Not enough babies etc. etc.

[Mulboyne]

MDN: Downward spiral in births alarms Japan
The number of babies born from January to June this year was some 561,000 in Japan, a drop of 4,900 from the same period last year, officials have said.
The figure has sounded alarm bells, especially since Japanese women last year notched a record low lifetime average of 1.29 babies.

I was going to add this to a previous FG thread but I couldn't make up my mind:
'Procreation just ain't what it used to be.'
Teen abortions in Japan hit record high
Mo' kids? 'many don't have time to find partners'
Yakuza hard hit by declining birthrate
Fumbling effort to halt falling birthrate
Japanese face racial extinction
Too busy to have babies
Makeinu Women

[Mulboyne]

Maybe babies have heard something about the reception:

MDN: Poll find most local gov'ts lack anti-child abuse networks
Only 40 percent of Japan's local governments have formed anti-child abuse networks between child consultation centers, schools and the police, although such cooperative systems are desperately needed, a government poll has found. At a time when child abuse has worsened across the country, the Child Abuse Prevention Law urges local governments to take the lead in joining hands with organizations that have hitherto failed to cooperate.

MDN: Mother, friends beat 4-year-old tied to streetlight at night
A mother who abused her 4-year-old son, often binding him to a streetlight in the middle of the night, and two of her friends were arrested on charges of inflicting injury, police said.

Saori Toyo, 30, the mother has admitted to the allegations, and was quoted as telling officers, "I did it to educate him."

[Neo-Rio]

So what's the main cause of the declining birthrate?

* You have a country hard to live in because it's so expensive
* Meaning that both parents have to work
* Meaning that it's hard for them to get time off to have a life
* ....or to get a partner
* And the educational facilities are up shiyate creek

My encounters with Japanese women have shown me that in a *very* general way of speaking, there are two types of women who don't have kids.
One is educated, and working like crazy so she has little time to stop and find a partner.... and the other is an uneducated dunce who can't get a job, doesn't want a husband because most Japanese men are overworking paupers, so she turns to the sex industry where she makes a mint - but simultaneously never has kids.