining children in this country. To age 21 13 million seems cheap. If the gov't is serious about increasing the birthrate they have to bring these costs down. Especially when it comes to education. The other day my son comes home with this paper that all the players on his soccer club team are buying new warm up clothes. Not uniforms, but warm ups to wear to and from the school for club. Cost 18 000 for a damn Mizuno pair of track pants and a jacket. If you went to any sports store you could pick it up for half that. But since its through the school, they rip you off.

My son had to buy a 25,000yen school approved motorcycle helmet. Nothing else was acceptable. I complained to his teacher, why not just a regular 7,000 yen helmet or, my used one, why does it have to be that one? His teacher told me the real reason was because the helmet makers give a 10,000 yen/helmet kickback to the school.
Assume it's the same for warm-ups, shoes, everything else.

[canman]

Everywhere in Japan. Just like the sports clothes that must be bought from specific sports stores. How much of that is kicked back to the board of education or the principles group. I heard that Uniqlo tried to get into the elementary school sports wear market, but they were shut out since their prices were too low. And many small companies complained that they couldn't compete. But the stuff my kids had to buy was crap. The fake leather Mizuno shoes that fall apart after wearing only a few times, what a waste of money.

[Mulboyne]

Mulboyne the costs you quoted are they for British children or for Japanese children. Is it as expensive in the UK to raise children, I really have no idea.

Click on the links and you'll see that they are numbers for raising British kids (although raising Japanese kids in London would not be much more expensive). Japan is certainly expensive but anyone living in Britain has long ago ditched the argument that the cost of living in Japan is the major factor behind lack of FDI, lack of tourism etc etc. The high UK number assumes private education but if you fancy getting your child into a good state school then you had better be prepared to bear the cost of buying a property within the catchment area. Even at the low estimate:

The typical British household spent more on raising a child than anywhere else in Europe, with the cost around 33 per cent higher than it is in Spain, 30 per cent more than it is in France and 26 per cent greater than it is in Sweden.