Women and Babies, An International Dilemma
By JULIET HINDELL
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女性の出産・子育ては国際的な問題
女性の出産・子育ては国際的な問題
最近の日本人女性は
結婚しても子供を欲しがらないと言われているが、
現在の日本、特に都会の状況を考えると
仕方がないと思える。
さらに、この問題は日本だけで
起こっていることではないのだ。
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Japanese women, it seems, just don't want to have babies. But they are not
alone, and their reasons for not reproducing are the same for women the
world over.
The Japanese Prime Minister's Office recently published a survey that
found that 20 percent of women of childbearing age do not want to have
children. The survey asked 5,000 men and women about their attitudes to the
declining birthrate.
Interestingly 90 percent of people over 60 thought that married couples
should have babies.
At the same time, JR East announced that it was considering opening more
creches at stations for working parents. It already has one with 60
places, which are always full. This perhaps is the main reason modern women
around the world don't want to have children. How will they take care of them
and continue to work?
My friend Sarah in London told me recently that she and her husband had
been discussing having kids. "But then we worked out that I couldn't stop
work and afford the cost of raising a child. So until I or my husband gets a
pay raise,
the baby idea is on hold," she said. Some people would say that she should
stop work and devote herself to her family, but modern economics in a big
city like London or Tokyo often mean that is impossible.
Other women say that they don't want children because their husbands
wouldn't share the burden of looking after them. In Japan, that is
apparently very true.
Most fathers spend little more than 17 minutes with their offspring every
day, leaving Mum, who is often working too, to do what amounts to two
full-time jobs — earning a living and looking after the kids. In the past
granny or aunty might have looked after the children during the day, but that is very unusual
these days.
Another often-cited reason for avoiding motherhood is the loss of freedom
it implies. My friends with children say that it can cramp their
activities, although other mothers travel the world with their babies in
tow. I don't think this is a compelling reason not to have children. But if
this is what women really feel, it is better that they don't reproduce, rather
than have kids they would resent for taking away their free time.
In Japan, women sometimes say they don't want babies because they have no
space at home for them. Don't think this is a uniquely Japanese problem.
Soaring housing prices in London mean many families live in homes that are
far too small for them all to fit comfortably.
Cost, care, unequal burden, the end of freedom and lack of space can all add
up to a rapidly declining birthrate. Japan has one of the fastest shrinking
populations in the world, as does Italy. And guess what the reasons that
Italian women don't want to have bambini are — cost, care, burden, freedom
and space. Japanese women are facing the same difficult decisions as women
around the world.
Their reasons for not having babies are all valid , no wonder women in
the developed world are choosing to have fewer children.
Shukan ST: July 30, 1999
(C) All rights reserved
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